Outcast by Adrienne Kress

 

In Outcast by Adrienne Kress “they come out of the sky and take you.  Everyone Knows that.”  For six years angels have been swooping down and taking one person from town.  Same night every year.  Riley, our female lead, has grown up with this reality; however, this reality has now taken away her best friend Chris.  Riley and Chris shared a kiss and the next day he was taken, during the fifth year.  On the sixth year, Riley has “shot an angel in the face.”  And there our story opens.

A shady town, with Pastor Warren as a leader, is the back drop of this southern tale.  Riley has attacked and trapped an angel, Gabe, in her shed.  Gabe cannot remember he’s life as an angel, but he remembers that he is a teenager that lives in the same town, just 60 years before.  Riley has a bone-fied greaser tied up in her shed.  Still not deterred by his memory loss, together they will search for answers.  Is it a blessing to have the angels select a person from town?  What happens to the people that are selected?

What I didn’t expect from this book was the genuine layering of the story.  I won’t say the story was completely original but there were plenty of moments were I wouldn’t have been able to guess the next steps or the outcome.  The love story between Gabe and Riley is wonderful, but the ending… really Riley?  Sometimes I cannot stand when characters go back to normal, you know, after dealing with multiple hundreds of pages of supernatural BS.  This book is a definite worthy read, especially the kindle sale price.  Enjoy this summer outside; I just wanted to be outside the whole time. 

 

3/5 stars.

Thanks Net Galley!