Honestly I expected something different going into this book. I hadn't read any reviews, as I had enjoyed Host's fantasy [b:Champion of the Rose|9832204|Champion of the Rose (Darest, #1)|Andrea K. Höst|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51y9+yg+jGL._SL75_.jpg|14722860] (which when I think about it had a lot of science fiction elements, just as this had a lot of fantasy elements) and had won this in a giveaway besides. Told in diary format, which one of my least favorite formats, This Cassandra's journey from November to March and is the first in a trilogy.

Part of why I enjoyed this book so much is that its one of my favorite plot devices (ordinary girl shuttled off to an unusual world where she finds out she's special) while at the same time Cassandra was immediately relatable for me. Cassandra isn't extraordinarily gifted in any way, not athletic or a outdoorsy survivalist or terribly crafty. She is extremely resourceful, knows how to make years of pop culture work to her advantage and maintains an appropriately sarcastic level of commentary throughout her diary entries.

I'll fully admit that if Cass hadn't grown on me I wouldn't have finished this book. Diary style books tends to make me feel like its just one huge info-dump (which in ways it is) and as a reader we never actually experience anything. Even as later on Cass finds it easier to relay conversations and events, we were getting everything second hand. Its hard to feel immersed in a world like that. Cass was engaging, that's the only way I can describe her. She admits her faults (at one point she tells her diary that she cuts out all the hysterical crying and sobbing she does during the day since that would make for boring reading wouldn't it?), but remains practical about what she can get done.

The world of Muina, and later Tare, that Cass winds up in is like our world but not really. There's a higher focus on psychic abilities--with a definitive break in society between those who are 'elite' (the Setari) and those who are not (everyone else). The Setari spend much of their lives training to become as perfect as possible in order to protect everyone from the Ionoth (monsters) and are regarded as super stars. I found the entire civilization rather fascinating, though its rather rigid and militaristic (with I suppose good reason) and I wouldn't have fared half as well as Cass I don't think.

Host sets a good pace throughout the novel, giving us plenty of time to see 'Survivor-Cass' and then 'Lab Rat Cass'. We read about a lot of day-to-day activities, which get kind of repetitive after a while interspersed with learning new things about Tare and Cass. It seems like an awful lot happens to Cass in the 5 or so months she's gone from Earth, but to put it in perspective the Taren years is only 4 months long, their equation of time is slightly off from ours.

Unfortunately we see very little of the world outside of the Setari stronghold. Cass' early wanderings before the government takes a keen interest in her don't last long and her brief excursions to go shopping are pretty unremarkable overall. I would like to know more about their culture, but with the developments in the latter third that seems unlikely.

Overall this made me eager for the next book, [b:Lab Rat One|10493838|Lab Rat One (Touchstone, #2)|Andrea K. Höst|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308170305s/10493838.jpg|15399450] and excited for the third book, [b:Caszandra|11538031|Caszandra (Touchstone, #3)|Andrea K. Höst|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1307189755s/11538031.jpg|16476955] coming this December. ( )

I'm a grandmother who began reading YA fantasy for books to recommend to my grandchildren - but stayed in the genre when I got hooked! There are some amazingly talented authors for the 10-20 year olds, and I think Andrea Höst is one of them. Stray was original (no dystopian world where the kids have to fight to stay alive and all that tired trope. There is a new world, there is some danger, there is rivalry - all of the elements for an exciting, fun book! ( )

I need to say up front that I received this book for free from BookRooster.com.

Cassandra is an Australian girl who walks through a sort of wormhole on her way home from school, and ends up on a completely different planet. She manages to make her way through the forests she initially stepped into, and winds up in what appears to be an abandoned city, encountering various animals and plants that resemble some on Earth along the way. She is finally "rescued" by a people from a nearby planet, who tell her she's a "stray" -- a person who wanders from their own planet/space-time and into another. When it is discovered that Cass has the ability to enhance the psychic powers of the people on this new planet, she takes on a special role with them.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was well-written and well-edited, which have been problems with recent ebooks I've read. The story is told completely from Cass' point of view, via her journal. She is very resourceful, managing to stay alive on an unknown planet completely by herself -- but still falls into funks on occasion, especially when she's feeling particularly like a lab rat.

As another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out, this is quite unlike other popular YA fiction in that there's no love triangle. In fact, there's no romance at all, other than Cass' crush on one of the people she's working with. While part of me was rooting for her to break through Ruuel's tough exterior, for the most part I was happy that wasn't a focus of the story; it really couldn't be for the story to remain true to the plot.

I was intrigued by the concept of the Ena, near-space, far-space, and the Ionoth. It seemed like the Setari spent most of their time battling bad memories. Quite a metaphor, that. I wondered a number of times throughout the book at the ethics of the Taren's fight against the Ionoth, especially during the mission in which they were attacked by the "white-gray hairy" Ionoth. Were the Setari really protecting themselves and others, or were they invading another world and killing the inhabitants. Although the Setari said their scan indicated that the hairy humanoids were from another area, it seems like those Ionoth may have been acting simply to defend themselves. Perhaps that question will be answered in the next book.

Sigh. Next book. Perhaps I'm getting old and jaded, but I remember a time when a book was just a book, not part of a trilogy, and the whole story was told in one shot. Yes, this is the first of a trilogy. I should have confirmed that before I started, but I chose to be blissfully ignorant. I will probably read the next two books, at some point, to hopefully clear up some of my questions, but I can't help but feel a little like a sucker for getting, well, sucked in by another series. Does everything really have to be a series these days? Can't authors try to pare themselves down to one book? I'm getting skeptical enough to believe that this is done solely for money-making purposes, rather than a real need for a story to take up more than one volume. Feel free to argue with me about that. ( )

The recommendation for this book said that the world-building was fantastic and the emotional characterization was spot-on. That rec was absolutely on-point. Stray is the diary of a young Earth teen who unknowingly strolls through a rift in space and ends up on an abandoned world. At first she records her survival and then she records her meeting with people from another world and the discoveries she makes about them and herself. I fell into this book and enjoyed the hell out of it. ( )

A Sydney teenager walking home from school finds herself, without any warning, in an uninhabited forest. On what she quickly works out is an alien planet. A post-apocalyptic uninhabited alien planet. Cassandra struggles to survive by herself until she's rescued by a group of people who turn out to have psychic abilities.

Stray is utterly gripping. (As is the sequel, Lab Rat One.) I loved the "Survivor Cass" section, in which Cass is trying to survive in an alien forest, with just her school uniform and the contents of her school bag. (She has a notebook with her, which allows her to keep a diary.)

And then she gets rescued and things become even more complicated. She can't speak the language of her rescuers, and so they treat her like she has the rights of the child - lots of things happen to her without her consent or even without her really understanding what is going on. She has very little privacy or control; she's just a stray. Once they discover that Cass can be useful to them, she experiences even less agency and privacy - but certainly more drama.

"Character deals with dramatic loss of agency and has to navigate building meaningful in the face of a power imbalance" is a situation I find compelling, fascinating, and it's something Höst does really well.

Other things I liked: the worldbuilding; the technology, its limitations and ethical issues and how it shapes their society; the cross-cultural issues Cass faces; the friendships amongst the Setari and the friendships Cass builds; the teamwork; Cass's perspective, resourcefulness and sense of humour; and the believability of her diary.

Since I first read this, I've made a point of reading all of Höst's novels. ( )