This was an unusual take on the whole angel concept I've not seen before in YA paranormal novels. And I did thoroughly enjoy it. I liked it right off, the tone of the novel was interesting and sounded just right for a socially awkward small town teen. Something about the small southern town setting and the tone of Riley's character reminded me in a way of Sookie Stackhouse.

I found the character of Gabe an interesting one, he was a lot of fun and turned out to be a really decent guy. The initial meeting between him and Riley was very entertaining and reading about them dealing with each other's lives and getting around together was entertaining. The relationship worked well (no insta love) and it was easy to see how Riley's emotions changed and developed throughout the story.

Riley as a heroine was easy to relate to and strong in a lot of senses, but completely dense in some - like dealing with new friends, how to act socially. Even Lacy the not so evil cheerleader turned out to be a pretty cool character in her own way after a first introduction into Riley's social awkwardness.

I suppose that in any angel related novel its impossible not to go into the religious side of things. One thing I hate is being preached at but this book handled the whole religious aspect very well. The Church of Angels was handled well, and a little weird right from the start but it built into the plot nicely.

There were some nice spooky paranormal touches and I thought the things brought in about Riley's true past were done well and all built up nicely to fit into the story and drive the plot forward towards the end of the novel.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending, it was rather emotional and like a WHAT???!!!! after everything. And made me like Gabe and Riley even more.

All in all, a very good read. ( )

The protagonist, Riley, lives in a bible belt Southern town that is visited every year by angels. The angels kidnap a couple of people and revisit each year. The antagonist is a pastor whose moved to the town to take advantage of this implausible situation. What was implausible was Riley's mother forcing them to stay in the town because of her dying parents wish for her to raise her daughter in their house. I did not buy for one moment that her mom was reasonably allowing her family to go through that each year because of a dying wish or not being allowed back in the town if you left the one night the abductions happened.

Riley and the rest of the books characters never waste a moment to tell us how Riley doesn't care what anyone thinks.

Riley's mother cared more for her neighbours opinion than her family but the big reveal she did this so her daughter wouldn't have to was laughable.

Because Riley wouldn't wear a bathing suit because big breasted girls are slutty if they wear bikinis or tank tops. No character in the book ever said this to her [such as when she was "forced" to a party in a bikini] but Riley herself. Outcast features the often used trope that the gorgeous lead isn't as pretty as her mom so is 'plain'.

She constantly compares herself to the other girls in her school and moderates her behaviour on the wishes of others in every other paragraph. The love interest loses his cool with Riley and her mom over letting creepy pastor gain more control over the town because everyone else was doing it.

The book should have actually shown her make a stand for something that didn't involve falling apart over a boy. In this case, Riley's mom does remark that twice she does completely let go of her life. At least on this one character trait, she wasn't one thing but called another.

Her "only chance at happiness' was ruined when her boyfriend was abducted. She spends most of the book either miserable over her kidnapped boyfriend and getting closer to the angel she shoots in the face. The said angel turns into a boy from the '50s whose progressive over everything but women's rights.

The majority of the book was formulaic but believable characterisation of a girl whose mourning her boyfriend and falling in love again.
The pastor, his son and the "friend" of Riley's were interesting but if the book had explored this more in depth instead of entire chapters on high school pool parties or a date I'd have enjoyed the book a lot more.

I got more out of the Zenon tv movie on the disney channel when Zenon didn't like how the villain blinked than sweaty pastor creeping Riley out. ( )

Full Review posted at The Book Puhsers -

http://thebookpushers.com/2013/06/24/review-outcast-by-adrienne-kress/


Quick review and thoughts.

Outcast is like Angelfall's quirkyville's cousin. The moment when Riley shoots the angel who is about to 'take' her she is surprised to learn that it turns into a very naked guy from the 50s who has no idea what has happened to him.

The small-town setting gives the book charming tone and the romance between Gabe and Riley is sweet and tender and I loved their banter and chemistry which really shined.
The whole Angel mythology and premise was at times creepy and atmospheric but also vague and not that fleshed out. This was one of the weakest aspect of the book but the ending was the real disappointment for me. If a certain event and decision didn't happen this would have made the book's rating much more higher. But the ending didn't ring true for me and I felt cheated and it was also a bit of a deux ex machina. But the engaging characters and dialogue was a highlight but shame about how it ended. ( )

ACTUALLY RATED 3.5 STARS.

Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.

Sing 'em to remember. Sing 'em because you remember. I remember Gabe, I remember. And I'm never going to forget.

The idea behind Outcast was really intriguing, but I honestly wasn't sure how it would turn out. Because, well, let's be honest here. How often do books deliver based on intriguingness? Almost never. But it turns out that Outcast was a step above the rest. Because it did deliver, in my mind. It had all of the elements that I like to see in a paranormal-- a hot guy who's somewhat paranormal, a freaky cult, some kind of scaryish ghost and some crazy twists in between.

I really liked our main character, Riley. At first I was expecting her to be our average, virginal, annoyingly whiny paranormal girl lead. I was pleasantly surprised! Riley was actually quite the badass. She was very straightforward and sarcastic, and let's be honest. She shot an "angel" in the face. That was pretty frecking epic. Am I right or what? Loved that. I also loved that she almost always has something to say that is so true. Seriously, check out this quote-- I love it because it's true!

Or worse. You see, an adorable little tank top on Lacy would look demure and pretty. One me it would look totally indecent, like I was some sex kitten. Basically, big boobs make people think you're trashy.

That is absolutely true! I can never get out of the house in anything resembling a tank top, so I feel for Riley. But I'm going to move on now. I liked Gabe-- he was a lot sweeter and more decent than I thought he would be. And I don't know that I would necessarily refer to him as a greaser, but whatever. He is who he is, right? Gabe was a huge part of the story-- he kept it going. You just don't realize until the end how big of a deal he is, and then it hits you how crazy awesome the whole plot was. It was twisty and turny and actually kind of confusing...but in a good way, do you know what I mean?

It was really interesting in the beginning, but as the story progressed it seemed like we were getting way too much information at one time...but it all starts to make sense later, so I'm actually okay with it. I just hope that there's less info-dump in the author's next book, because I really liked her writing. I didn't realize it until the end, but I was totally following and feeling everything that Riley was throughout Outcast, which can't be anything but good in my opinion.

All in all, Outcast really is worth a read. It was a great paranormal that made my head spin, and I absolutely loved the surprise ending, it was totally epic! ( )

From my blog: On Starships and Dragonwings

I was very excited to be able to read Outcast by Adrienne Kress since that cover is just too fun! I was also quite excited about the “angels” that the description talks about, since they definitely don’t sound like the angels we have been reading about much before. Unfortunately, my desire for adventure and exploration didn’t quite get satisfied, but I think many of you who like the high school romance storyline will probably enjoy this one more than I did!

Note: I received Outcast through Netgalley for an honest review.

Strengths:
I don’t know a lot about angel lore and haven’t read a lot of angel books, but I thought that once we found out more about what was going on, it was a pretty cool take on things. Outcast gets you intrigued immediately about what the heck is going on in this town with supposed angels swooping down and kidnapping people!
Because Gabe is from the 50′s, there is a great 50′s element. Gabe does a great job of bringing that spirit out with his leather jacket and way of speech. He was such a well-written character and so much fun to read.
Once the ending got going, there was a lot of excitement and explanation of what had been going on, which was something I quite appreciated ;-).
There were a lot of great secondary characters including involved and nice parents and high school students that actually break stereotypes. Shocking right??

Weaknesses:
A large amount of Outcast was spent focused on the romance and on spending time doing normal high school things, which was a bit frustrating when we still didn’t know what was going on with the angels.
On a similar note, I spent most of that time wondering why we weren’t investigating this crazy angel thing! I was constantly frustrated that there was this big important mystery, but Riley and Gabe just didn’t care it seemed.
Remember that socially inept MC theme? It continues.

Summary:
I wanted to love Outcast, but ended up only liking it. There was a lot of potential with the interesting premise, however too much time was spent playing around with the high school aspect. If you are more excited about high school and romance elements, then you might enjoy Outcast more than I did and I encourage you to try it out! ( )