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Review of Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers (Vol. 1)

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Soul Screamers

About a year ago, I won a copy of Rachel Vincent’s Soul Screamers (Volume One) from BooksandBlossoms.com.

Description from Goodreads:

My Soul to Lose
Kaylee is just your average girl shopping at the mall with friends—until a terrified scream bursts from her that cannot be stopped. Taken to a hospital ward, will she be able to save her mind—and her life?

My Soul to Take
She’s always felt different, but now Kaylee discovers why. The screams that cannot be denied mean that someone near her will die—and she can never save them. Because saving one life means taking another….

My Soul to Save
Going on dates with her boyfriend is still new to Kaylee. But when the singer of the band they’re seeing dies onstage and Kaylee doesn’t scream, she knows something crazy is going on. Soon she discovers souls can indeed be sold….

I’ll round up to 4 stars. I gave the prequel a 3 because it was well written and interesting, but almost nothing on it’s own. I gave the first book a 4. I enjoyed it. But dropped a star form book 2 because there was so much recap and info-dumping. It’s probably easiest to just post the three reviews.

Reviews:
I don’t usually cite star ratings on this blog as I think they often muddle the review. It’s too easy to just glance at the number and gloss over the written review. But for this omnibus, I think it’ll be easier if I reference them.

I’ll round up to 4 stars for the volume as a whole. I gave the prequel a three because it was well-written and interesting, but almost nothing on its own. I gave the first book a 4. I enjoyed it. But dropped a star from book two because there was so much recap and info-dumping. Here are my thoughts on the individual works. 

My Soul to Lose
An interesting start to the series. My interest is piqued, and I’m curious to see how it progresses, but on its own, it feels incomplete. Nothing is resolved. More questions are presented than answers provided. In fact, almost nothing is concluded. I’d call it a prologue to something else, as opposed to a book (or even a story) on its own. [Plus, having finished books one and two, now I can officially say that nothing in it is touched on again. The girl who helps Kaylee never shows up again. That feels like a missed opportunity right there.]

My Soul to Take
I liked it alright. Kaylee was a good, strong heroine. Nash was wonderfully supportive. There were a few good twists. I generally liked most of the characters and it was well written.

The book did have a few irritants, though. For one, Kaylee was nowhere near angry enough with her family for lying to her her whole life. Nowhere near angry enough! I felt cheated by her lack of venom. Plus, I still don’t understand why they did it. I understand why her father sent her to live with his brother, but why wasn’t she told about her heritage? That was never addressed. For another, Nash seemed to have fallen instantly in love with Kaylee. I generally hate insta-love, but that wasn’t what this felt like. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll be vague. But, other than their parents, they were the only two of what they were, and it felt very much like this was the basis of his infatuation.

Yet another irritant was the fact that even amidst all the new, mind-boggling information Kaylee was assimilating, we are somehow supposed to believe that she alone noticed the mystery in need of solving. Then, despite the fact that her theory was practically based on fairy dust (i.e., nothing substantial), she was right. I thought the very fact that she knew something was wrong felt almost miraculous.

Lastly, there seemed to be a little bit of a plot hole between the fact that those who claimed the souls of the departed were doing a job they were recruited for, while Kaylee and Nash had a natural-born skill. These two tasks seem to be connected, flip sides of a coin almost. So how is one something you are born to do and the next something you are essentially hired to do? It seems to me that both would either have been natural or not, but how can they be so closely related if they haven’t evolved together?

All-in-all, I enjoyed the read. I have the next in the series, My Soul to Save, and I’ll be reading it next.

My Soul to Save
I’m still enjoying this series. Kaylee is still a wonderfully strong heroine who depends on her boyfriend a lot but isn’t dependent on him. (If that makes any sense.) I like that. I also really like Tod. He’s an interesting character who often brings about thought-provoking moral quandaries. I like that, too, and the fact that Kaylee (who is usually the decision-maker) doesn’t always do the ‘right’ thing. It makes for an interesting read. I also just plain like the narrative style. Plus, the unmistakable similarities between the evil empire (Dekker Inc.) and Disney were golden. Golden I say!

Like the first book, however, there are a few aspects of the story that leave me scratching my head. Again Kaylee managed to take some small snippet of information, almost nothing really, and weave a theory around it. Then, miraculously succeed with it. This time, based on one overheard sentence, she needed to find one demon of a specific sort, of which there could be many. The first ‘person’ she asks is able to tell her where he is; he’s the right one; they find him immediately and are able just to walk right in and see him. Not to suggest that there were no difficulties, but it all seemed to go a little too easily.

Then there is the basic question of why exactly Kaylee feels like she and she alone has to save everyone. It never seems to occur to her to ask for help. I also had a little trouble grasping the whole drama around being grounded. I probably would have been able to relate to this if I was younger; I admit. But it seemed to me (and Tod, apparently) that normal teen drama issues would just get blown off in the face of saving souls and all. On a similar note, she seems to accept her father’s reappearance and overzealous parenting with ease. Her internal thoughts were often appropriately acerbic, but she never vocalized them. Maybe I’m just mean, but I think after 13 years he deserved a little guilt. I kept waiting for her to lay into him finally and she had plenty of opportunity. But she never did.

My main complaint about this particular book, however, was that the first half was really cluttered with info-dumps and recaps of book one. For a little while, it felt like every paragraph had some sort of catch-up clause in it, and it really broke up the narrative. I got pretty frustrated with it after a while.

The bottom line, though, is that I basically enjoyed it. If I come across book three at some point, I’d be more than happy to give it a read.

Book Review of Lyn Lowe’s Burnt

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BurntI won a copy of Lyn Lowe‘s novel, Burnt, from Disincentive Reviews.

Description from Goodreads:
Fate rips Kaie from the life he planned and thrust him into a world of slavery and casual brutality. Faced with the destruction of everything he knew and hiding from a society that turns those born with magic into mindless creatures called Hollows, he’ll have to discover the difference between being a good man and surviving a bad situation. The gods themselves have turned their cruel attention to teaching him the true meaning of sacrifice, in all its horrible forms. He will be forged in fire and death, and everything he loves is up for grabs. For he is the Catalyst… 

“You will see everything you care about ripped away five times. You will lead men into battle five times, three will leave you broken. You will murder five who deserve it and five who do not. You will die five times. You are the phoenix who will father dragons.”

Review:
I won this book some times ago and should probably start off by apologising for taking so very long to read it. Having finished it I can honestly say that it deserves some reader attention. There’s a really good story developing in this book. I imagine as an epic series it will be quite something, but as a stand alone book it seems to be lacking a little something.

It starts out well. The reader meets the main character and his two best friends, there’s a pretty potent prophesy or destiny handed down to him and then almost immediately slavers come to the village and….and everything essentially comes to a screeching halt. Didn’t see that coming? Me either. Right where you think the action is going to really pick up it drops down and dragggggs. I’m not saying that nothing happens, quite a bit happens. If this book was 600+ pages long and written just as it is I would have no complaints. Then this whole slow, adjusting to slavery section would be the middle third instead of the last two thirds of the book. But it’s not, which means that after being tempted with the promise of action and heroics we are then given emotional turmoil and the daily tasks of a slave. Even the introduction of the Hollows mentioned in the description is literally introduced in the last 5 or so pages.

The whole thing also feels very Greek. There is a lot of people sacrificing themselves to save their loved ones only to subsequently destroy them with the same well-intended actions. It was all very heart breaking and tragic. There isn’t a lot of happy time to counter all of the dark moments either.

I found myself wondering at the intended audience. It reads very much like a YA book with one major exception, sex. As a YA book you wouldn’t really expect there to be any and there isn’t any actual sex depicted. The reader just knows that it has occurred. Its use is one of the most interesting aspects of the book. It’s not very often that an author is able to successfully present subtly different uses of sex, sex as a weapon, sex as conciliation, sex as a good-bye. But Lowe manages that here without even seeming to try. I would almost call this a sub-theme of the book. I enjoyed it, but couldn’t really reconcile it with the tone of the rest of the book.

All in all, I found the premise of the book really interesting. I’d like to know what happens as the series progresses, especially with poor Sojun. But once I realised the pace of this one was never going to pick up I had a little trouble maintaining my enthusiasm. The sneak peak of book two did look as if the action was finally on the horizon though.

rainwater

Book Review of Sandra Brown’s Rainwater

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Rainwater

I won a signed copy of Sandra Brown‘s novel Rainwater from a Goodreads Firstreads giveaway.

Description:
The year is 1934. With the country in the stranglehold of drought and economic depression, Ella Barron runs her Texas boardinghouse with an efficiency that ensures her life will be kept in balance. Between chores of cooking and cleaning for her residents, she cares for her ten-year-old son, Solly, a sweet but challenging child whose misunderstood behavior finds Ella on the receiving end of pity, derision, and suspicion. When David Rainwater arrives at the house looking for lodging, he comes recommended by a trusted friend as “a man of impeccable character.” But Ella senses that admitting Mr. Rainwater will bring about unsettling changes.

However, times are hard, and in order to make ends meet, Ella’s house must remain one hundred percent occupied. So Mr. Rainwater moves into her house…and impacts her life in ways Ella could never have foreseen….

Review:
Anyone who reads many of my reviews knows that I read a lot more fantasy/Sci-fi than I do literary fiction, but even I need a little variety every now and then. I won this last year and felt guilt about it still sitting on my shelf, so I decided to finally give it a read. I’m glad to have read it now that I have, even if it is one of those Depression era novels where even the happy endings are heart rending and sad. Having said that I did generally like it. Mostly because Mr. Rainwater was every bit the honourable gentleman of my dreams. He was wonderful. It would be awful hard not to like him. I liked Mrs. Barron, Margaret and the Doctor too, but it was Rainwater who stole the show. Guess that’s why the book’s named after him, huh?

This is the first Sandra Brown novel I’ve read and according to the acknowledges is a departure from her normal stories. She can sure write though. The prose of this book is beautiful and evocative. She manages to relate a lot of emotion in relatively few words. Small movements on the part of the characters relay a lot of meaning. Even though I had a fairly good idea of where the plot was going to end up (one way or another) I still hung on every word until I got there. Would be more than happy to read another of Mrs. Brown’s books.

On a totally unrelated point, I read the hardback edition and it is a beautifully put together book. I love the cover image and the addition of the little bit of fancy gold edging around the title and the deckle edging of the pages.