Fiktshun's Soul Screamers Reading Challenge: My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

 

 There will be spoilers in this post from My Soul to Take. If you want to know more about the Soul Screamers books then check out my review of My Soul to Take here!

  Synopsis (From the Waterstones Website)

When teenager Kaylee screams, someone dies...So when teen pop star Eden dies onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul. The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld - a consequence they can't possibly understand. Kaylee can't let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk.



What I Have to Say

I didn't think My Soul to Save was any better than My Soul to Take, but I didn't think it was any worse either. They're both really great books, so this isn't a bad thing at all. Too many books try to escalate the drama until it becomes unrealistic - sustainable quality is a really good thing in a series and Rachel Vincent really pulls it off.


I liked seeing more of Tod and exploring other sides of his character. It made him more of a main character and less of just someone who's there.  I also really love the relationship between Nash and Tod. It works so well because it's both funny and realistic. 

Another good thing about this book is that we get to see Kaylee develop and start to learn about what she can do as a Bean Sidhe. She's getting more integrated into the supernatural world. 

Also we get to learn more about the Netherworld! Which is always cool and Vincent shows that she can be just as imaginative in creating faery worlds/ demon dimensions as the other writers around her. 

It's completely worth reading more of this series and I can't wait to read the next book (which I will do much sooner than I did this one!!! >< you can blame the reading I've had to do for uni for that xD). 
 
 

Pride by Rachel Vincent

Synopsis from (from Amazon)

The werecat council has three cardinal laws and headstrong Faythe stands accused of breaking two of them: infecting a human with her supernatural skills and killing him to cover her tracks. With the death penalty hanging over her head, Faythe has no escape route left. Until a shapeshifter informs the pride of a rash of rogue strays terrorising his land. Yet this threat is nothing like any they've seen before. Only Faythe has the knowledge to save the pride, but can she prove her worth? Or will the councils verdict condemn them all? 

What I Have to Say

About the Series in General

 

The best thing about Vincent's characters are the strong female protagonists. I think my favourite is Faythe. She's very tough and refuses to be talked down to. It makes it really easy to believe that she's a werecat raised among a bunch of older brothers.

It's the way that all the characters act that makes it feel real. It's very normal and human, but at the same time it's all very catlike. 

There are just little things that are scattered throughout the books: They can hear through most walls, identify each other by scent and have to eat much more than humans. Just these small details team up to make a really believable storyworld that's easy to immerse yourself in. 

About Pride in Particular

Pride was heartbreaking, but at the same time it's got a lot of action and humour. The other thing that was really well done was the pace and action of the storyline. The fact that the main plotline is Faythe's trial means that it could very easily become slow and technical, especially since the main character is banned from partaking in the action. But as we all know, trouble finds it's way in. 

In all, I loved the book just as much as the others in the series. It has a really well built world and a good range of characters. 

Now I have to go and buy the next book to find out what happens!

Plague by Michael Grant

Synopsis (FromThe Waterstones Website)

 (Contains mild spoilers for the rest of the series so I'm whiting it out. Highlight if you want to read it!)

  

The FAYZ goes from bad to worse...The darkness has been foiled once again and the resurrected Drake has been contained. But the streets of Perdido Beach are far from safe, with a growing army of mutants fighting against the humans for power in the town. In a small room of a house near the edge of town, Little Pete lies ill on a bed. In his fevered dreams, he continues his battle with the hidden evil that seeks to use his power to bring about anarchy and destruction.

 What I Have to Say

About the series in general

This is another really good story world. What happens when kids are left alone? Maybe throw in a few power mad kids. And then why not go the whole way and give them superpowers? What could possibly go wrong? 

In some ways it's rather like a modernised version of Lord of the Flies, but then the superpowers come in and it's a whole different thing. It's gives a new angle and updates it a lot by bringing in mental issues such as sociopathy and autism. 

I also think that Sam is perfect as the main narrator. The weight of responsibility and the decisions that he makes really show how hard it is to suddenly have responsibility for a lot of people. Especially when they're kids who just expect him to just solve everything. 

So I would really recommend the series. Especially if you like dark storylines and really, really twisted characters.  

About Plague in Particular (SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE SERIES)

I don't think I liked this book as much as the last one. It was still really good, but I'm feeling that it might be time to bring them out of the FAYZ now. Or at least put something new in there to make it feel fresh again. I'm so curious to know how everything would change without the FAYZ. I mean are Sam's worries really going to take place or is it just paranoia on his part? But for now, especially since the Blink, it's just feeling quite stretched out and just becoming the same fights over and over. 

Don't get me wrong, plague is still really worth reading. I just feel that the series needs something new for the next book. 

Anyway, that's just my opinion on the matter. Feel free to disagree in the comments. Then we could have a debate! :P  

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis (From The Waterstone's Website)

Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases all your flaws, transforming you from an 'Ugly' into a 'Pretty'. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time.
But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen - but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest - the Rusty Ruins - where Uglies go to escape ' turning'. Tally won't be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she's ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent to the Ruins anyway - against her will.The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she could ever imagine: find her friend Shay and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. What she discovers in the Ruins reveals that there is nothing 'pretty' about the transformations...And the choice Tally makes will change her world forever.

What I Have to Say
  
I've fallen completely in love with this series. It just feels so real. All of the new ideas that Westerfeld has come  up with have a basis in today's society. The whole "Size Zero" thing that we have today seems like it could really grow into the "Pretty" society that Westerfeld describes.

But I think the scariest thing about it is that the logic behind it is understandable. I'm not saying that it would be good, just that you can see where they're coming from. Mostly, it's the making people Pretty so that everyone looks the same thing. It's true that a lot of conflict comes from differences in appearance and one way to stop those arguments would be to somehow make everyone the same.

I think that's the way to make a good realistic "Utopian" society. Start with one thing that could make the world a better place and then find all the problems with it.

Secrets also tend to be good, 'cause they give a mystery into the plot. It's especially so because when you see a Utopia you instantly start looking for underlying problems.

Anyway, I think this is a really, really interesting story world and I'm looking forward to reading more of it.

In a few weeks they'll be another review for the next book in the series. In the mean time, I really think that you all should get Uglies, because it's just an amazing book. 

Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Synopsis (From Julie Kagawa's Official Website)

My name—my True Name—is Ashallayn'darkmyr Tallyn.

I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. And I am dead to her.

My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl… 

What I Have to Say

I'm splitting this section into two parts so as to give both the book and the series justice whilst not spoiling anyone who hasn't read the previous books. If you don't want any of the previous books in the series please don't read the section about Iron Knight.

About the Iron Fey series in General

Julie Kagawa is one of my favourite authors. I will buy everyone book she writes without question (or even stopping to read the blurb). The Iron Fey series is a really original but still pretty classic fey story. She intertwines the normal rules of Faerie with this new idea of combining fey creatures with iron to show the human effect on Faerie. Then she goes to show how damaging this is to the original fey. 

I love reading about fey. I love the stories people are finding to tell about them. But Kagawa takes it even further by finding something new that she can create by basing her iron fey on the age of technology. Her inventions range from powerful creatures such as Iron Horse, Glitch and Virus to adorable little things like packrats and gremlins (even if the latter is a bit of a nuisance xD). 

So not only has Kagawa described in wonderful detail her interpretation of the land of Faerie, she's also made it very original and interesting to read. 

If you haven't read the other books in the series I strongly recommend you read them before reading the rest of my review. It's your choice, of course, but they're amazing and you should read them :p. You can get them all off Amazon or from a decent bookshop (Order them from your local independent bookshop!!! They need the profit. Amazon will survive without your money!!!!)  

About Iron Knight in Particular (contains spoilers for previous books in the series) 

I think that Iron Knight is my favourite of the Iron Fey series. First of all because it contains Ash who I absolutely love, even if he's gone soft since falling for Megan. He's change a lot from his hard, cold, unseelie self, but there's still traces of the ice prince in there as well as flashbacks of him in his prime. I like evil guys!! I can't help it!!! 

I also really love him and Puck together. I love the way they bicker and threaten each other even though they kind of like each other really. They also make a really good team, which goes some way to show what they were like before their feud got in the way. 

All that said, I think the thing that made me love the book so much more from the rest of the series (which I didn't even think was possible before I read it) was the whole Arthurian feel it had about it. It was set out as a traditional Knight's tale: a group of companions setting out to face challenges together with the purpose of gaining the power to go back to the side of their leaders one True Love. You can imagine that it could big King Arthur trying to get back to Guinevere. Or you could if Arthur was an unseelie fey who'll throw ice daggers at anyone who annoyed him anyway xD. 

The book is also so emotional. You go through the trials that Ash faces with him and experience what he has to give up in the hope of being able to be with Megan again. 

I strongly recommend the whole of the Iron Fey series. 

 

 

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Synopsis (from the Watersones Website)

  'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins. This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

What I Have to Say 

Dark Fantasy has really brought a lot of new plots into the world. Nowadays there are Werewolf romances and Faery romances and way, way too many Vampire Romances. But the one thing that was the genre was really missing was a good zombie romance. Now Warm Bodies has filled the gap in the market. Marion has characterised R so well that you want him to succeed so badly. It's so good at making you feel things that you don't expect to. 

It's such a reversal of the normal zombie stories that it brings a freshness that was really needed in Zombie stories. 

And it's awesome to tell people that you're reading a zombie romance xD 

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis (From the Waterstones Website)

 Every November, the Scorpio Races are run beneath the chalk cliffs of Skarmouth. Thousands gather to watch the horses and the sea that washes the blood from the sand. The mounts are capaill uisce: savage water horses. There are no horses more beautiful, more fearless, more deadly. To race them can be suicide but the danger is irresistible.

What I Have to Say 

I've loved absolutely everything that Stiefvater has written so far. She has a way with words that few authors have. The Scorpio Races is something really special. It contains in it a few pieces of writing that you just have to read aloud and share with anyone who'll listen. That includes you so listen up: 

"This last exclamation is because we've just got to a high point where we can see the ocean and the area around us. The land is perilous, low cliffs, cracked and cut deeply into the green pasture and then suddenly empty air and then pasture again. Below us and beyond us, the sea is whitecaps and foam and black rocks like teeth. A busy sea." 

This is such a wonderful piece of description of the sea, a central part of the plot. It shows its beauty and it's danger without slowing down the pace or being extraneous. 

I really, really loved every moment and every component of this book so I highly recommend it.