Soul Screamer: Take One

My Soul to Take


Written by: Rachel Vincent

Released: August 1, 2009 by Harlequin Publishers

From the Publisher:
She doesn't see dead people, but…
She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.
Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next…



From the moment that I saw this novel on The Story Siren (an amazing YA novel blog) I wanted to read it myself. Both the cover, which is gorgeous, and the summary intrigued me and when I saw a chance to buy it I did, along with the second in the series 'My Soul to Save'.

I thought that this was an original idea - vampires and werewolves are so overdone - and since I was already a Rachel Vincent fan from her adult supernatural series I went into reading this with an idea that it wouldn't disappoint. And boy did it not. The summary doesn't give anything away and I was pleasantly surprised at what the supernatural tie-in was for this. I mean, banshees are never written about and the way that the author writes about them is rather amazing and insightfully fresh. How other supernatural beings are incorporated and used as they mingle with the main characters is done also in a way that feels natural and it adds to the entire story rather than taking away and feeling awkwardly placed.

I was pleased that there were portions of the plot that took you off-guard and made you re-read the page to make sure that you got it right the first time. The ending of the book is both open-ended for the books to follow while tying up nicely the plot line of this specific novel, and the climax is so unexpected that never could it have been specifically guessed before it happened. At least I never made the connection.

Of course, there were parts which were obvious in the way that they were going to play out.
The whole "borrowed time" and the reaper bits you knew were going to relate back to the characters personally though you weren't quite sure what the angle was going to be. Of course, the entire novel can't be thrilling and unexpected; there has to be something that you can anticipate or else it's just not nearly as fun to read. Thrills are great but after a while, if there are too many of them one after another, they get to be tiring and expected - something that you don't want.




All in all, I am greatly anticipating reading the next novel and then the third one when it comes out June 1, 2010, especially if they can live up to the first in the series. I give this novel my stamp of approval and an 8/10 on my reading scale.




Summary courtesy of the Chapters website.