My Soul to Take (Soul Screamers, #1)

by Rachel Vincent

[celinenyx]

My first encounter with Rachel Vincent a few years ago didn't go so well. I read her urban-fantasy book Stray which I kind of hated. People assured me her YA series was better, and with the memory of the catastrophe Stray fading, I decided to give her a second chance.

In My Soul to Take Kaylee thinks she's going crazy. She can see dark shrouds around people that are going to die, and when teenage girls around her start dropping like flies she starts doubting her mental health. But Nash, the school's hottie, suddenly has interest in her, and he seems to know more about what's going on with her than he's willing to let on.

Usually I start reviews pointing out the good. This time, however, I feel like starting with the bad. First off, the weird romance. I'm not sure what this was supposed to be. I'm glad Ms Vincent didn't make Nash the new kid at school (cause you know you've read THAT before) but once again, he's the popular kid that suddenly pays attention to Kaylee. Is it just me, or is being ignored for years and ALL of a sudden being the focal point of one's interest not romantic, and on top of that weird and suspicious. They almost instantly went into relationship mode without falling in love first, and they are terribly clingy. But hey, maybe that's just how teen romances are. I feel like I'm getting old.

There's one thing about Ms Vincent's writing that I noticed in Stray, and saw again in My Soul to Take. Her writing is, I don't know how to say this more politely, immature. And not all that great. She can describe things, she can write scenes, but that's about it. She resorts to expressions like "it felt sooo good", and when this happens two pages in a row, that's just bad writing. Luckily, it's not all that annoying in a young-adult book. It's still not good writing, but it's less annoying than having to put up with that kind of language in an adult book.

Now the good: there are different kinds of interesting supes! I enjoyed the plot, and the last part of the book was engaging and hard to put down. There is enough going on to keep you interested, but not too much that you're getting a headache from all the action.

My Soul to Take isn't the best written book and it has some common young-adult faults, but it's definitely not a bad addition to the genre, and I'm looking forward to the second book.