If death wants you, he’ll get you. Some cross his path sooner, others later. But we all rendezvous with the reaper at some point. He’s rarely as handsome as Joe Black, yet always as insidious as Michael Myers.
Nisha Blake doesn’t fit in, the locals call her the Angel of Death. Little do they know how close they are to being right. Death finds those close to Nisha. The friendly store clerk, her teacher, her friends, her neighbour, they all died in her presence. Not even her parents were safe.
Nisha is a complex, battered character. She is bullied and harassed constantly, she has suffered a phenomenal amount of loss, she has been traumatized by the deaths. She has night terrors, sleepwalks, suffers from hallucinations and she is convinced she might be going insane. Her shrink thinks that her visions of Anubis are her brains way of dealing with her losses. Her Egyptian heritage and her families love of Egyptian mythology and folklore could be why her hallucinations manifest in this form. When Blaze comes into her life in cuffs, she is immediately drawn to him. She has to push him away, she doesn’t want him to get hurt. Plus her hallucinations are getting worse, she is losing time, she is losing herself to the visions.
One of my pet hates in ya books is when parents are pretty much absent. The kids can come and go with no parental input. In the Book of Souls, Nisha has a strong family group. Her Aunt does work a lot, but it works within the story, it doesn’t feel like its being used as a way to let the kids do whatever they want. Her cousin is her biggest champion. Her small group of friends have her back, even though Nisha does try to keep everyone at a distance.
The bullying and violence in this is brutal. It’s constant and heartbreaking because Nisha is convinced she deserves it. She is full of self loathing and never fights back. The small town bullshit is all directed Nisha’s way. They fear her, because of all the death surrounding her, so they threaten her, they lash out at her and they justify it to themselves, and then when you get a group of them together they get especially dangerous, they are violent and the mob mentality takes over. It’s pretty sad when a person allows themselves to be treated badly, because they think they deserve it. I actually thought all the bully type characters were going to have a different role in the story near the end, but I was wrong.
The Book of Souls is a romance with a paranormal twist. I found it contained a lot of the tropes we find often in ya romance. It has the bad boy, the girl who doesn’t think she is anything special, it hints at a love triangle (blergh, hate them). But where it differs from everything else, is the Egyptian mythology throughout and the violence. The violence is quite graphic in places, which I like. It doesn’t shy away from a dead body or two. And the Egyptian angle is fascinating, it digs into the lesser known myths and draws a picture for you. The writing itself is good, a touch repetitive at times. “Lapis Eyes” – This was mentioned so many times I had to google Lapis.
His lapis eyes burn a hole in my soul.
Aah, I love these types of books, the angst, the hotties. Sometimes they just fill a need in my book nerd soul. The progress of Nisha and Blaze’s relationship was sweet. Blaze was an absolute sweetheart who adored Nisha from the outset. It seems like a case of insta love, but it’s not really, yay for reincarnation, so it didn’t irritate me. I found that the story managed to surprise me and make me laugh at times.
Oh, my sweetness. “Kittens?” Four tiny balls of fur are scattered all over Blaze’s bed. He grins. “Surprise.” Anxiety was yesterday. I gape as Blaze – the snarky, tattooed MMA fighter who shares his bed with a bunch of kittens.
At other times it was slow and I skimmed. But my curiosity over where the book was heading, was enough to make sure I kept reading. And damn it, I need the next book now, because that cliff hanger!!! Brutal.
Finally I have a question. Is there such a thing as too many pop culture references in one book? Because this is littered with them. Some were hilarious –
And so the tainted lamb will take the lion to the slaughter bank.
With all the Twilight references, this had me laughing out loud. But of the top of my head we have references to – Game of Thrones, Twilight is spread all the way through the book, The Expendables, Ricky Martin, Bon Jovi plus so many more and that doesn’t include all of the book references. If there is such a thing as too many, this book was riding the line.
All in all, Book of Souls was a fun read.
For more information checkout Goodreads – Book of Souls – Book Depository – Amazon
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