Title: My Soul to Take
Author: Rachel Vincent
Pages: 279
 

Why do I have the feeling that I will ramble like a sick fangirl? Ah, yes because the book is hands down incredible. I think it is par with my all time favorite The Hunger Games in terms of writing, plot and characters (that just me, ok?). I will give it a 6 stars (five means excellent already (by my standards) if I could. That’s how this book absorbed me, so if you are those who are tired of vampires, werewolves, and fallen angels and want to try something new from YA supernatural genre – then check this one. It’s rare to meet a bean sidhe on this side of the fence, right?

Soul Screamers series first book is called My Soul to Take. It is a story of Kaylee Cavanaugh and her ability to foresee death – an ability that’s either a blessing or a curse. A premonition of death is never going to be easy; an upcoming death that you cannot tell and worse, being mistaken as mentally illed. With that, being a bean sidhe is never going to be a walk in the park. Kaylee wasn’t aware of her bean sidhe heritage (actually and numerously mentioned in the book that bean sidhe is popularly known as banshee) until the strange deaths happen within her community. Nash Hudson, a popular (and of course hot) guy in her school told her that she isn’t human and just like him, she is bean sidhe too. Male and female bean sidhe are different, when a premonitions comes the female banshee screams so loud, it is actually a soul song and if I remember correctly it lengthen the process of soul reaping. Guy bean sidhe can’t see a soul if they can’t hear the song. Unlike female and human they hear an eerie beautiful song instead of the scream and they can guide the soul back to its body. Upon knowing her heritage Kaylee decided to investigate the deaths (with the help of Nash’s reaper brother Tod) and found out that in fact someone (a soul reaper, a reaper for short) is harvesting young female souls for their own benefit.

I think that’s fine for a teaser, you have got to read the book in order to understand everything. It’s incredible book (yes I said it already but I’ll say it again). Once you’ve started it’s really hard to let go. I like Rachel Vincent writing style (no buts and ifs, just straight to the point), just a few pages it will immediately jammed you in. What attracts me first to this book is the cover (I know don’t judge the book by its cover, but you can’t blame for being attracted first through sight; most people do). And I haven’t read any ghost related story yet (which I thought it was at first). So while I was reading and Nash telling her the truth I was like bean sidhe? What the hell is that? Until it was explain in the book. I haven’t heard bean sidhe before (until this book come) so it came to me as very novel idea. I like the idea of banshee (for the layman), I love that they aren’t exactly human (technically they’re not) but still have human vulnerabilities; they die (but have a very long life). They look human (and no, no glittering skin under the sun) but their irises swirl when they get emotional. Once they hit puberty it will slow down the aging; so being a teenager for a while? Not a bad idea. The characters are awesome, I like all of them (I like Nash in the first two books but ended up in a rift after I read the third book). My favorite character is Tod, Nash’s brother. He is super funny and he is a reaper. Super cool! I’m quite familiar with grim reapers. It is a popular genre in manga (you know Ryuk, Ichigo (and almost all of the character in Bleach) and Shinigami-sama) so I find Rachel Vincent allegory of this well feared persona of death fascinating. No wielding scythe, no black cloak and no bony features just the normal modern cute guy, oh gosh Tod is my favorite character ever!

This book is somewhat technical and very descriptive but you won’t get lost even if you don’t have any background of any of the genre put here. I mean I don’t know bean sidhe but it was clearly explained in the book. It was a very refreshing read. My Soul to Take is a brilliant book. You’ll just see yourself caught up in every page wanting for more.