Thursday 9 July 2009

My Soul To Lose by Rachel Vincent

My Soul To Lose is the free prequel to Rachel Vincent's forthcoming young adult series, Soul Screamers, about a young Banshee. The first book is due out 1st August and is titled My Soul To Take.

"Kaylee Cavanaugh's trip to the mall ends with a brutal panic attack and a brainscrambling shriek she can't stop. Her secret fear is exposed. It's the worst day of her life.

Until she wakes up in the psychiatric unit.

But the hospital isn't a safe place for Kaylee, and getting out won't be easy because everyone thinks she's crazy. Everyone except Lydia, who has a secret of her own..."

There aren't many short story's that draw me in quite so well as Rachel does here. You can't help but feel for Kaylee, who has no idea what she is or why she screams like she does. The stint in the psychiatric hospital really tugs at your heart, in sympathy, pain and shared embarrassment, and not only for Kaylee, but for Lydia as well. There are some great dynamics between Kaylee and various other secondary characters shown already, even in the shortness of this story, and leave you with a lot of questions you want answers to. And they're not limited to Kaylee. Rachel has created another vivid, three dimensional world here with apparent ease.

I will freely admit I was only planning on reading the first Soul Screamers book because I thoroughly enjoy Rachel's adult series, Shifters, and thought it probably wouldn't be bad. But having read the prequel to the series and the first chapter of MSTTake I am hungry for the first book. Rachel's great writing seems to flow just as easily for a YA series as an adult one. Bring on August.

My Soul To Lose can be found free on Rachel's website (there are other formats available, for the Kindle for example, but I'm unsure if these are all free as well). 8/10

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