Review of Soulstice

Soulstice

It is recommended you read The Devouring before you jump into this book. You’ll understand and enjoy the book ten times more than just reading this one first. I apologize in advance for a horrible synopsis about the book. I like to keep things spoiler free.

Reggie knew the Vours would come after her. It was only a matter of time. Although they still haunt her in her dreams, Reggie gets an unexpected visitor at night and her fight against the Vours continues.

Being the sequel to The Devouring, I thought the book was perfect. It lived up to its expectations and provided me with an entertaining, thrilling read. I’m usually dubious about sequels, as they tend to focus more on character development and thus either end up being dry or being stuck in a rut when it comes to plot. Soulstice however has no problem carrying on the story and the plot flowed easily. It was clear and to the point. There was substantial character development – just about every character evolved differently (either for good or for worse).

As the story was interesting, this was an easy flowing read for me and like The Devouring, it got me from the start. It’s the type of book you have to read either through one sitting, or drop all the other books you’re reading to finish this one. It’s definitely an attention grabber. The book had all the makings of a horror movie, but by reading it, it makes it much more thrilling and more scary as it leaves it up to the reader to imagine the sights, the smells, and the sounds. I love the dream sequences the most. That’s where you can look into the author’s imagination and really appreciate it. Besides the horror aspect of the novel, there’s also a bit of comic relief (however not so much as the previous book). It makes the story take a break from the horror  and although die hard horror fanatics might think it’s unnecessary I thought it was well done and placed in strategic points of the book where it fits just fine.

As for the story’s predictability, well I sort of figured out what Quinn was up to. However I don’t consider that to be a negative point in the book. I don’t see anything that needs improvement. The cliffhanger ending made me nearly want to pull my hair out though, and I’m really eager to read the third book; Fearscape (due out in October of 2010).

Overall perfectly written sequel, cliffhanger ending. What more could you want in a horror?

I give it a 10 out of 10.