 | Title: If I Die
Sexual Content: Kissing. Scenes of sensuality. References to sex. Rating:
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Description
No one wants to be this teacher’s pet . . .
Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee—her scream is a portent of death.
But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out.
Yeah—it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher is really an incubus, who feeds from the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend’s delinquent ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human either.
But Kaylee’s running out of time, and those who love her will do anything to save her life.
Anything.
Soul Screamers: The last thing you hear before you die.
Review
There is a reason that IF I DIE is the first book in the Soul Screamers series to break from the “My Soul to…” formula. Everything we thought we knew, everything we’d been hoping for, planning for, and partially dreading, changes. This is a series that has been building momentum with each book, breaking rules, breaking hearts (both the readers and the characters), and IF I DIE breaks more than all the previous books combined.
I’ve learned from the previous books in this series that the best way to start reading this book was to take all my expectations and chuck them out. The first chapter in IF I DIE is amazing and shocking. There isn’t a single thing I didn’t love about it from Vincent’s delicate but strong handling of a very sensitive issue to dropping the biggest bomb of the series only twenty pages in. I can never predict what Rachel Vincent will do to her characters except that regardless of how unbelievable or even cruel it may seem on the outset, she’ll write it in such a way that it feels inevitable by books end. IF I DIE is the best example of that to date.
Rachel Vincent writes incredibly strong and fully fleshed out characters. I never feel neutral about them. I either love them with a blazing passion, or despise them with a white hot anger. Better still are the characters who trick me into liking them before I can think to defend myself (no, not Sabine. I don’t think I’ll even warm up to her). In IF I DIE, the opposite happens. One of the characters I loved from book one slips into the despise camp so slowly that I still can’t believe it happened.
Overall, take my advice and ditch your expectations. IF I DIE is nothing like what you think. Some characters shift into darkness and others emerge in delightful new ways. Pain, anguish, danger, desire, and selflessness are all par for the course in the Soul Screamers series, but never in ways I can predict and that’s why I’m so addicted to these books. If I die before BEFORE I WAKE is published in 2012, Kaylee and I will both be screaming.
| 0.1 My Soul to Lose – 3/5 1. My Soul to Take –3/5 2. My Soul to Save –3/5 3. My Soul to Keep – 4/5 4. My Soul to Steal – 4/5 |
Once again you've reminded me of a series I need to catch up on. I'll get reading - but your review has certainly upped my anxiety levels for the characters' well-being.
ReplyDeleteMickie T
Mickie - This series has really earned it's spot on my shelf. It started out good, but it just keeps getting better. Highly recommended :)
ReplyDeleteAww man now I am really dying to read this book! Thanks for the great review.
ReplyDeleteSmiley Girlie - Rachel Vincent keeps climbing higher and higher up my favorite author list. IF I DIE was excellent!
ReplyDelete