Friday, October 30, 2009

Review: My Soul to Take, Rachel Vincent

Kaylee gets premonitions when someone is about to die--premonitions in the form of an uncontrollable urge to scream. She thinks she's losing her mind, but in truth she's a bean sidhe, or banshee. When her pretty young classmates start dropping dead for no reason, Kaylee learns the truth behind her heritage from Nash, the hottest guy in school, who's also bean sidhe. The pair must stop whoever it is that is taking the souls of girls before their time.

This is the first book I've read of the new Harlequin Teen imprint. I must say I was thrilled when I heard Harlequin was launching this imprint as I've always had a soft spot for the Mills & Boon paperbacks. At the end of my degree my nanna happened to have a big shopping bag full of them, mostly retro, which she loaned to me, and after all my exams the little paperbacks were a delight. Most of them. Some were awful. But the great thing about M&B is there's so many of them you can pick and choose the sort of story you're in the mood for. I also loved that the books got passed around the neighbourhood and all the local ladies who'd read them had put their initials on the inside cover so they didn't mistakenly read them twice. One of my life writing goals is to write a M&B and get it published. I've tried it once (after reading said paperbacks) and was asked to submit the manuscript based on the synopsis. I sent in but alas! It was not to be. My alpha male wasn't alpha enough I think. He was an archaeologist and resembled Giles from Buffy more than Fabio. What can I say. Giles is alpha to me!

But back to My Soul to Take. I really liked the fact that this book was about bean sidhes. I'm going to favour paranormal books with unusual paranormal aspects from now on. I'll always love my dear vampires and werewolves, but it's time to branch out. And there were grim reapers in this book! Lots of them, as in that fantastic television show Dead Like Me that went for one season (cry!) and that no one else has heard about in Australia (double cry!). It treats the afterlife as just another rat race and is very funny, but also very sad.

The lore behind bean sidhes in My Soul to Take is developed, as is the rest of the supernatural world. Vincent just scratches the surface of the nasties as this is book one and I'm sure she'll go deeper into it in subsequent books.

This is an interesting and unusual paranormal story, but on the downside the characters were difficult to warm to--especially Kaylee herself. She hates on herself, which dismays me. She has little sense of humour and always expects the worst to happen. This isn't so bad in itself; after all, her life has been no cherry. But combined with the gender roles behind Vincent's bean sidhe lore, and alarm bells started going off. The roles go something like this: female bean sidhes are uncontrollable, hysterical screamers; male bean sidhes have Influence (yes, it's capitalised in the book), which they use calm the hysterical bean sidhes. I mean, she's a bean sidhe, for heaven's sake. She's supposed to scream! Again, not so bad in itself, but these roles end up defining Kaylee and Nash's relationship: she becomes clingy and needy and is always looking to him before she speaks. She even asks permission to speak on several occasions. In this day and age this is a book crime in my opinion, irresponsible on the part of author and editor and an AUTOMATIC FAIL.

My Soul to Take is a light, enjoyable read badly in need of a gender role overhaul.

11 comments:

  1. Really good review Rhiannon. I kind of just devoured this book and loved it, but you had some interesting points.

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  2. Looks good to me! I haven't read a series with this kind of theme before. Great review, btw! :)

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  3. Yours is the first to point out those disturbing gender roles...hmmm.

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  4. EEeeeeesh. Seriously on the automatic fail. I'd heard so many good things about this book - people said it was the strongest Harlequin Teen title so far. I am dismayed...

    That said, fun review!

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  5. Frankie--thanks!

    austenfan--I was very impressed by the themes myself.

    Lenore and Celia--I'm willing to admit I'm sensitive about these things. But I'm sensitive for a reason. It's a shame that because it really is a nice read.

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  6. Yay Cindy! I should watch it again and give it a good ol' plug here :)

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  7. Loved Dead Like Me, too ;-D Too bad the gender issues are so glaring for we do want strong female characters. Do you think it could be a phase and that in the next book with maturity the character could change?

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  8. I really hope so v--I just don't know if I'll make it a priority to read!

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  9. What a great review! I read and liked the book, but I didn't noticed this part of it. I guess I wasn't very critical of it, but you make a good point.

    If Vincent's werecats series is any indication though, chances are Kaylee will evolve and become more confident, more independent. I'm hoping for it : even though the gender roles problems went unnoticed by my entertained mind, I did think she was somewhat clingy. I can live with a clingy character if there's hope they'll change along the road though, so I will at least read the next one!

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  10. Hey Rhiannon, Dead Like Me went for 2 seasons + TV movie. Have you seen the rest of it? And weirdly, I am one of those rare Aussies that's seen it :)

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