Review Detail

BACKGROUND

Coming across Jodi Meadow’s “INCARNATE” was pretty accidental. I tend to jump from book to book to book without stopping and I had finished Rae Carson’s novel “BOOK OF EMBERS,” a few days before. I was searching for the right book when I stumbled upon this book on amazon. It sounded intriguing so I picked it up that day.

PREMISE

In Range, everybody lives forever. Their bodies may grow old, get sick, or even be killed, but their soul’s will live on in another body. But then there is Ana. The first new soul in the history of Range. Alone, apart, Ana lives with her biological mother, Li, who despises her and blames her for the disappearance of Ciana, the soul who was suppose to be reincarnated but wasn’t. Li calls Ana a no soul, and so on her 18th birthday, she sets off. Her destination, Heart, the city of her birth and the main city in Range where she hopes to figure out why she exists. But within 24 hours she finds herself in trouble, until Sam, an attractive boy of her age, well physically, rescues her and she learns what its like to have a friend.

REVIEW

I was immediately drawn into INCARNATE, I love YA fantasy and right away was wrapped up in the society around Ana. The idea that souls could be thousands of years old, that they had to take many lifetimes to build a society, and had to keep journals just so they could remember the things they forgot from the past is just so interesting. And then to add to that intriguing back story by bringing in Sam, a musician who slowly draws Ana out of her shell and shows her friendship, music and books. How could one not fall for him? I loved that you could watch Ana and Sam’s relationship bloom, that it took Ana a while to heal from all the abuse put on her by Li. I loved that even though Sam mostly took care of Ana, she learned how to take care of him too. I was just impressed by how much I grew to care about the relationship and how much I wanted them to be together despite all the reasons they probably shouldn’t be (after all he is 5000 years older than her.) I found myself drawn to the city of Heart too. A city the souls found fully intact generations ago with houses, stores and a giant temple. I pictured it a lot like Jerusalem which was perfect for how it was described. I liked how this society was very old fashion in some ways like with the Masquerade ball and everyone walking everywhere, but still had many modern devices like the SED (a cell phone).

Oh and one of the coolest parts of the whole experience is how active Ms. Meadows is on twitter. So you can honestly just speak to her and almost right away she’ll answer. @JodiMeadows