Review Detail

In My Soul to Keep, Kaylee, Nash and Tod get wrapped up in yet another mystery, once again not soliciting any help from the grownups. Every time, they all talk about it and they’re like “but our parents would get mad at us” and decide it will be better from everyone if the untrained teenagers handle everything. You guys are silly. Just like most relationship problems could be solved with communication, the Soul Screamers plot lines could have been much more easily resolved with some parental involvement. Oh wait, this is YA. I should be happy there are any supportive parents to be ignored, riht?

The mystery du jour concerns a drug trade for hellion’s breath, which, in case you don’t know from the second book, does terrible things to humans. Huffing demon’s breath results in a high, but is immediately addictive and leads to one of two futures: insanity or death. The message here is that drugs fuck up interpersonal relationships and have no good intermediate or long term affects. Common sense says not to go there. The message is not heavy-handed, though, which is extra good.

Mostly what I got out of this installment from an overarching plot perspective is the destruction of the Nash/Kaylee ship. Now, don’t start yelling spoilers, because this isn’t a canon thing. This is a Christina no longer remotely approving thing, regardless of where the series goes with it from here, at least this is what I say now. A talented author can be quite convincing, so I guess you’ll see how accurate I was as these reviews progress.

The world building continues to be really cool, complex, and filled with mythological awesomeness. I still maintain the potential here. However, Soul Screamers remains a largely fluffy series with occasional dark elements, when I would like to see those two things reversed.

Though this is my least favorite so far, I think, I’m still excited about continuing onwards, as the ratings get really good in the next few books. Will Vincent start doing sadistic things to her characters? One can only hope.