The Weight of Souls

THE WEIGHT OF SOULS is an eerie story of a twisted game gone horribly wrong. Taylor Oh suffers from an ancient curse that’s both dangerous and rewarding. Taylor is an incredibly strong character. She’s faced with bullying at school, fallouts with her friends, the loss of her mum, a strained relationship with her dad, and the constant appearance of ghosts wanting her help. I have a lot of sympathy for Taylor, but I admire her strength.

The popular group that torments Taylor are part of a club that has its benefits and offers its members a great future. The V club is a unique and sinister touch - an extreme game of truth or dare, which causes the death of one of Taylor’s classmates, Justin. As a ghost, Justin touches Taylor and transfers a mark that must be passed on to his killer, or the darkness will come for her instead. But Justin is unclear of what happened on the night of his death and Taylor must join him in getting to the bottom of the mystery.

It’s an exciting race against time to find out who is responsible for Justin’s murder as the darkness closes in on them. THE WEIGHT OF SOULS is a thrilling read with great mystery and a sweet romance.

I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first ARC from a publisher since I been blogging for the last three months. I was extremely excited to read it and had to keep my hands from crawling to it each time I finished a book and was selecting another to read. I wanted to wait until it was closer to the release date so the book would be fresh in my mind for my review. When I read the synopsis, I was flabbergasted that nothing like this has been written (that I can find) yet. It is such a unique perspective on a girl who can see ghosts. Avenging murder victims due to an Egyptian curse placed on your family ages ago? Uh, yes, please!

This book opens on an Asian girl named Taylor who is the butt of every joke, the focus of every torment, and the dirt beneath every shoe. She is not popular, to say the least. She used to be normal and happy, until her 10th birthday changed all that. She started seeing ghosts and being hounded by them to be avenged. The stalk her and toy with her until her life is a twisted mass of paranoia that alienates her from the meager amount of friends she has.

The king of the tormentors is one, Justin Hargreaves. He hates her for some unknown reason and has made it his mission in life to make her miserable. He succeeds perfectly, even right up until he marks her and causes her to go on a journey to find who murdered him and feed them to the Darkness before the Darkness eats her first. Along the way Taylor and Justin start to see each other in a new light. Dare I say, they could actually be... friends?!

This book was beautifully written. The authors that work with Strange Chemistry Publishing all seem to be very elequante in their writing. They don't use a lot of slang, they don't use too much or too little imagery, and they have a way of transporting their readers directly into the main character's position so we feel what the character feels. I was aching for Taylor. I couldn't understand why everyone wished to tear her down and make her feel less than nothing. Sure, she was weird. But, who could blame her? If I was threatened with death on a constant basis AND saw dead people? I would probably be a bit odd too.

The Weight of Souls is an alternative fantasy read that actually has a non-Caucasian main character as many other books seem to be feature. It features the strength of it's female protagonist in the face of insurmountable obstacles and her determination to do what she has to do to stay alive even when most in her situation would have given up. The Weight of Souls spotlights as a must read for fantasy buffs who enjoy female characters who are a bit crazy, a little sassy, and extremely lovable.

Review Posted on: http://www.ladybugliterature.blogspot.com

I haven't read a book surrounding ghosts in a very long time. (I think the last one I read was Hereafter and I didn't even finish that series smh)The reason behind that... I wasn't just that interested in ghosts. *shrugs* But this one got me. And it was all because of the mythology aspect.
This book features Egyptian mythology. I haven't read anything else with Egyptian mythology so I was super excited to read this. I knew it would be different from anything I've ever read before. And I was right. The story surrounds the myth of Anubis, the Greek name for mummification and afterlife in Egyptian religion.Because of this cool connection, the plot was very interesting. Although it did start to drag in some places, once the action picked back up I was hooked.
The coolest part about this book was actually the most dangerous part. The V-Club. They did some totally off the wall things, but it was such a cool concept to have it span over generations. Had things not gotten as out of hand as they did, I probably would have enjoyed hearing more about what they did.
As far as the characters, I loved the main characters but the secondary ones were a bit much for me. Like they were extremely clingy. Doing everything to try and get closer with Taylor. It all just seemed extra for me. As for Taylor, I liked her because throughout the whole story she created a reaction out of me. There were so many things I wanted to beat her for, but in the end when they worked I liked her again lol No doubt I thought she was crazy, but I still liked her.
I also loved the romance. It wasn't the biggest thing in the book, but it was still evident and it even ended up being such a big part in the end. This helped me like it even more. I liked that it wasn't there to begin with at all, but as they grew, so did what they had between them. It was nice to not have that inst-love.
This book surprised me in so many ways. I wasn't expecting the mythology part to be included, but I counted it as just an added bonus. I knew once I saw the cover and read the synopsis that this was something I would love, and Pearce did not disappoint.