Reviews with content warning for Torture - Sixteen souls

A delightfully spooky, humorous and marvellously plot twisty romp that hooked with the promise of ghost-filled antics, that I’m happy to report did NOT disappoint!

I’ve yet to visit York (the setting for Sixteen Souls) myself but Rosie Talbot’s beautifully atmospheric world-building and wonderfully descriptive prose really brought the city and all of its rich, uniquely haunted history to life.

I also loved the dialogue, and the use of British colloquialisms, which made all of the characters’ interactions feel waay more realistic —it was almost as if Talbot had eavesdropped on actual ghostly conversations, making for an incredibly immersive and entertaining reading experience.

Our loveably endearing cast of characters helped with that too. Aside from the obvious villains and a few of the Mouldy Oldies (old spirits who essentially govern the city’s ghost residents) , I pretty much loved them all. Particularly Charlie (our reluctant, ghost seeing MC) and his spectral, ride or die besties Ollie and Heather— as well as the highly amusing George Villiers, who won me over with his rather amusing antics. I also liked fellow seer Sam whose adorably sweet romance with Charlie gave me supernatural Heartstopper vibes that I’m excited to see more of.

If you’re looking for something spooky to read this autumn, but also love heartwarming found family vibes, LGBTQIA and disability rep —then I thoroughly recommend checking this out. Just make sure to check the TWs beforehand.

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sammymilfort's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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anton13's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Wow. Just wow. It’s not quite my usual read but nonetheless I loved reading it. It’s like Lockwood and co. meets Heartstopper. I love how different identities and people are represented. It was quite the roller coaster and I saw none of it coming. I thought I had it all figured out but boy let me tell you I didn’t. I really recommend it. So much love to this book and to Rosie for writing it

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purrson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I received a copy of this with my RainbowCrate subscription and had no idea what to expect, but enjoyed it so much, I’m hoping for a sequel.

Teen melancholy comes in strong at the forefront of this YA story, with a main character who’s trying to hang on to normalcy despite ghostly drama only he can see, and (in very relatable/typical adolescent fashion) is sometimes so-self conscious, he doesn’t notice what’s right in front of him. But the pity party doesn’t go on too long, and it’s hard not to love the characters we meet (our MC’s new and old friends) as this mystery ramps into adventure.

Throughout this book a true love of the location—its setting’s present and past—really shines through, and brings the living and long dead characters and their history (or the times they represent) to life. It’s delightfully queer and inclusive (the main character has a visible disability), with some romance to boot. The villains are sinister enough to make the stakes properly high, and these teens deal with enough real life drama that the story stays grounded where it needs to be. It’s truly heartfelt, endearing, and delightfully spooky that I absolutely recommend it for a fun, good read.

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bleedinxheartx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I really wanted to love this book. The writing was just not great. The plot and idea were good but the writing was not executed well enough to pull it off. The characters were kinda interesting, especially the ghosts.

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micareads123's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Sixteen Souls is a fun, high-stakes book about a couple of boys who have come back from the dead and are banding together to solve the mystery of why some of the ghosts of York have gone missing.

I have seen a lot of reviewers say this book is “like Heartstopper, but with ghosts,” but I very much disagree. The only parallels I can draw between the two are the queer relationship and age range of the MCs, and some parallels could perhaps be drawn between the personalities of MCs of both stories, but the plot couldn’t be more different.

This book was a lot darker, tenser, intense and violent than I expected; that said, I did not check the CWs at the beginning of the book. That was okay for me, but I would urge other readers to check the CWs and TWs before beginning.

I did, however, think the plot was very original, and I appreciated seeing disability rep via the MC, Charlie, who had lost the lower parts of both his legs to Meningitis. He talks about his experience with using his prostheses and wheel chair, which was new for me. I was also happy to see trans rep via the secondary MC, Sam.

I enjoyed learning new words and colloquialisms from the York, England, vernacular. I love language and am always eager to learn more about the language spoken in a region other than my own.

Overall, while this book was not what I expected, I did enjoy it. I loved seeing the character development and cared about all of the characters involved, including the ghosts, who were utterly quirky and charming.

I am also interested in seeing — and will very likely seek out — whatever Talbot comes up with next, and I do suspect a sequel to this book will be in her future 😉.

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kiwii091's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely amazing book - definitely one of my favourite reads! Takes a little while to really get going, but the characters and plot were beautifully well written which made the wait worth it. The map at the beginning of the book also really helped aid with getting a feel for the setting/ where characters were as they constantly moved about and was nice addition overall. The mixture of

magic and science

was very well done as well, and a very interesting concept that bindes the two together during the story.

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mxbluet18's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Trigger warnings for Sixteen Souls include: death, PTSD (depictions of past events/flashbacks); torture (remembered); suicide (hanging); child abuse (remembered); blood and blood magic (implied); body horror/occult horror; kidnapping; decomposition of a corpse; violence and murder; parental death (on page); anxiety and panic attacks; use of a firearm; transphobia and homophobia (off page)
☆
☆
First impressions, amazing. It has chapter titles and a map. Both good features for books to have. As well as the very English colloquialisms and northern words and phrases.
~
This is a really well written book, with some amazing representation, and lovely characters. It was interesting reading a book that so heavily featured spirits and magic (the two things aren't always included together).
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I found a couple of the friendships surprising and unlikely but they really worked. And I was mostly unsurprised to find a healthy dose of pining (as with many queer YA stories).
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I also really liked that the trans and gay representation was really subtle. In the sense that the fact that there was a trans and gay characters wasn't front and centre, and wasn't a particularly large part of the overarching plotline.
~
The guilt aspect, and the reason both Sam and Charlie are seers took me by surprise, but it also makes a weird sort of sense. I thoroughly loved this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

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