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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
It kept me engaged in the story and the characters. Great story for paranormal readers.
I really enjoyed the story line and the twist and turn that the book put you on. With the spiritual journey and allegories this book really made you think about your faith.
Reading this book, was a bit of a roller coaster for me. I loved it at times and was also a bit lost and bored at times. But in the end it turned out it was quite good. I'm a bit inpatient when I'm really into story, so the pace was slow at certain parts of the book, but it was necessary, I suppose. The bad stuff is also good in a way- the was time to develop characters and to build relationships, to discover the world.
I really like the character of Jacob. He is strong, stubborn and has a bit of a attitude- love that. I also the mythology. It is so well thought out and written, it feels real. It was certainly different take on angels. :) Also, I love that the book was diverse, and most importantly. diversity was done well. The end left me with a lot of unanswered questions, wanting the next book right away.
All in all, good book.
Review also on: http://diaryofawannabewriter.blogspot.si/2017/03/the-soulkeepers-by-g-p-ching.html
I really like the character of Jacob. He is strong, stubborn and has a bit of a attitude- love that. I also the mythology. It is so well thought out and written, it feels real. It was certainly different take on angels. :) Also, I love that the book was diverse, and most importantly. diversity was done well. The end left me with a lot of unanswered questions, wanting the next book right away.
All in all, good book.
Review also on: http://diaryofawannabewriter.blogspot.si/2017/03/the-soulkeepers-by-g-p-ching.html
This was an interesting read and definitely out of my normal genre zone (as in, I usually don't dive into a pile of YA).
Jacob Lau is an intelligent teenage boy from Hawaii with a chip on his shoulder for understandable reasons. His father died in the war and his mother has gone missing with few real answers or leads from the police. He was present at his mother's disappearance but can only remember fantastic details that the doctors dismiss as faulty traumatized memory and his estranged and unknown uncle and family take him under their wings in a dreary beyond dreary tiny North Eastern town.
Experienced readers will find it easy to predict the events in this book but it was still a worthwhile read. Jacob does develop throughout the book as things get stranger and stranger. His relationship with his own relatives and the town provide no warmth and the feeling I had during this entire book was of his intense isolation.
-I love the angels and the back story of the supernaturals (which isn't heavy duty- which may not satisfy some people wanting something far more in depth and descriptive and heavy with history and lore).
-Although I liked and appreciated that Jacob's uncle seemed genuine in his affection for his nephew I almost felt like his "tone" as a character didn't quite ring authentic to me. I am happy that Jacob has someone in his corner however.
-I absolutely love Dr. Silva.
-There is romance in this book but lets just say the main romance is very YA and extremely appropriate for Jacob's age lol and the other love in this story is what really made me appreciate the book truthfully.
This is a simple, easy read. In fact this could be a decent teenage horror film.
Jacob Lau is an intelligent teenage boy from Hawaii with a chip on his shoulder for understandable reasons. His father died in the war and his mother has gone missing with few real answers or leads from the police. He was present at his mother's disappearance but can only remember fantastic details that the doctors dismiss as faulty traumatized memory and his estranged and unknown uncle and family take him under their wings in a dreary beyond dreary tiny North Eastern town.
Experienced readers will find it easy to predict the events in this book but it was still a worthwhile read. Jacob does develop throughout the book as things get stranger and stranger. His relationship with his own relatives and the town provide no warmth and the feeling I had during this entire book was of his intense isolation.
-I love the angels and the back story of the supernaturals (which isn't heavy duty- which may not satisfy some people wanting something far more in depth and descriptive and heavy with history and lore).
-Although I liked and appreciated that Jacob's uncle seemed genuine in his affection for his nephew I almost felt like his "tone" as a character didn't quite ring authentic to me. I am happy that Jacob has someone in his corner however.
-I absolutely love Dr. Silva.
-There is romance in this book but lets just say the main romance is very YA and extremely appropriate for Jacob's age lol and the other love in this story is what really made me appreciate the book truthfully.
This is a simple, easy read. In fact this could be a decent teenage horror film.
slow-paced
Jacob is living a brand new life. He loses his mom and has to go live with family he's never met before. Going from Hawaii to Illinois isn't a pleasant adjustment for the 15 year old. He has no other family except his uncle John so that is where he is forced to go. He is outcast from the rest of his peers because of his heritage, made to feel like a freak because his family has deep roots in the town and Jacob doesn't fit the picturesque idea of what Paris, Illinois wishes him to be. However, he finds a friend in the beautiful Milani, who shows him there is possibly a reason to hang around town for just a bit longer.
In the middle of all of these adjustments, Jacob meets his neighbor Dr Silva. There's something unnerving about her, but he is not able to pinpoint the exact cause for his worry. When he has a moment of anger, he ends up breaking an expensive window in her house and is forced to work off what he owes her. Dr Silva puts Jacob to work in her garden, tending to the rare plants she owns and fertilizing them as well. He isn't sure what is really going on with this woman, and it's hard when there are other crazy things happening to him in the mean time. Jacob is dealing with a lot; he has to try and figure out what's going on before he loses his mind over things he isn't able to rationally explain.
This is not a book I would have picked up on my own accord. I only read it to be part of an online book group discussion for one of my favorite online bloggers. I didn't hate this book because the Soulkeeper idea is an interesting concept and I wanted to know more. I was hoping it was going to more of a fantasy book filled with fallen angels and magic... you know, I love fallen angels because of Becca Fitzpatrick. This book had angels and some magic, but the religious element didn't sit right with me. I'm not a religious person so I felt like the pieces of God and faith were just added in when I wanted to have more fantasy and magical elements. The writer is talented, but I couldn't fully get into this book because of the religion bits. The book definitely keeps you wondering what is going to happen with suspense, making it a page turner. Perhaps it's meant to be more thought provoking, but I was left disappointed.
In the middle of all of these adjustments, Jacob meets his neighbor Dr Silva. There's something unnerving about her, but he is not able to pinpoint the exact cause for his worry. When he has a moment of anger, he ends up breaking an expensive window in her house and is forced to work off what he owes her. Dr Silva puts Jacob to work in her garden, tending to the rare plants she owns and fertilizing them as well. He isn't sure what is really going on with this woman, and it's hard when there are other crazy things happening to him in the mean time. Jacob is dealing with a lot; he has to try and figure out what's going on before he loses his mind over things he isn't able to rationally explain.
This is not a book I would have picked up on my own accord. I only read it to be part of an online book group discussion for one of my favorite online bloggers. I didn't hate this book because the Soulkeeper idea is an interesting concept and I wanted to know more. I was hoping it was going to more of a fantasy book filled with fallen angels and magic... you know, I love fallen angels because of Becca Fitzpatrick. This book had angels and some magic, but the religious element didn't sit right with me. I'm not a religious person so I felt like the pieces of God and faith were just added in when I wanted to have more fantasy and magical elements. The writer is talented, but I couldn't fully get into this book because of the religion bits. The book definitely keeps you wondering what is going to happen with suspense, making it a page turner. Perhaps it's meant to be more thought provoking, but I was left disappointed.
This book was well-written, nicely paced, and the characters were semi-believable. So why did I rate this the way I did? It just wasn't my kind of story. It had entertainment value-most definitely, but in the pantheon of books I've read I just wasn't wild about it. The best way to describe it was a mash up of your coming-of-age superhero mixed with twilight, meets biblical story line- oh and bigotry. I probably won't read the rest of the series.
Final Thoughts:
I thought it was weird, but to each his/her own.
Final Thoughts:
I thought it was weird, but to each his/her own.
This book started out kind of slow. But after muscling through that first little bit, I really enjoyed it. It was mostly because it took so long to get to the actual mythology of the series and I was just bored and confused. But I like that all this is rooted in the Biblical stories. It's pretty neat and different from anything I've ever read. I'll definitely read the rest of the series.
After a terrifying car accident in which his mother disappears, presumed dead, Jacob goes to live with his white aunt and uncle in the midwest. It's a hard transition for him, made harder by his classmates' racism and his own burgeoning magic powers. I would have liked this a lot more without the infodumps about magic, not least because the magic has an unexpectedly Christian basis. And this contains two of my least favorite aspects of Christianity: some people are born evil, and keeping people ignorant and then being angry when they make poor decisions based on their lack of knowledge. It seems unfair and counterproductive to lay down strange rules, provide no explanation for them, and then act angry when these (seemingly silly and inconsequential) rules get broken.
Tried to read this a while back but did not make it all the way through. At first I had high hopes - a YA adult novel that deals with small-town bigotry? HELL YEAH. But then there seemed to be a weird focus on the atheist protagonist learning the error of his ways? ANYWAY it rubbed me the wrong way so if you're sensitive to that kind thing you probably won't like it.