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acreatureofbooksandtea's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Torture
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Minor: Confinement and Homophobia
sreberko's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
5.0
Soul Eater is a dystopian, quasi-military story situated in a world where monsters exist and murder people. And people capture them, torture and... try to make them into their weapons, I'd say? But for now, these are only their dreams and plans - we have to focus on different things. Smaller...
Smaller - as the titular 'Soul Eater' - the mass murderer, part of Hord. Who is he? How does he look? What are his powers? And most importantly: how do his genitals look?
But let's back up a little.
I'm not a big fan of dystopian books. They usually end up being too dark, gore, full of despair. It's not my cup of tea; I looked at the 'Soul Eater' only because of pure curiosity. After reading the blurb I knew that there is a 50/50 chance that this book will be good or will be horrible. How could I resist that kind of temptation?
Let's make it clear: it was GOOD.
It was similar to reading fanfic - well written, not too short but also not too long. It made me think of Star Wars (sand everywhere, not so many people, different species, and war&military), but I have to say that it wasn't anything wrong with it. I'm not an SW fan and usually, I end up irritated by their characters and tropes - but not this time.
The author wrote characters beautifully. We didn't get the POV of THE monster, but we still understood his motivation, we know how he is different than any human (visually and characteristically), we can easily see why he starts liking Danny. This soldier isn't just the twink-y nice guy who ends up in the wrong place: he has character, he is brave (even when he doesn't use his brain, only instincts) and he genuinely seems like the last good thing on earth.
The romance is a slow burn, more than understandable because of the situation. The is nothing of the usual soulmates bullshit, which I've wound refreshing. Wyn and Danny aren't great at communicating things to each other and sometimes it causes drama - but it's that kind of drama that puts the reader on the nice verge of pain and giddiness. Exactly as in fanfics!
The ideas behind different monsters' looks were OK. They weren't too gore-y, but still acceptable different and/or disgustingly creepy. Edin was a sympathetic third wheel, not too deep, but also not too irritating. I hope that in book 2 we will get something more than the usual trope of weird-and-funny-guy-who-seems-scary. Not because I'm not a fan or because I doubt it will be entertaining - but because I'm sure that this author can give us much more. :3
(TBH, I hope that book 3 will be about the Very Scary Dude with Wings because that's one of my favorite tropes. But I'm digressing.)
The mystery - well, two mysteries - were written nicely. There was a good balance between knowing better the characters, understanding the mission of the Hord, and seeing the cruelty of military guys. There wasn't any big surprise or big reveal, but it was one of the pros. It made reading the book a pleasant journey, where you sometimes feel scared or angry, but know that everything will be all right.
I won't go into details, but I liked the idea that the monsters were different from humans - and Wyn's body was unmistakably different (YES, DOWN THERE TOO). Usually, I'm not into that kind of stuff, but the author did write it sensually, nicely balancing between diverse and sexy.
Overall: it was a good book and an amazingly well debut. Highly recommend checking it, even if you normally don't look at that type of book.
Smaller - as the titular 'Soul Eater' - the mass murderer, part of Hord. Who is he? How does he look? What are his powers? And most importantly: how do his genitals look?
But let's back up a little.
I'm not a big fan of dystopian books. They usually end up being too dark, gore, full of despair. It's not my cup of tea; I looked at the 'Soul Eater' only because of pure curiosity. After reading the blurb I knew that there is a 50/50 chance that this book will be good or will be horrible. How could I resist that kind of temptation?
Let's make it clear: it was GOOD.
It was similar to reading fanfic - well written, not too short but also not too long. It made me think of Star Wars (sand everywhere, not so many people, different species, and war&military), but I have to say that it wasn't anything wrong with it. I'm not an SW fan and usually, I end up irritated by their characters and tropes - but not this time.
The author wrote characters beautifully. We didn't get the POV of THE monster, but we still understood his motivation, we know how he is different than any human (visually and characteristically), we can easily see why he starts liking Danny. This soldier isn't just the twink-y nice guy who ends up in the wrong place: he has character, he is brave (even when he doesn't use his brain, only instincts) and he genuinely seems like the last good thing on earth.
The romance is a slow burn, more than understandable because of the situation. The is nothing of the usual soulmates bullshit, which I've wound refreshing. Wyn and Danny aren't great at communicating things to each other and sometimes it causes drama - but it's that kind of drama that puts the reader on the nice verge of pain and giddiness. Exactly as in fanfics!
The ideas behind different monsters' looks were OK. They weren't too gore-y, but still acceptable different and/or disgustingly creepy. Edin was a sympathetic third wheel, not too deep, but also not too irritating. I hope that in book 2 we will get something more than the usual trope of weird-and-funny-guy-who-seems-scary. Not because I'm not a fan or because I doubt it will be entertaining - but because I'm sure that this author can give us much more. :3
(TBH, I hope that book 3 will be about the Very Scary Dude with Wings because that's one of my favorite tropes. But I'm digressing.)
The mystery - well, two mysteries - were written nicely. There was a good balance between knowing better the characters, understanding the mission of the Hord, and seeing the cruelty of military guys. There wasn't any big surprise or big reveal, but it was one of the pros. It made reading the book a pleasant journey, where you sometimes feel scared or angry, but know that everything will be all right.
I won't go into details, but I liked the idea that the monsters were different from humans - and Wyn's body was unmistakably different (YES, DOWN THERE TOO). Usually, I'm not into that kind of stuff, but the author did write it sensually, nicely balancing between diverse and sexy.
Overall: it was a good book and an amazingly well debut. Highly recommend checking it, even if you normally don't look at that type of book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Torture
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