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A review by lilacashes
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
5.0
Damn. Did you ever read a book at 2am, and could not put it away - not because it is so good (which it is!), but because you did not want to go to sleep with these images?
I hardly ever read any horror, so maybe I am not the person to judge this, but My Soul To Keep seems like an exceptional book of this genre. Or maybe it is not horror at all - but I found it to be creepy. Very creepy. And while there is some blood and violence involved, the horror was mostly psychologically. You know those scenes in movies, when you're like "Don't go alone into the dark woods?" and the protagonist goes alone into the dark woods and something terrible happens? Such a tired trope, huh? Well, Tananarive Due does this trope, again and again actually, and she does it perfectly. It's been a long time since I've been kept on edge like this by a book.
The other thing that is particularly great about this book is the precision with which the characters are developed. Every move, every motive are entirely natural and credible, and the way the abusiveness of the central relationship reveals itself very slowly is chilling.
I will definitely read the rest of the African Immortals series and I am looking forward to it, but this was a demanding read and I am going to take my time before I start the next book. I thoroughly recommend this one though!
I hardly ever read any horror, so maybe I am not the person to judge this, but My Soul To Keep seems like an exceptional book of this genre. Or maybe it is not horror at all - but I found it to be creepy. Very creepy. And while there is some blood and violence involved, the horror was mostly psychologically. You know those scenes in movies, when you're like "Don't go alone into the dark woods?" and the protagonist goes alone into the dark woods and something terrible happens? Such a tired trope, huh? Well, Tananarive Due does this trope, again and again actually, and she does it perfectly. It's been a long time since I've been kept on edge like this by a book.
The other thing that is particularly great about this book is the precision with which the characters are developed. Every move, every motive are entirely natural and credible, and the way the abusiveness of the central relationship reveals itself very slowly is chilling.
I will definitely read the rest of the African Immortals series and I am looking forward to it, but this was a demanding read and I am going to take my time before I start the next book. I thoroughly recommend this one though!