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A review by nikereadsbooks
Soul Eater by Lily Mayne
adventurous
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
This book was honestly a pleasant surprise. I went into it without reading the synopsis and just with the knowledge that this series is very popular among the monsterfucker crowd, and I have to say I am glad I just jumped in.
First of all, what made this book really stand out for me, was the setting. I feel like the semi-apocalyptic setting definitely gave the story something special in the way the worldbuilding was structured. There was a structure to the US that wasn't overly complicated: poor cities on the coast, wastes in the middle, corrupt military. I also liked how Danny's view of the world shifted during the story. As he was growing up and also in the military, he thought of the wastes as these empty places without any population, and that was also something the military used to keep the population concentrated in the cities where food and water were scarce and life hard. As Danny went with Wyn, this point of view shifted to the truth, which was a great part of Danny's character development. I honestly loved how utterly corrupt the military was. Like they were evil and that's something I always like to see in books that take (especially the US) military as a background to their stories.
Danny's character was in some moments a bit of miss for me personally, but I also aknowledge how that didn't really was a problem in the whole picture. He was young, after all, and a bit of irrationality seemed actually fitting in many situations. As the story progressed, Danny also went through a change and at the end of the book, I felt like he really grew in confidence and personality. So I can overlook the few moments where I had the urge to roll my eyes at his actions. His relationship with Wyn was really cute and I feel like they fit together nicely, and the way they clashed in the last chapters really highlighted the realities of relationship with such high stakes. This is where I really liked Danny's confidence and the way he stood up for himself.
What was maybe a bit of a downgrade was the fact that Wyn wasn't monstrous enough for me. And this is completely a thing that I felt as the book progressed, but I wanted him to be more menacing, like on the start. I wanted him to have more moments where he could scare the shit out of people properly, but I get that Danny got used to seeing Wyn and as it was from his POV, it made sense that it wouldn't really show in the text. But just like... series called Monstours, I wanted more incomprehensible and scary stuff.
But overall, I have to say that this book was really good and I really look forward to reading the next ones in the series.
First of all, what made this book really stand out for me, was the setting. I feel like the semi-apocalyptic setting definitely gave the story something special in the way the worldbuilding was structured. There was a structure to the US that wasn't overly complicated: poor cities on the coast, wastes in the middle, corrupt military. I also liked how Danny's view of the world shifted during the story. As he was growing up and also in the military, he thought of the wastes as these empty places without any population, and that was also something the military used to keep the population concentrated in the cities where food and water were scarce and life hard. As Danny went with Wyn, this point of view shifted to the truth, which was a great part of Danny's character development. I honestly loved how utterly corrupt the military was. Like they were evil and that's something I always like to see in books that take (especially the US) military as a background to their stories.
Danny's character was in some moments a bit of miss for me personally, but I also aknowledge how that didn't really was a problem in the whole picture. He was young, after all, and a bit of irrationality seemed actually fitting in many situations. As the story progressed, Danny also went through a change and at the end of the book, I felt like he really grew in confidence and personality. So I can overlook the few moments where I had the urge to roll my eyes at his actions. His relationship with Wyn was really cute and I feel like they fit together nicely, and the way they clashed in the last chapters really highlighted the realities of relationship with such high stakes. This is where I really liked Danny's confidence and the way he stood up for himself.
What was maybe a bit of a downgrade was the fact that Wyn wasn't monstrous enough for me. And this is completely a thing that I felt as the book progressed, but I wanted him to be more menacing, like on the start. I wanted him to have more moments where he could scare the shit out of people properly, but I get that Danny got used to seeing Wyn and as it was from his POV, it made sense that it wouldn't really show in the text. But just like... series called Monstours, I wanted more incomprehensible and scary stuff.
But overall, I have to say that this book was really good and I really look forward to reading the next ones in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail