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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creepy and dangerous, September 13, 2009
This review is from: SoulStice (The Devouring, Book 2) (Hardcover)
In the six months since Reggie, with the help of her best friend Aaron, rid Reggie's brother Henry of the Vour that possessed him, the Vours have been relatively quiet. But now the summer solstice is approaching, and the Vours begin to reign terror on them once more. Then, Reggie is visited by the most unexpected person, who helps reveal just how deeply infiltrated the Vours are in Reggie's life and helps her realize that her strange powers have put her in far more danger than she really knows.
Like its prequel, Soulstice carries a thick, palpable air of danger and suspense that is unsettling and engrossing. In this sequel, readers learn much more about Vours and how they operate, answering some unaddressed questions left in The Devouring, and at the same time further scaring readers as Reggie discovers that one person after another in her life is somehow involved with the Vours. Reggie also explores fearscapes a bit more, which are imaginative, creepy, and sometimes a little gory, but also explore the idea of fear and its causes, effects, and manifestations. Though Soulstice doesn't have the downright, creepy feeling that the first book did, the characters are further developed and the stakes are higher, making it easy to get attached to them and be concerned for their well being. The unexpected, jarring ending will leave you exclaiming with injustice and fear for Reggie and her friends, and hoping for a third book very, very soon.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Opening the Soulstice to Vours, November 5, 2009
This review is from: SoulStice (The Devouring, Book 2) (Hardcover)
Vour - an essence that brings your own fears to the surface by creating illusions, sounds, anything to scare you to the brink. When this happens, they enter your brain and the real you, the emotional you, is hidden in a place called a fearscape. You're destined to stay in your horrific dreams while the Vour lives through your body. Emotionally awful for you and terrifying for others too because they adapt to human existence and no one knows they are living among us (and, of course, a major personality change occurs - and not for the good most times).
When Reggie - number one good gal - and Aaron (her faithful sidekick) decipher a journal's cryptic messages, Reggie determines how to turn the tables and defeat the Vours in her personal dilema. However, in doing this, Reggie opens her brain and body to their influence. This particular essence, however, was not controlling Reggie as they do other humans - her control over "her fear" enabled her to enter their territory (fearscapes) while they were still in control of their hosts.
Going in and locating the lost souls of those that have been invaded brings her ability to the attention of the Vours. Their one rule - the Winter Soulstice was the only night the fear spinning vours could take over their human hosts. When Reggie broke rules by entering their "domain" and to find the hidden soul of the host, she opened up all kinds of possibilities. The Vours want to understand this in order to break their single rule and start entering humans during the opposite time of year - the Soulstice. Their take-over of humanity would be much easier if they were not limited to one night pr year!
This is a good tale, a scary tale and in my opinion, much better than the 1st, The DeVouring. Reggie teams up with a previous character and begins keeping secrets from her sidekick Aaron. The addition of this character is a fantastic twist and was needed to ignite that spark of interest for me. The story deepens and Reggie insists she cannot let human souls reside in fearscapes to shrivel and die. She will not let the Vours win. Everytime she enters a fearscape, it's like going into a haunted house full of rooms. She loved horror of all kinds at one time - now she "vacations" there, living through and deciphering the fearful hell of the hosts. The problem, however, is when in the fearscapes she can be injured, killed or stuck there forever, leaving her physical body to die.
The Soulstice gets a little confusing during this particular venture in finding the lost soul (approx. 3rd quarter area of book). The ending - well the author throws in one quick blurb that opens up a whole can of worms for the next book. The DeVouring series deepens in this second book and I know I will continue to read the series as they are published....the increased depth of the second installment leads me to believe there is much to come from Simon Holt's mind.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Okay Read, January 17, 2010
This review is from: SoulStice (The Devouring, Book 2) (Hardcover)
While The Devouring was only slightly scary, in Soulstice Simon Holt ups his game in a big way by making it a scarier and more thrilling read.
The one thing that really won me over with this was the action packed plot. Since, there was always some new twist and turn to come into action and more was told and explained about the Vours. This all made Soulstice go by much faster then it's prequel.
Unfortunately, the characters still weren't all the way there for me. This could partly be because I don't particularly like third person books since it always seems like you can't fully connect with the character and that's what happened in this. Sure, you understand Reggie's, along with Aaron's and Eben's, fears and struggles to overcome the Vours, but none of these characters truly jumped of the page and came to life. The same kind of thing applied to the writing, too. I do have to say, though, that while these two things weren't the best they could be, they defiantly improved from The Devouring.
Overall, Soulstice is a chilling and scary read that I suggest for a rainy night when there's nothing else to read or do. Lastly, while I didn't fully enjoy Soulstice, I still will be reading the third in the series when it comes out. Mostly because I want to know what happens next.
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