Customer Reviews

SoulStice (The Devouring, Book 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read the first book in the series there will be spoilers.

The first thing I want to say about this is that it is probably my new favorite series! I loved both this and the first one. They were both the perfect mixes of scary, funny, and cute. I definitely never really thought that I would like the books when I started but I was so wrong.

Soulstice begins six months after the ending of The Devouring and I really got into it from the very first page. Reggie's visions from the Vours are getting worse but she doesn't know who the Vour is. She knows Quinn is gone but she also knows that there are more Vours in her small town and they continue to torment her, her brother, and her friend. And things seem to be getting more intense for all of them and Henry is finally getting his memories back. And Reggie gets an unexpected visit in the middle of the night that I really did not see coming. The book really took off from there.

The one thing that tore me up about this book was how sad I felt for Henry. He was only eight and he had no clue what had happened to him or why he wanted to hurt people that were mean to him. He thought he was the monster when it was just the Vour inside him. I felt so bad for him. He was too cute. =]

Oh and I will warn you that the end is a total cliffhanger. I never expected it and there were so many other things that I couldn't have predicted would happen in the book. It was just so great! But yeah if you don't like waiting you might want to hold off on reading this one until we know when the next book will be released.

Overall, I think you can tell what I think about this series. Check it out because it is purely awesome!

Tomball, Texas P.S. its next to Houston, Texas :)

UGH!!! this book did NOT turn out the way i thought it would! I got the first book from the libary at my school and loved it so much that i even bought it off my kindle but it wasn't the same thing with the second and third. Id just left me with nothing to wonder about and i didn't even want to read the third book. i only got to about %5 into the book and quit and deleted it. So even if you like the first book don't get the second because you'll waste your money just like i did.

It has been six months since the events that transpired in The Devouring took place. For the past six months Reggie Halloway has seen nor heard anything from the Vours.

Although they are survivors, Reggie, her brother Henry and her best friend Aaron, are all still affected by their ordeal from six months prior. Reggie has nightmares and cannot put aside her terrible memories. Henry not only has war wounds but he has become a quiet boy who continues to suffer from nightmares and violent episodes. Aaron seems to be the one least affected, but he is worried for his friend and continues to worry about the investigation taking place regarding the disappearance of town golden boy Quinn Waters - which we all know he is now swimming with the fishes after his Vour possession.

And then everything goes to hell in a hand basket - the Vours make their move against Aaron and Quinn Waters somehow survived his drowning in freezing water and is back looking to pair up with Reggie - since his Vour brethren have turned against him. As Reggie continues to learn more and more about the Vours - she begins to realize that there are more townfolk possessed then she anticipated. She does not know who to believe, who to trust - for the one least expected might just turn out to be a Vour.

Let me start by saying that I found The Devouring to be very scary - well I found that Soulstice upped the scariness stakes. The Devouring was more about developing the atmosphere, getting a feel for the Vours and what they stand for. In Soulstice, Mr. Holt focuses more on fear. The scenes are tense, terrifying and I could not help but be fascinated by them. I also found it to be more fast-paced, picking you up right from the start and not letting you take a breather until you were done with it (at least that is the way it was with me).

I really like Reggie - she is a smart, strong heroine - at times she even has this Buffy-esque type feel to her. The Vours and their madness and the twists and turns along the story will have you at the edge of your seat. Mr. Holt's writing is intense and graphic when it comes to bringing any child's (including my own) fear to light. The fearscape he creates (although shorter than in The Devouring) was even more creepy then the first. And can we talk about the nasty cliffhanger at the end - I was like Oh, hell naw!!! I can't believe it ended that abruptly... very evil, very, very evil Mr. Holt!

All in all, a deliciously creepy series. One that I think that will cater to not only teens looking for a scary book but one that will also seduce lovers of horror. This is definitely not one you want to read before bedtime as I guarantee you will have a hard time falling to sleep. I personally cannot wait to see what will happen next - I look forward to the next installment, Fearscape, scheduled to release Fall 2010. Yikes!

Six months have passed since Reggie entered her younger brother Henry's fearscape and expelled the Vour that had taken over his body. Six months since handsome, popular Quinn turned out to be a Vour and Reggie's best friend Aaron battled him to the death. Six months since Eben, the owner of the bookstore and Reggie's boss, turned out to be a lot more than just a kind old bookstore owner. In those six months, winter turned to spring, which turned to summer and school is letting up. Henry has been having more than a few problems at school and his memories about the Vours have begun to haunt him. Reggie's nightmares are terrifying, but not as much as the late night visitor that she never expected. The Vours are up to something and the summer solstice is their deadline. Their after Reggie and she's not quite sure what their endgame is. After Aaron is accused of murder and terrorized by a Vour, Reggie holds the weight of everything alone and she has no choice but to join forces with her nighttime visitor and risk her own life in the process. With the summer solstice rapidly approaching, Aaron, Reggie, and her unexpected ally must find a way to stop the Vours before their devious plans can be set in motion.

Simon Holt unleashes another bone-chilling tale with Soulstice. Reggie is once again haunted by the Vours, but this time she forms an alliance with one and the consequences could be dire. The alliance with this Vour is making Reggie feel empathy for him. She begins to not only work with the Vour, but begin to trust him. Reggie is the type of person who is passionate about the people and the experiences in her life. The Devouring showed exactly how much she can love someone and how far she would go to protect that person. Henry means everything to Reggie and the knowledge that the Vours may be able to unleash their horrors on the rest of the world scares Reggie more than she would like. Because of this fact, she feels obligated and almost responsible to be the one to do something.

Reggie's ventures into other individual's fearscapes hold much more gruesome horrors and terrifying creatures this time around. Holt paints a bloody, gory image throughout each layer of the fearscape and he does so with a resounding terror. It's impossible not to feel at least a little bit of the fear and isolation that Reggie must conquer, but the overwhelming feeling of despair really resonated with me. The Vours take these children and for years they are trapped in a fearscape with nothing but their most horrible nightmares brought to life. Reggie braves these things over and over again because she is the only one who can. Once Reggie discovers that there is a group of people called Tracers who track down Vours and destroy them, she won't stand for their destruction at the expense of the human they have taken over. Things are changing for Reggie and it's hard to discern if those changes are good or bad.

One thing is for sure, and that is Soulstice is a fantastic, if not gruesome, follow up to a creepy tale. Holt expands upon the mythology he created and develops a deeper, more involved world where the Vours have more purpose than to simply wreak havoc on poor human souls. There is tons of action this time around as well. Reggie is constantly on the move and Aaron is able to move outside of his role as just a geek and get his hands dirty. Reggie's relationship with Henry was essential to The Devouring, but it takes backseat this time around. Their love and devotion to one another is still evident, but Reggie's constant action doesn't allow the reader to linger on it. All of the action makes Soulstice feel like a less passionate and character-driven story, in comparison to The Devouring, but I'm still looking forward to the next installment. I have to say that the ending was predictable, but it still had the desired effect and I'm seriously aching to see where the story goes now.

Opening line (from prologue): I kept my eyes closed, smelling the buttered popcorn and cotton candy, hearing the ding-dings of the Midway games, feeling the warm sun on my skin. ~ pg. 1

Opening line (from chapter 1): Six months, Reggie Halloway thought Friday morning as the hot water from the shower poured down her chilled flesh. ~ pg. 5

Favorite line: What if rescuing a soul from the fearscape was just dooming it to a different kind of hell in the real world? And dooming other innocent victims to those psychotic crimes? ~ pg. 61

Soulstice is the nail biting, spine tingling sequel to The Devouring. Simon Holt dishes out another horror, nightmare filled novel, as Reggie must battle the Vours not for her brother this time, not even just for herself, but for everyone as she learns just how formidable and organized the Vours are. Where the first book is centered around the Winter Solstice, Soulstice is centered around the Summer Solstice, a day when the line between our world and the Vours is at its lowest, and the Vours are at their most powerful.

Soulstice delivers a whole new world of terror and Fearscapes. Simon Holt is a horror genuis and still had me on pins and needles, sending my mind whirling as new information about the Vours was revealed. Though I logically knew none of it was real, my heart clenched in fear throughout most of the novel. This stunning sequel is just as good as the first, if not better.

My gripe doesn't even qualify as a real gripe. The book ended with the biggest cliffhanger, and I'm dying for the third book slated to be released in fall 2010.

[...]

Having been sucked in by sheer originality and smoky creepiness of The Devouring, I find it hard to believe that Simon Holt could top himself in a second book. He does. I was happily astonished after reading Soulstice. My only complaint was that there wasn't *more of it*! Holt's writing is so good, I wish he would expand his page count.

Reggie and Aaron are buried deeper than ever in nightmares that have begun to contaminate every element of their lives - home, school, family, work - their peaceful existence is a thing of the past. It's one thing for them to suffer terrifying hallucinations (Reggie has a *doozey* at school in the opening), and another to suffer them while being dragged off by police for questioning, or strapped in and shipped to a psych ward by well-meaning family members. Such deliciously unsettling things happen to the characters in their real lives that the Vour's fearscape has to dial it up to keep pace - and it does! But chin up, the worse things get, the deeper Reggie and Aaron are able to dig to find hidden strengths.

The plot is expanding in fascinating directions, broadening the world of The Devouring books, complicating the plot, and fleshing out already great characters. In particular, Aaron gets to shine in this book, which is well overdue and comprises some of my favourite moments by far. I think fans will find themselves repulsed and morbidly fascinated by Vour Quinn -- the monster keeps stealing the good lines! The conflict between Vour Quinn and Aaron drips smoky Vour disdain, and Vour Quinn is actually frightfully insightful about Reggie. The simple statement that Reggie likely doesn't know what her worst fear is comes across as positively chilling. I can't wait to see where that little lump of coal leads us.

Holt really hits his stride in these books. I am so enthusiastic about the next in the series, and am hoping for a long run on these characters. This series is absorbing, original, and well done! I'm crossing my fingers Simon Holt can maintain the respect for the characters, and high quality for a long time to come.

More please!

To me, the basic formula for horror is to offer redemption or deliverance at great cost and then snatch it away. Simon Holt does that here. Soulstice continues with the story begun in Sorry Night. We are invited to again plunge into the fearscapes created by the Vours to imprison the essence of the people whose bodies they posses. This time we get two such trips into the twisted landscape of the mind, each an individual hell based on layer upon layer of fears that each person hides.

Of course this isn't all a trip into the psyche. there is a lot of real world danger that Reggie, Aaron and their family and friends must face. The Vours, as well as possessing people, prey upon the fears of those around them, driving them to violence and despair. The reason, all that fear is good eatin' to them. So Reggie and Aaron, with the aid of Quinn, their nemesis in book one, avoid the attempts to kill them and others in their community. All of this won't matter much if they can't derail the plot of the Vours to break into our world on the solstice, a day when magic grows more powerfully.

But little is what you expect when evil is calling the shots. Deception runs wild. "Good Guys" with utilitarian agendas seek the simplest solution - kill the bad guys. Reggie's belief that she can save the trapped souls brings her up against both sides of the war. Those closest to her are growing to mistrust her decisions and methods. So she must embrace her enemy and one time crush. Confusing? That is the wonderfully twisted milieu in which this story takes place. the surprises are sometimes truly surprising, sometimes a little telegraphed, but never shocking as n the sense of that not being set up somewhere along the line.

Ultimately, this is nice tale of incarnation as Reggie transcends the boundaries of reality and the psyche, bringing live and deliverance to souls and bondage. Nice job Simon.

And the twist at the end was brilliantly played. As much as the opening bit of the first book was some of the scariest stuff I've read in awhile, the epilogue hooked me. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm a little ticked that I have to wait a year to find out what happens to Aaron and Reggie.