Customer Reviews

Soulless

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It was supposed to be controlled. It was supposed to be a seance led by the nation's three top mediums, televised for the masses. It was supposed to be a way for the living to get some closure, to move on after speaking to their loved ones who had passed on. It wasn't supposed to raise the dead.

It did.

The corpses that rise from their graves are not compassionate, nor are gentle. They are violent, hungry, and soulless. They are intent on getting home, and will attack anyone that gets in their way. Meanwhile, those directly involved in the seance - the mediums and the two newsanchors - have sunk into a comatose state. Their hands are firmly grasped together, and nothing and no one can separate them.

Christopher Golden's return to young adult fiction ought to be celebrated. Earlier this year, Poison Ink seeped into the brains of readers. Now, the zombies in Soulless seek to feast on those brains, and those who dare to fight the undead may not live to speak of the tale.

I'll speak for them instead. After all, I've been talking about this book non-stop since I finished reading it.

I highly recommend Soulless to fans of horror movies and novels. It is far and away the best of the many zombie-themed books that came out in 2008. Soulless is so action-packed that I've taken to calling it a movie bound in a book. From the start of the ill-fated seance to its bitter end, the pacing never falters. The main characters - including the daughter of one of the mediums, a couple of college students, and a pop singer whose personal business is often splashed across the cover of tabloids - weave in and out of each other's journeys with ease and overlapping storylines. The book's action sequences and rise of average people and headstrong teens as leaders in the fight will appeal to fans of Heroes.

Of course, all good zombie stories have violence, decay, and destruction, and Soulless has all of that without ever being gory for gore's sake. It raised not only the dead, but many thought-provoking questions: Do we want to see our loved ones again after they pass away? If they return as zombies, unlike their living selves, would they be better left to rest in peace?

With its wide variety of characters, overlapping stories, and fast-paced plotting, Soulless will appeal to teens of both genders and throughout the teen age. Golden's third-person narrative permits the reader to get inside the minds of the various leading characters, who represent different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, even orientations - but all have a common goal, to bring this crisis to an end, and that is why their crossing-of-paths is inevitable and enjoyable. There's more to this book than meets the eye: it will hook readers with its eerie plotline and keep them turning pages due to the action and great writing, but all the while, it will really make them think. With its exploration of life and death, fear and family, love and loss, Soulless is a memorable book sure to inspire weighty conversations between readers. With its many twists and turns, Soulless will also keep you guessing. Trust me - You'll devour this book in one sitting. I know I did.

Phoenix Cormier was never really close to her father. She's trying to make up for lost time and try to get to know him better by spending the summer with him. However, her father is a medium and writes books about ghosts, which consumes his life. She goes with him to a TV appearance where he and two other mediums are going to perform the biggest seance in history and allow viewers and audience members to contact the dead. This endeavor goes awry and leaves the three mediums plus the two TV hosts in a trance and unable to be moved. Plus the dead from the entire east coast has risen, hungry and longing for their loved ones. Follow Phoenix, two rival college students, a teen pop princess, and a gang banger as they battle to survive and stop the zombie apocalypse.

This book was a big surprise to me. As a young adult horror novel, I expected to see tame zombies with a minimum of violence and gore, like many YA zombie books. I was completely wrong. This is as gory if not more so than many adult horror novels I have read. Christopher Golden pushes the envelope with extreme zombie violence and bloody deaths. These zombies are unlike anything I have seen before. They are rotting corpses, but since they are reanimated essentially by magic, they are not limited by their deteriorated bodies. They can sprint (while making sense, unlike the Romero type zombies). They also evolve mentally to be able to set traps and lure their loved ones with actual memories from the deceased person. These aspects make these zombies so much scarier than their garden variety counterparts.

The characters were all believable and different in their reactions to the crumbling civilization around them. Most of the main characters were teens, which made for an interesting read. Most books like this are adult and focus on adults. I have never really seen the point of view of a teen in this sort of situation. It's similar to other novels in that they have to do horrible things for the greater good, get used to seeing and killing the undead, and try to figure out what actions they can live with in this savage world. The change in the characters from before the zombie apocalypse to after was engaging and interesting to read. This book has all I hope for in any horror novel.

I really like this novel. The only problem I had with it was that the ending seemed a little too rushed. It could easily have been 50 pages longer without dragging. I hope I get to see more of this type of horror from the young adult genre.

I liked the premise of Soulless a lot. A mass seance on an early morning television show designed to reconnect the living with the spirits of their long lost loved ones for a few moments goes horribly wrong and awakens the dead. The dead are HUNGRY! For the FLESH! Of the LIVING! And a bunch of people with nothing in common wind up trying to survive the outbreak of flesh-eating corpses and ultimately end it, together.

This was my introduction to Christopher Golden and it was pretty great. All in all, I had a lot of fun reading Soulless. The book moves along at a really nice clip. Even the brief moments in which the characters pause to catch their breath as they outrun the dead move quickly. Whenever I put this book down, I wanted to pick it back up again.

And speaking of characters, there are a variety of them here. The novel has multiple POVs and Golden uses them to great effect. He doesn't look at the zombie apocalypse the same way twice; each character begins with firmly set personalities, differing ideas and beliefs and watching all of these things crumble as the pages go by is fantastic and fascinating. I particularly enjoyed experiencing the horror through the eyes of Tania, a Disney-type star dealing with a tabloid scandal, and Phoenix, whose formerly absent father is at the heart of the seance.

NOW. Let's talk zombies because that's what we're all here for. The zombies in Soulless have a bit of a twist that I found really neat: they're specifically targeting their loved ones. How fantastically creepy to think that if someone you love has died, they'll be seeking you out to eat you, as opposed to your every day, non-discriminating zombies.

But don't let all the fun fool you--Soulless doesn't shy away from the troubling moral conundrums that arise when the dead arise. There is a neat, ghostly thread throughout the book about the separation of spirit and soul; your soul is pure and moves on after death and your spirit is the desperate, saddest part of you that stays behind--your ghost. This is the foundation of Golden's dead and it offers much to contemplate. So not only is Soulless fast-paced and full of action, it's a thoughtful, well-rounded horror story as well.

Check it out!

Not your typical zombie story! I love the fact that this book doesn't start off with some idiot chemical spill, military program gone wrong, radioactive accident or whatever other idiot reason some have used in the past for zombie plots. Beginning with the televised interactive live seance, this book grips you, sucks you in, and ABSOLUTELY does not let you go until the very last page. There were points in this book where I laughed, winced, cried and, of course, cheered on the survivors! Believe me when I say, "no one is safe" in this story! Excellent read! This was my first book by this author, but certainly not my last. If you love a great horror story, this one will not disappoint.

Gold Star Award Winner!

I have a thing for zombies. Don't worry, it's not as horrible as it sounds. Okay, yes, it probably is kind of gruesome. But anyway, back to the task at hand, which is Christopher Golden's SOULLESS. I can basically sum up this review in four words: This. Book. Is. Awesome.

However, readers have come to expect more from our reviews, so I'll do my best to oblige.

The best thing about SOULLESS, besides it's amazing characters, great dialogue, and superb writing, is the actual premise. I can honestly say that I have NEVER run across this plot line in any other book that I've ever read. That point right there makes picking up a copy of the book imperative. So now you're wanting to know what the premise is, right? We've all read myriads of stories about séances. We've also read tons of books about zombies. But have you ever read a book about a mass séance that produces zombies? I didn't think so.

This is the dilemma that New York City finds itself in after three leading mediums, Professor Joe Cormier, Annelise Hirsch, and Eric Honen, get the brilliant idea to hold a mass séance on live television. I have to admit, it IS a brilliant idea. While mediums, on their own, can contact someone who has recently died, a group of mediums, "pooling" their power and resources, should be able to contact numerous dead, so that they can communicate with the loved ones they left behind. Appearing on the morning show Sunrise, hosted by Amy Tjan and Steve Bell, the three hope to open the lines of communication with all of the recently departed within a few miles of the studio for a few short minutes.

Their plan works. Too well. Well enough that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dead rise from their graves, hungrily searching for the ones they left behind - not to communicate with them, but to eat them. (Yes, I got a little thrill just from typing that. Again, it's that gruesomeness I spoke of earlier.)

And so begins SOULLESS, a book that will take you on a wild ride through New York with an unforgettable cast of characters. From the gang member who decides to go searching for his family, to the two college guys who have to put their political differences aside to make it home, to the young actress/singer who just had her heart broken by her girlfriend, to Joe Cormier's daughter sitting in the audience of Sunrise, this is one story that you won't soon forget.

Needless to say, I loved SOULLESS. Even if you're not a typical zombie lover, you won't be able to resist this story. Although there's a finite ending to SOULLESS, I really, really hope that Mr. Golden will write more, if not about these same characters, then at least about zombies running rampant, hungering for human flesh. (The thrill, again!)

Pick up a copy when it goes on sale on October 21st. You won't regret it - although you might stay up a bit late with the lights on.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Soulless is a book that I would have liked less and less the sooner to the present I would have read it. (Sorry, awkward sentence). It is a zombie novel. Gasp! Who hasn't read one of those? Or ten? Or...? It is a good zombie novel but it doesn't stand out to me much. Dead Sea by Brian Keene is my favorite zombie novel and all others must be compared to it and that is like comparing the talent of Paris Hilton's acting to Kate Winslet's, or Bryan Smith to Stephen King. Again, it isn't bad, just more of the same. The phrase "same difference" comes to mind but it is meangless to use that to describe this. Golden seems to be a hardworking author and very prolific but I got a sense of that old Bilbo Baggins thing about butter scraped over to much bread.

Kind of like during the Cold War, we hunker down in our homes and fear for the next huge calamity to drop on our heads. Christopher Golden, no stranger to horror fiction, posits that it won't be dirty bombs or designer pathogens or even an earthquake that'll fell us. It'll be The Monkey's Paw. Only, instead of three wishes, there is a séance. Golden writes a terrifying tale of a zombie apocalypse, and it's funny how niggling personal concerns abruptly become insignificant when the dead start to walk. And as if the media isn't already faulted for any number of societal woes, here's one more bone to pick. When a New York morning talk show decides to feature three mediums conducting a mass séance to summon the dead, no one raises a hand to say, "Um... hold on." And why should anyone, really? Zombies don't exist. The dead don't walk. Psychics are charlatans. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

The séance was meant to allow the dead to briefly communicate with their living loved ones. This isn't what happens. When rotting revenants crawl out of the earth, yes, they recall their family and friends, and they make their way towards them. But not to trade fond reminisces, but to prey on the living, to feast on the flesh. To make it even more unsettling, these zombies aren't fully mindless creatures. They talk and, frighteningly, they become increasingly intelligent with each passing moment. And they don't all shamble. Those freshly buried, for example, who still have full functioning use of their limbs, scurry like crazy. The epidemic spreads at an alarming rate. New York City is soon overrun.

Once SOULLESS gets done introducing the participants, it never allows you to catch your breath. Christopher Golden covers familiar territory, hits all the expected beats. But he's such a fan-friendly storyteller that even the genre tropes go down smoothly. Sometimes, the action is so all-encompassing and the pace so driven that you don't realize there's actually character development taking place. But there is. SOULLESS tracks several desperate characters as they scramble, hide, run, fight to survive. Somehow, their respective arcs all converge at the epicenter of the apocalypse. Some merely wish to reunite with family and friends back in Manhattan. Some have realized that the solution, if any, lies where it all began. The Korean gangbanger and the teen pop star are my favorites. Neither of them ultimately saves the day.

In novels and films, it's been popular for the source of these zombie infestations, if a source is at all provided, to be science-based. So it's a nice swerve that Golden fixates on a paranormal event as the origin. Golden also veers away from tradition in that the entire narrative takes place in broad daylight, not that having the sun overhead in any way diminishes the pulse-pounding horror. Golden is a master of constructing suspense and creating a sense of escalation. He doesn't neglect how reports from a panicked media could only have a demoralizing effect on the viewers. The media also informs us of the sheer scope of the zombie virus, and how fast the infection is expanding. You do get caught up in just how against the wall our characters are, how dire the straits, how hopeless the odds. Golden, like all narrators worth their salt, is able to transport you into his story, and it's desperate times I found myself in, staving off the sprinting undead. Just a heads up, you may not like how the crisis is resolved. It's a bit controversial. It may even be anticlimactic. Kinda like a séance. Which is how this mess got started. Nevertheless, a fun read.

I love Christopher Golden. I think he's one of the most imaginative and prolific writers today, and I'm surprised he doesn't have a bigger following among the "fangirl nation" that helped series like Twilight ride the pop culture wave to super best-seller status.

My own fangirl-ness aside, however, I have to admit -- I was a little underwhelmed by Soulless. I liked the idea -- three powerful mediums merge their talents for the first live, on-air mass seance, after which supernatural chaos ensues -- and Soulless is certainly well-timed for the recent surge of interest in zombie books, TV and movies.

But at the risk of sounding glib, Soulless just doesn't have much soul.

Soulless tells the story of a modern zombie apocalypse through many different points of view. We're first treated to a first-hand account of the phenomenon through the eyes of the daughter of Professor Joe Cormier, a gifted and ambitious medium who is one of the catalysts of the event. With the help of his spirit guide and the pooled powers of two other well-known mediums, they join hands in a New York City TV studio, "pooling" their power and resources to open the lines of communication to all the spirits in the area and urging them to seek out and communicate with their loved ones.

Instead of just making contact, legions of dead rise from their graves all over New York. Unfortunately, these are not the people that their families knew and loved. They're manipulative and intelligent husks, motivated only by a ravenous hunger and a desire to fill that emptiness -- by devouring their friends and loved ones, piece by bloody piece. The result is a gore-splashed splatterfest worthy of Bentley Little. (shudder) Golden is a gifted wordsmith and artful with his descriptive language, and that talent produces some stomach-turning sequences. Squeamish (or young) readers may want to stay away.

The ensuing race to end the zombie uprising -- and survive -- is predictable, but fun. There is a full cast of stock characters (arrogant college boy and his good-guy class rival, closeted pop star, misguided gang-banger) who unfortunately don't have much time to develop, what with all the dismembering and running-for-their-life going on. Fortunately, the well-paced action and witty dialogue compensate for this weakness.

Honestly, Soulless reads like more like a movie script than a book. And that's not what I've come to expect -- and what I most enjoy -- about Golden's writing. Books like Strangewood, Straight on Til Morning and The Boys are Back In Town are propelled by introspection and the inner monologue of the main character. There's none of that here. Just lots of gore, a predictable, pat ending and the a few mindless hours of guilty pleasure reading.

But then again, if I need character development with my zombies, there's always The Walking Dead on AMC. ;-)

This book will keep you up at night. Forget the classic zombie image, slow and stupid. These zombies are fast and intelligent. This book redefines the zombie genre just like his book Of Saints and Shadows (Peter Octavian) redefined vampires.

I read someone refer to this book as 'the best zombie movie I've ever read,' and I don't think they could be more right.

After the world's first televised séance goes horribly wrong, the dead start digging themselves out from their graves, and returning home. They're not just after sweet, juicy, brains (though they'd like some of them too, thanks very much); they're returning to their homes and the people they loved in life ('Honey, I'm home! BRAINS! OMNOMNOMNOM!'). Amidst the pandemonium two college rivals, a Hanna Montana-esque pop star, a teenage girl and her best friend, and an NY gang member fight to survive the zombie apocalypse and end 'The Uprising'. Meanwhile, Phoenix Cormier fights to protect her father, even though stopping him may be the only way to stop the walking dead.

Returning to more 'traditional' zombie lore, Soulless' jombies are not virus infected, but actually the risen dead, digging themselves out from their graves. But they're not mindless; these zombies are clever, they're hungry, and they're not slow--they can run. Oh, and talk. Creepy, much?

Soulless is gripping and thrilling, and reading it at night in the dark? Not a good idea--though if you do, you may forego your cardio workout, so maybe it's a win-win.