Souls of the Dead

The Soul Keepers by Devon Taylor

Publication Date: August 28, 2018 

Summary from NetGalley:

Death is just the beginning.

After dying in a terrible car accident, Rhett awakens in the afterlife and is recruited to join the crew of the Harbinger, a colossal seafaring vessel tasked with ferrying the souls of the dead. To where exactly, no one knows. But the crew must get the souls there, and along the way protect them from vicious soul-eating monsters that will stop at nothing to take the ship and all of its occupants.

Rhett and his new friends have a hard enough time fighting back the monsters that grow bolder and more ferocious every day. But then a new threat emerges, a demon who wants something that Rhett has. And if she gets it, it could mean the end of everything… for both the living and the dead.

ARC received from MacMillan Children’s Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This was a fascinating take on an old idea, what happens after you die.  Well, if you are Rhett you are taken aboard a giant ship where you become a syllektor, a person who collects souls.  This was a fast paced book with adventure and fighting around every corner. 

Rhett was a solid character.  He accepts his new responsibilities as a syllektor pretty easily, but he still spends time grieving for his own death as well as his role in the death of his parents.  His group of friends are also well balanced, if maybe a little cliched.  We have Mak, the leader of the group.  She is tough and hard on everyone, but also has a good heart.  Basil is the happy go lucky, cheeky boy who wants everyone to be happy.  He was also good for a lot of the witty banter between the characters.  Treeny was the quiet and shy one, who often hid instead of fighting, but she was also a tech wiz.  Theo was the brawn of the group, big an tough, but also gentle and really cared about everyone.  They all worked well together though and soon became a family of sorts.  

The psychons were an interesting creature.  They also chased souls, but not to save them.  Souls is what they needed to survive.  Rhett is told that they are basically animals with out a lot of smarts, but they do have a pack mentality and are somewhat cunning.  Some of the scenes with them were quite scary, and I did worry about if the group would survive.  

The overall plot was interesting.  There were times when it was a little bit on the info dump side of world building, and there were many things about the ship that were not explained well.  But I still found it to be a compelling read that was very hard to put down.  This was an really good start to an interesting series.  I am looking forward to the next one.