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GreatEastRoad

Tales from the Great East Road

Welcome to Tales from the Great East Road, a book review blog that features fantasy, sic-fi, dystopic, steampunk, young adult, and more. Find me on my primary blog: talesfromthegreateastroad.wordpress.com

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The Great Hunt: Wheel of Time Book 2
Robert Jordan
The Weight of Souls - Bryony Pearce

See my review of this book, and many more, at Tales from the Great East Road.

Everyone knows being a teenager sucks. Especially when you’re bullied by the popular guys at school, even worse when one used to be your best friend – but when you are hunted by ghosts how can you be anything but a freak? Like all the women of her family, Taylor Oh is cursed, haunted by the ghost of murder victims only she can help. When a ghost touches her she has roughly three weeks to hunt out the murderer before she is consumed by a void known only as The Darkness. Taylor’s life consists of hiding at home where she’s safe from the ghosts, but not her father who thinks she’s suffering from a mental illness, and at school hiding from Justin and his friends who spend their time coming up with new ways to torment her.

But everything changes when Justin suddenly dies, and his ghost marks Taylor. Since Justin doesn’t know who killed him, Taylor must gain the trust of his friends by infiltrating the exclusive V Club, a secret society where members play true or dare with horrifying stakes.

It’s hard not to feel for Taylor, as Bryony Pearce pulls no punches in making her life almost unbearably hard. As the victim of such horrid bullying, where the teachers seem to be deliberately turning a blind eye, and having to hear her own father tell her again and again that she is crazy, and without her mother who also had the curse, it’s impressive that Taylor doesn’t fall apart. Having had personal experience with bullying in school, Taylor’s character resonated with me and I admired her strength to keep on struggling, even if no-one else understood or was on her side. For me, Taylor was the strongest part of The Weight of Souls, and her trials moved me.That’s not to say this was its only strength – there is a lot to love about this book. The curse itself was both fascinating and seriously creepy, with clear rules as to how exactly it worked and background knowledge that, unlike some Young Adult books, didn’t make it feel added in for the sake of it. Having said that, there was still enough mystery to entertain you throughout and ends with room for a sequel. Its origins to a exploration to an Ancient Egyptian tomb by Taylor’s ancestor and the god Anubis were very interesting and become a much bigger part of the story towards the end. Unfortunately, I can’t say more without spoiling the book.

It shows Bryony Pearce’s skill as a writer that the evolution of Justin from leader of Taylor’s tormentors to love interest feels natural and believable. He is a character you hate in the beginning, and his change could have easily felt forced and rushed, ruining the book – but he is more than the two-dimensional jerk potential boyfriend troupe that is commonly used in Young Adult. As Taylor gets to properly know Justin, he is shown to be a complicated boy caught up in the V Club, which has spiralled out of his control as their dares get more dangerous. With his realisation that he has in fact died without a chance to say goodbye to anyone, and his anger at being murdered, Justin is another very sympathetic character you came to love.

The Weight of Souls was a very entertaining book, with very sympathetic characters and a great idea done justice to. The story is left open, and I can only hope there will be a sequel.

4.5 stars.