Book Review: If I Die (Rachel Vincent)

Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee—her scream is a portent of death. But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out. Yeah—it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher is really an incubus, who feeds from the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend’s delinquent ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human either. But Kaylee’s running out of time, and those who love her will do anything to save her life. 


Welcome to the 4th day of Rachel Vincent' IF I DIE blog tour! The 5th book in the Soul Screamers Series is a fantastic, fuel-filled rush of a book - so much so that my postman probably grabbed my copy for himself! Thank yo Lucy and MIRA for sending me a second copy, and I promise if the first one ever turns up I'll be giving it away for you guys to enjoy - watch out for it!

In the meantime, check out my review:

I've always been a fan of the Soul Screamers series, but I must admit - there is always a make or break book in every series and this is it. It is, in many case, a hit or miss, love it or hate it book. It's the book that completely changes the trajectory of the series, and although we readers have probably suspected this, Rachel Vincent still manages to surprise us with the twists in If I Die.

Luckily for me, I was one of the happy one after reading the book. It all begins in a rather awry way for Kaylee, and it seems that this time, she might not come out unscathe. Her relationship with Nash hangs in the balance, a very suspicious teacher is being rather unprofessional in his extra-curricular activities, and worse of all, Kaylee may not even have the time to correct all these and get her life back on track. Indeed, it was very possible she won't even have a life at the end of it.

Every book in the series is generally fast-paced, but If I Die was particularly. Because there were so many challenges for Kaylee in the book, it was inevitable that the book breezes through some of, in my opinion, the more important explanations. There were twists that I find were not of complete surprise - regardless, it didn't take the enjoyment out of it though, which was why, overall I still enjoyed it. I did still gape at some scenes and flickered through others like there was no tomorrow! 

Kaylee was undoubtedly under a lot of pressure in the book, and her resilience shines through quite spectacularly. While there were some actions of Kaylee that I found questionable, far be it for me to call it out; after all, unless you yourself have your days numbered, who are you to judge one who does? Having said that, Kaylee's maturity and her ability to act for the greater good even when she is in peril herself, really underscores everything admirable in her - not to mention it gives us readers some really good action scenes! Funny enough, I particularly liked the bloody scenes that I would usually otherwise have ignored. Rachel really does know her action scenes!

Of course, we learn more about the netherworld and the complexity of the creatures that inhabit it. For me, one thing that stood out was that the netherworld creatures that were featured in If I Die still had a heart. At times I even felt like perhaps Kaylee should not interfere with nature, because it was after all in the nature of these demons to act in their own interest and humans are, no matter how sad, the collateral damage in this case. Much like the animals are to provide for human needs. Only a very convincing character and a heartfelt speech from one does this to me, so kudos to Rachel for getting me all pro-demon in this case!

Last but not least, Tod (insert heart sign here).

That is all - and I, as always cannot wait for Kaylee's adventure in Before I Wake!

Four Stars!

*

Book courtesy of MIRA INK.


PS - Pop into Endlessly Bookish for more If I Die tomorrow and check out the banner for the rest of the tour stops:

Soul Screamer (Rachel Vincent) Blog Tour!

Rachel Vincent’s hotly anticipated Soul Screamers series will be hitting UK shores in early January. The first book in the series, My Soul to Take, is being published by an exciting new book imprint, MIRA Ink - and today I have with me a guest post from Rachel about the research she did on banshees for this exciting new series:

I did a lot of research into what I could find of the original Irish bean sidhe lore, and similar Scottish and Manx folklore, and I used most of what I found in the books, in one way or another. Kaylee’s last name, Cavanaugh, for example, comes from the Kavanaugh family, one of the five great families whose deaths are said to be mourned by the bean sidhe in Ireland.

Honestly, though, I wound up with more questions than answers after reading the folklore. But in fiction, that’s a good thing. Unanswered questions are an opportunity for me to make things up and expand upon what I found. Which is where most of the worldbuilding in the Soul Screamers series comes from.

I made up answers for why bean sidhe wail, what their wail is actually doing, why there’s no male of the species (in my world, there is!), how they inherit their abilities, and how being saddled with abilities like Kaylee’s can shape a girl’s adolescence.

Why do I think bean sidhes are cooler than other creatures, like vampires? Well, I don’t know that I think any one creature is cooler than any other. (Except for reapers. I think my reapers are pretty cool.) But for me, the advantage bean sidhes have over your typical vampires and werewolves is they’re largely unknown. You go into a vampire book knowing what to expect. Biting. Drinking blood. Lots of night-dates. And probably an older (waaaay older) man. But most people go into the Soul Screamers books not knowing what to expect. And in case you’re one of those, here’s a hint:

Mysterious deaths. Scary abilities. Kissing. Evil soul-stealing hellions. Sarcastic reapers. Kissing. Netherworld addictive substances. Lies and secrets. Kissing. Insanity. Things crawling through the shadows. And did I mention the kissing? ;)

Thanks Rachel! :)

Rachel Vincent is a New York times best selling author. The Soul Screamers series is her first series for teenagers. Rachel is also the author of the successful Shifters series about a pride of werecats which are written for adults. Rachel lives in Texas with her husband who she met when she worked in Subway. When she’s not writing paranormal fiction Rachel spends time catching up on her favourite TV shows, she is addicted to Dexter and True Blood! For more info visit www.rachelvincent.com