Review: An original book with an original premise
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 19, 2014
This was a really interesting book. I don't read much YA Fantasy, so I'm not terribly familiar with the genre. But there was something really original about the book's description so I had to give it a try.Also, I really liked the cover because of its original art---something so few authors do these days. So major kudos to the author for this. The author put together a really nice ebook, too. It's worth mentioning that the formatting is really good--it's clean and the reading experience is never interrupted by formatting issues or typos, which is rare.The book starts off strong---I liked the prologue and the tension that it introduced.The story follows Issai and Hahri, two "old souls," people that reincarnate after death and keep on living. I thought that the story stayed true to its promise of originality because I've never read anything quite like this before. There was a lot of conflict, action, fighting, and tension between the characters, which I always enjoy. I was curious throughout reading the novel what was going to unfold, and whether Issai and Hahri would be captured by the Shi.The story delivered on its promise, but I felt that the first few chapters were slow, especially after such a strong prologue. There was a lot of bickering between Issai and Hahri, which was totally understandable given the plot, but I felt it dragged a bit longer than it should have. The book picked up after a few chapters though, so all was well in the end.All in all, this was a really fun and interesting read. Readers of YA fantasy would enjoy this book because it offers a unique story, premise and characters, and it's definitely not like a lot of the other fantasy stuff out there. It's dark but fun, and totally worth checking out if this is your genre.