Review: All My Souls of Darkness: A Review
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2013
I think, that Souls of Darkness is the perfect ending to this three week tour.There are any number of references we could bring up about souls, the importance of the number 3 in various cultures worldwide. Like Celtic, Irish, many Eastern traditions and also Christianity - to name a few. There are a huge number of opportunities for discussion, especially for a book club, or a reading group of teens/young adults (Do those exist? They should if they don't, online or otherwise.) We could talk for hours here about grief, loss, superstitions, religions, finding your path in life. . .Clearly you get the picture.This book has some great characters. Alex is by far my favorite, for much the same reason I loved this book. Alex was a typical teenage character. . . I could identify with his psyche and the way he acted. (I say this and what I actually mean is I could relate to him, in the sense that he was like many other boys/teenagers I interacted with when I was a teenager.) He's also has characters similar to the teens I interact with on a daily basis now. He was a very REAL character, as was Taiya.Taiya, was the girl I wish I could have been growing up on an island (where it is WARM) and completely open to the world.I say that and I mean, completely open to all experiences, explained or otherwise, in MY world.Those are the most important reasons I can think of to read the book.1. It's awesome (extremely impressive or wondrous), in the sense that it will make you think about awe-(the awesome complexity of the universe)-some things.2. It will stem loads of discussion across a span of age groups that's totally worthy of every book club3. The characters are well developed, the story narrative and story line are interesting, and it has some truly suspenseful moments that no one should live without.Find out more about what this book taught me, and all my darkness at the end of this post.A few of these are simply things I learned during the time I read Souls of Darkness, and the rest are really things that the book inspired me to think about/do in some way.1. I read the book and my car got into a fight with a Dodge Ram in the same week.Being in an accident (where your car is the MUCH smaller vehicle) is not particularly fun, and I also happened to be reading a book with ghosts in it, and unfinished business. Perhaps it's car-ma (groan) that I didn't get shmucked harder and become a ghost myself? I had a great 30 second conversation in my head though as I headed toward a wall of much taller black Dodge Ram. You'd think that would have contemplated life in those moments or something. Instead, I thought this:"Really? There's no where to go? It's the giant black truck or the massive pile of hard packed snow larger than the truck. Oh well, I guess I'm not going anywhere else today, except maybe the hospital." I was not panicked, and Morgan Freeman was narrating, and I was absolutely positive my 'time' was not up.How I really contemplate Life.On my spaceship. In my living room.2. I am perhaps, sometimes, maybe slightly an expert cynic at finding optimism and happiness and rainbows where none exists. (P.S. Dear whatever is out there, please make everything go the way I'd like it to go, and turn out the way I'd like it to turn out for ONCE.) Prove my inner cynic wrong, and make happiness and rainbows shoot from a glow worm's bum.Please???Photo by He Who Takes PhotosI may be slightly superstitions, and prefer to keep what I'm wishing works out to myself, but you guess it probably has something to do with being on 4 wheels, moving in a forward motion of enginey goodness.3.On my quest for love, peace and happiness. (Read as much or as little sarcasm into that as you please ;) ). I have decided that since my computer is out to thwart my writing attempts, I will attempt to woo it, through a series of letters from Notepad++. It seemed to work last time. It (my computer) won't listen to me, but in light of it's recent (like 30 seconds ago) BlueScreen fits of despair, it may just need some loving from some software.Still, the book reminded me that perhaps I have taken fate and destiny too lightly. Though I'd like to think I"m closer to being on the path I once saw myself on clearly. (It got a little murky somewhere along the trail. :P )4. On my quest to find more time for writing, I find I'm just sleeping less...or stranger hours. This makes my creativeness both soulful and somewhat dark. I like the dark. There's something comforting about the darkness of the ocean, then again there's something terrifying like the Souls of Darkness. Either way, it makes for good writing, and creating in general.And THIS, is what I imagine your surprise face looks like when I tell you I like the DARKNESS.p.p.s. - My computer really did blue screen at the exact moment I hit the 'save draft' button. It also had a hissy fit of refreshy pages, and the BSOD error was something with the motherboard, though He Who Takes Photos has assured me that sometimes, it just needs to 'refresh' it's circuits, and erase it's short term memory via massive electrical shock. . . and it's NOT just out to get me and eat away my creative thoughts.