Review: A deliciously creepy read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
If you're someone who likes to be kept up a night by a book, this one is for you. Cain writes fast paced, action packed prose that will keep you turning the pages well after you should have turned the lights out.The story follows Elan, a seventeen-year-old skeptic who has made it her mission to debunk fake psychics and other occult happenings. When her mother, assistant and lover of one of TV's greatest spook hunters, disappears on a shoot in Egypt, Elan flies over to help, despite their strained relationship. Once there, things become creepy almost immediately when a hotel guest is found dead in her bed.The locals mutter about the Soul Cutter, a mythical figure who collects souls and carries them around on his person in tiny bottles. Elan is certain there is another explanation, but becomes less convinced she's right when she and film crew intern, Ramsey, find themselves alone at the abandoned palace where her mother vanished.I won't tell you more, because it would ruin the book for you. But believe me, you won't be able to put the book down. This is a fast paced book, driven by the fact Elan's mother is diabetic and must be found quickly or she might fall into a diabetic coma and die. Most of the action takes place over one day and night, but Cain manages to stuff enough thrills and surprises into that tight timeframe, that you'll occasionally find yourself gasping for breath.So the small moments in which Elan and Ramsey find comfort and solace in each other are welcome breaks from the action. Both Elan and Ramsey have secrets, and these give the characters a depth and complexity not often seen in YA horror. That their secrets are so similar is the perfect basis for the light romance that threads its way through the novel.I haven't read a YA horror novel as magnificently crafted as this one for years, and really could not recommend it more highly. Just go get it. You won't be disappointed.