Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: The Lost Souls
SERIES: The Grim Life #3
AUTHOR: K.D. Worth
PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press
LENGTH: 205 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 12, 2019
BLURB:
Teenage grim reapers Max and Kody are already dealing with being dead… and now they’re expected to save the world.
With the help of their guardian angel, Slade, and each other, Max and Kody have finally discovered the destiny God planned for them—help the lost souls languishing in purgatory back to heaven. But they’re still growing into their roles. Kody, the Healer, struggles to understand the power born of his empathy, and Max’s abilities as Protector suffer because of longing for his best friend… along with Slade’s dire prediction that Max will lose Kody. So many are depending on them, and they’ll have to summon all the love and faith inside them to face a mass school shooting and bring love and hope to those who need it most.
REVIEW:
Although this is book three in the series, I didn’t have any trouble reading and understanding even though I hadn’t read the previous two. Of course there were references to things that happened in earlier books, but unlike other books I have read out of series, there was no sense of “missing something”. The author is very good at setting things in the here and now.
I have read a lot of Young Adults books and my main complaint is that they’re pitched too low. Young people are not idiots and they demand as much sophistication and good writing as adults. In my experience, some authors disguise immature writing as writing for an immature audience. This author had managed to keep the sophistication, and the story has real depth.
The characters were engaging, even the minor ones, and showed some development, although they were not as rounded as they could have been. Sometimes the characters were somewhat flat and that seemed to get worse in the latter third of the book.
The story was fascinating, and to be fair the author managed to keep me in the dark about what was coming with plenty of twists and every time a plateau was reached another one appeared a little higher.
I can’t in all honesty say the writing was perfect, or anywhere close. There is still an immaturity about it that leaves everything a little flat at times. Sometimes the dialogue is stiff, but at least it’s age appropriate which is a pet peeve of mine in Young Adult. Here, the characters, on the whole, spoke and acted like teenagers. Sure, sometimes they were immature, but that’s perfect because teenagers are, by definition, immature and I think that’s something that adults reading Young Adult sometimes forget.
My biggest problem with this book was the preaching. We knew from the start that these were reapers who were working for god under an archangel of death. In the beginning it was fine, but it deteriorated as the book went on.
In the first half to two thirds of the book the author had a handle on keeping the right balance. Yes, there was some preaching, but it was relevant, and fresh and even I was happy to hear the author’s voice when she spoke about a more encompassing and forgiving Christianity than I have experienced. I give major kudos to the author for that. She even had me interested in a bible story.
To me, though, it went off the rails in the middle and became extremely preachy to the point that the characters became wooden, as if they were secondary to getting the plot and the preaching across. I’m afraid the author lost me at that point.
Whilst I acknowledge that I am not Christian and have not had the best experiences with Christianity, I think that even Christians might be overwhelmed. Teenagers, I am convinced, won’t go for it, especially not LGBT teens.
On the whole I enjoyed the book and invested in the story and characters, and this took me through to the end. However, it was a different kind of book than I had expected and I don’t think I’ll be reading any more by this author. That, however, is my own personal preference as someone who will undoubtedly end up as a lost soul. Perhaps someone who is a Christian might have a better experience, although I tend to doubt it.
RATING: 
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