Scholastic Sixteen Souls: Sixteen Souls
86 ratings
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Price: £4.99
Brand: Scholastic
Description: The spooky, swoony YA debut from Book Tok star @ Merrowchild! Someone is stripping Europe's most haunted city of its spirits. When self-destructive, 16-year-old seer, Charlie Frith, realises that one of his own ghostly friends has gone missing, he must put aside his own safety - and reclusive existence - if he is to save them. Scholastic Sixteen Souls: Sixteen Souls - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Scholastic
Product ID: 143220
ISBN: 9780702325328
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Author: Addison
Rating: 5
Review: Oh my giddy aunt! I was 40% into this book when I thought “yes, I definitely leaving a gleaming review for this book!” But I didn’t anticipate what was coming next. At that stage, things hadn’t developed properly into the explosive, twisty awesomeness that the book turned out to be. Sixteen Souls has left me somewhat speechless. I knew from Rosie’s TikToks and her taste in other books that this book would be good, but I didn’t realise it would be THAT good! Ghosts and those who see ghosts have been written about probably since we developed language. It’s just one of those things. You’d have thought that you’ve heard it all by now, but Rosie has managed to bring a fresh twist to the lore that’s unique enough to add to the story’s twists but not so different that it’s just completely absurd. In fact it sounds quite possible and now I feel like I need some of those specs…. York is one of my favourite places in the world and I loved reading about my old haunts (heh) and picturing them in my head with Rosie’s cast of realistic characters running amok amongst the ghosts and cobbles aplenty. Now I have come to understand that this is a YA book, and I’ve read quite a few YA books and have found that they can be either a bit tame or running rampant with faery p*rn, but Sixteen Souls is different. There’s blood and violence and something sinister behind this book, I had to double check that this was the same sweet Rosie who sews her own beautiful skirts and makes us smile on tiktok, is she hiding a secret dark side from us? Whatever the answer, she’s a d*mn good writer! I can’t fault this book, the plot, the twists or the characters, but as a Yorkshire lass myself, the only point of constructive criticism I would add is with Charlie’s Dad’s accent. I understand he inherited a farm in the Dales before selling up for city life? The “t’s” just didn’t hit the mark for me. I would have expected the accent to be more akin to the one written by Ross Raisin in God’s Own Country (a book I’m sure I have only read as Rosie mentioned it on TikTok). Oh, and the twins and their cousins? I’d die for them.
Author: KF
Rating: 2
Review: Disclaimer: I haven't finished this and I don't know if I will. I bought it because I follow Rosie on TikTok and wanted to support her. The premise of the book sounded pretty neat and she seems lovely, plus having the book set in my city all added up to me eagerly anticipating this. However, I cannot get past some of the errors. Place names that haven't been checked (Goodramsgate not Goodramsgate, Tadcaster Road not Todcaster, Monks Cross Retail Park, not Monk's Gate [Monkgate is a street just outside the city walls, not at all famous for retail]). After seeing so many of these errors early in the book, I took a proper look at the map which I'd only given a cursory glance to since I already know the local geography. The map is wrong. Where is The Stonebow and Colliergate? Where is Duncombe Place and why does Museum Gardens branch off from between High and Low Petergate? I'm sure if you're not familiar with York this doesn't matter, but every time I hit one of these mistakes it broke the narrative flow and was, frankly, disappointing. Why set the book in a real city and then get so much wrong? I also had a couple of issues with the MC. There were times when it was gratingly obvious that the writer is not a native Yorkshire speaker, but was still trying to write speech in a Yorkshire dialect. Overall a lot of it wasn't bad, but there were still parts that were wrong, and ended up jarring. But I can appreciate that anyone not from round here maybe wouldn't notice and wouldn't have these issues, but if it carries on through the book, this will be my reason for DNFing. It's just not enjoyable to be constantly jerked out of the narrative. My other issue, while small, is that I was fairly surprised when the MC was asked to use their wheelchair more when they go out that they didn't list York's poor accessibility as one of the reasons. Cobblestones and small shops and doorways aren't exactly wheelchair-friendly. As for the rest of the book. I don't hate it. The story is reasonably interesting so far. I'm not wild about any of the characters and the writing is good enough (barring the issues above), though I wouldn't say it's outstanding. I reckon it's worth a spin if you're looking for a queer supernatural YA, but it wouldn't be top of my recommendation list. I would probably have no problem finishing it and maybe recommending it more highly if it had been edited with a little more care and attention to the setting.
