The Soulkeepers by G.P. ChingMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Soulkeepers(The soulkeepers Series book1)by G.P. Ching
As I grouse around for good reads, I've come to quite a number that have the flavor of the paranormal. This one falls in that category with the emphasis on fallen angels and watchers and horsemen. It has mostly elements of magic and mystic along with a tad of divine intervention. It all falls together enough that the feel of Deus Ex Machina is forgivable.
Jacob wakes from near death, he is certain he died, to find himself alone; his mother has vanished leaving only traces of blood around the car and vague recollections in Jacobs mind as to what might have occurred. The next time he awakes he is no longer alone, but is with his new-found uncle whom he'd never known he had. He also finds that his last name Lau is really Laudner and that he'll now be moving from Hawaii to Paris, Illinois.
He inherits a family who never wanted him and a whole bunch of trouble he never wanted. Life is bad and he's definitely not helping himself with his horrible temper and mean response to other peoples bad attitudes. This is definitely one main character who is hard to feel empathy for in the early parts. His anger, directed at his cousin Katrina, is released on a neighbor who proceeds to help take him from a miserable life to a miserable yet interesting life.
Dr. Abigail Silva is a professor of Ethnobotany at the university and she is very strange; to say the least. Along with that is her strange fixation of Jacob; whom she has enlisted into gardening in payment for the damage he's done to her house. Everything about Dr. Silva is abnormal and her's is the strongest tie to paranormal that the story begins to unfold. If not for his new friend Malini, another uprooted ethnic import to Paris, Jacob would have gone off the rails in no time.
Malini's story is another intersting story, but she's not a token girlfriend for the main character; she's a the missing piece in the puzzle that is Jacob. I don't think he understands how much he needs her until she follows him nearly to hell and back-but that's telling too much.
In a small way this is a coming of age story that comes at it from a rather slanted approach. It's also a mystical and spiritual tale that wants to say that even if you don't believe in something, and perhaps especially because you don't, it is easy to become the instrument of that in which you don't believe.
Quite well written and definitely paranormal in nature this was and interesting and somewhat thoughtful look into something that has only occupied a small portion of my shelf. It does help peek my fondness for the genre.
J.L. Dobias
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