Before I wake (Soul Screamers #6)

Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6)
Rachel Vincent

Publication Date: June 26, 2012
Finish Date: July 8, 2012
Format: paperback

From Goodreads: I died on a
Thursday-killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul. The good news?
He didn’t get it. The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you
out of high school…  Covering up her own murder was one thing, but
faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks
spent “recovering,” she’s back in school, fighting to stay visible to
the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time
alone with her new reaper boyfriend. But to earn her keep in the human
world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment
brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed.
Her immortal status won’t keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn’t
just gambling with her own life…

Be warned this review contains a major spoiler of book 5. It does not contains spoilers of this book.

So
I had really high expectations for this book. I loved If I Die, the 5th
book in this series. And I expected this book to be even better, well I
guess I had too high expectations because I was a bit disapointed with
this book.

Before I explain my thought about this book I first
want to say that I love the cover and think it’s the most beautifull
cover in this series so far, it makes me glad I have this version of the
series.

First the story, all the books in this series have a
clear story. Mostly consisting of some evil plot or sheme that the
characters have to stop and at the end of this book it’s solved, well
most of it. Well this book lacked this order. And not only that, the
story was actually pretty confusing. It really took some time before I
as a reader understood what was going on and even then I wasn’t
satisfied with the explanation. Also there was a bit too much “omg what
is happening now” going on and then afterwards it just got a bit
repetitive.

The theme of this series actually is a bit dark, but
this book feels even darker and even a bit depressing at times. I didn’t
like some of the dark things that happened in this book. I think there
was a bit too much dark things in this book in relation to the bright
and happy things.

In this book kaylee is death, wel maybe undead
is a better term. Just like her boyfriend Tod. This means we get a view
of the afterlife and how it is to be undead, I actually liked this,
because in the rest of this series we don’t really learn much about it.
Although there still is a bit too little explantion for my taste, there
are still some things that are a bit unclear to me, like how they
teleport, how they actually get in this state of undead and how they can
still eat while they don’t need this.

Well the characters are
still the same as in the other books. Although there are some little
acts that are a bit out of character. Kaylee does some things I didn’t
expect. Also there is still the usual drama between the characters and
this is one of the things I always enjoy about this book. I actually
would’ve liked seeing more drama and character interactions in this
book.

Normally I would skip the world building topic in reviews
of later books in a series, but I just have to say something about the
world building in this book. There are some rules in the soul screamer
world, rules that let us know how this world functions. And Rachel
Vincent changes one of her rules in a not convincing manner. Some rules
are just rules and should stay that way. I think that changing a main
rule of the world in a series is something that you shuldn’t do, because
well it doens’t make sense. Something is impossible, but now suddenly
it isn’t anymore.

To conclude: I love this series, but I was
disapointed in this book. I think it’s my least favourite book in the
series. It just is too confusing, a major world building rule changes,
the story lacks the nice structure of the other books and there is too
less character drama and too much “omg what is happening now” drama. I
think it is a bit of my own fault that I was disapointed. I loved book 5
so much, that I expected this book to be even better. And due to those
high expectations this book felt even worse than it is. Also I think
that there are enough people that will enjoy this book, so I would
recommend to form your own opinion.