Review: THE WEIGHT OF SOULS by Bryony Pearce
This brand new book by Bryony Pearce has three of my favorite topics to read about:
1. Murder
2. Ghosts
3. Bullying
Strange Chemistry, August 2013.
Does this make me dark? Or perhaps the author? Or are we looking at a story that looks at reality through the lens of paranormal fiction? I’d like to think it’s the latter. And I think that this is one of the many things that makes THE WEIGHT OF SOULS brilliant.
Taylor Oh is a student who is the bottom of the totem pole at her London high school. She’s picked on relentlessly by the cool crowd, even to the point of physical violence. Racial slurs are thrown at her, she’s tormented daily,and between this and her freaky secret, she never quite feels safe. Having recently lost one of her oldest friends to the popular kids, she now worries that her best friend Hannah will be the next to drop her.
The problem is, even if Taylor shared her secret with Hannah, she wouldn’t believe her. Taylor sees the ghosts of murder victims. And when the ghosts spot her, they leave her with a mark — a mark that could kill Taylor unless she finds the murderers and transfers it to them before the Darkness comes. Even Taylor’s father doesn’t believe the truth. A survivor of the accident that killed Taylor’s mother, Mr. Oh is determined to find a cure for the family curse. With science. And he is getting more and more exhausted by Taylor’s insistence that she needs to skip school, stay out late, and put herself in dangerous situations to help ghosts. According to Taylor’s dad, Taylor’s affliction is a combination of a skin condition and hallucinations. But Taylor knows the truth, and when one of the biggest jerks in school turns up missing, it’s up to Taylor to solve his murder. She’s the only one who can see him, and the only one who knows he’s dead.
THE WEIGHT OF SOULS is not only riveting and rife with action, but heartfelt and beautiful. The humanity of the book strikes just as hard as the mythology. Bryony Pearce draws on Egyptian lore to create Taylor’s world, and on the reality of teen life to create the characters around her and the social conflicts she has to confront. This is an up-all-night read, the kind of book that is terrifying and exciting and heart-wrenching. THE WEIGHT OF SOULS is not to be missed this summer, and I hope you’ll go find yourself a copy soon!
