ARC Review: Cracked (Soul Eater #1) by Eliza Crewe

Cracked

Author: Eliza Crewe

Series: Soul Eater

Pages: 336

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Amazon

Release date: 5^th November 2013

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Meet Meda. She eats people.

Well, technically, she eats their soul. But she totally promises to only go for people who deserve it. She’s special. It’s not her fault she enjoys it. She can’t help being a bad guy. Besides, what else can she do? Her mother was killed and it’s not like there are any other “soul-eaters” around to show her how to be different. That is, until the three men in suits show up.

They can do what she can do. They’re like her. Meda might finally have a chance to figure out what she is. The problem? They kind of want to kill her. Before they get the chance Meda is rescued by crusaders, members of an elite group dedicated to wiping out Meda’s kind. This is her chance! Play along with the “good guys” and she’ll finally figure out what, exactly, her ‘kind’ is.

Be careful what you wish for. Playing capture the flag with her mortal enemies, babysitting a teenage boy with a hero complex, and trying to keep one step ahead of a too-clever girl are bad enough. But the Hunger is gaining on her.

The more she learns, the worse it gets. And when Meda uncovers a shocking secret about her mother, her past, and her destiny… she may finally give into it.

Review: 3 ½  out of 5 stars

I’m not quite sure what I expected when I began Cracked but it was certainly a surprise and a lot darker than what I thought but balanced with many laugh out loud moments; it’s a great start to the Soul Eater series and a fabulous debut for Eliza Crewe.

Our main protagonist is Meda Melange who eats souls, living alone since her mothers death she targets people who she believe deserve it and has convinced herself she is the only one of her kind.

Meda’s voice was so distinct, I found myself loving her sarcasm, attitude and edgy humour which flowed well; she lacked conscience and was quite violent without feeling remorse; she was unlike other YA characters I have read more recently and I found myself giggling on numerous occasions at her dialogue and inner monologue.

The premise is intriguing, the world-building well-structured and the plot was  evenly paced and filled with great action scenes as we follow Meda in her quest for knowledge about her past, her destiny and secrets surrounding her mother. Eliza Crewe’s writing is crisp and witty and I liked learning about soul eating demons, Templars, halflings, crusaders and good versus evil. 

The secondary characters were each unique and well-developed, Jo, Chi and Uri each played a pivotal role and were easy to relate to; there is a smidgen of romance but it isn’t at the forefront of this story but I hope we get more.

Overall, Cracked is the perfect book for Halloween! a dark and gritty book that was also quite heavy on the humour which balanced everything out well, it’s very different to what I normally read but I found myself fully engrossed. I’ll definitely be reading more books by Eliza Crew.

Thank-you to Strange Chemistry for the opportunity to read and review Cracked.

 

About the author: Eliza Crewe always thought she’d be a lawyer, and even went so far as to complete law school. But as they say, you are what you eat, and considering the number of books Eliza has devoured since childhood, it was inevitable she’d end up in the literary world. She abandoned the lawyer-plan to instead become a librarian and now a writer.

While she’s been filling notebooks with random scenes for years, Eliza didn’t seriously commit to writing an entire novel until the spring of 2011, when she and her husband bought a house. With that house came a half-hour commute, during which Eliza decided she needed something to think about other than her road-rage. Is it any surprise she wrote a book about a blood-thirsty, people-eating monster?

Eliza has lived in Illinois, Edinburgh, and Las Vegas, and now lives in North Carolina with her husband, her hens, her angry, talking, stuffed dwarf giraffe, and a sweet, mute, pantomiming bear. She likes to partially-complete craft projects, free-range her hens, and take long walks. Cracked is her first novel.