Author: Kate Griffin
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Magicals Anonymous #1
Trade Paperback, 464 Pages
Published on October 30, 2012 by Orbit
Buy the book
|AMAZON|BN|BOOK DEPO|
Source: Publisher
|SUMMARY|
'Don’t look back. It wants you to look back.’
London’s soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise.
The problem is, while everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers – from the Midnight Mayor to Sharon’s magically-challenged self-help group – she doesn’t have a clue where to start.
But with London’s soul missing and the Gate open, there are creatures loose that won’t wait for her to catch up before they go hunting.
|REVIEW|
Stray Souls is the
first in a new series, ‘Magicals Anonymous’ by Kate Griffin. This book takes place in the same world as Griffin’s
Matthew Swift novels (Yes, the Midnight Mayor does make an appearance), but
with a different narrator this time. Our main heroine, Sharon Li has just
discovered that she is a Shaman, a seer, who can see the truth in all things, and
can walk in the shadows (between worlds). Within in a couple of hours of
finding out she’s a Shaman, she’s given the biggest task ever…find the missing
souls of London. Someone is ripping souls out of London’s foundation, and among
the souls missing is their lady of 4 A.M. Greydawn. Greydawn is one of London’s
biggest player, she guards the wall between what is there, and isn’t there
(creatures/things that live in the shadows, unseen to the human eyes). It is up to Sharon and her band of misfit, Magical
Anonymous support group to find the one responsible, and the missing souls.\
The layout of the book was extremely different than any
other books I’ve ever read, there were chapters that were only one page long
(did a double take at one point LOL), and chapter ‘confessions’ from the many
of the secondary characters. While this is an urban fantasy, and one of the
genres I love reading in..I had to put my normal expectations in the back seat
because Stray Soul is written more with British humor. At the beginning of the
novel, I was a little skeptical on whether I’d enjoy the book or not…since one
had to get use to the writing style and humor.
As the story went on, and I met/learned more about Sharon’s Magical
Anonymous group, I began to really love the plot, world, characters. Magical
Anonymous is a support group for magical beings with issues. There’s only one word
to describe these delightful bunch….Quirky. They’re all oddballs but it what makes
them different and stand out. Readers will encounter an ‘almost’ druid, a gourmet
foodie troll, a germaphobe-OCD vampire, and a goblin who’s the second greatest
Shaman to walk the earth.
Stray Souls was a
great start to a new series; I enjoy this world and the characters and am
thinking about picking up the Matthew Swift novels now LOL. I highly recommend
this series to anyone who’s looking for different, and funny. While this isn’t
your typical urban fantasy, (leaning more on the not too serious side), I’d say
give it a try…I guarantee it’ll make you smile and laugh.
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Just to give you a little tidbit of what the book is about:
WARNING! There’s A LOT of cussing in the book lol.
In this scene, Kevin
our OCD vampire is letting the group know he’s only able to drink a “Certain”
type of blood.
“So I went to the doctor and she was all like ‘So you’ve got
a syndrome’ and I was like ‘Are you fucking kidding me? I’m like the bane of
the Immortal fucking night or whatever what the fuck do you mean I’ve got a
syndrome?’ and she was all like ‘Yeah but it’s a cool syndrome’ and I was like ‘Lady,
don’t give me this it’s a cool syndrome stuff, because I’ve gotta tell you I’ve
got some real issues with personal hygiene anyways and if you’re about to tell
me that my body is now, like, out to get me, well I honestly can’t tell you
what I’m gonna do….’So when you were living your blood group was O negative and
now you’re dead’-and you know she said ‘dead’ which I thought was just so prejudiced- ‘and now you’re dead your
blood group is still O negative, so that’s like the only blood group you can
drink.’”
“Is that a popular one?” asked Mrs Rafaat
“Like fucking no!” moaned Kevin, throwing his hands up in
the air. “Only like fucking eight percent of the population or whatever!..”
The following scene Kevin
is telling the group to get tested:
“Well, I’d say you should like get yourselves tested and
signed up to the donor register,” exclaimed Kevin. “And I hope you’ve all got
donor cards too because there’s like thousands of people on the organ donor
register who die every year because they can’t get a part and I’m like, guys,
charity begins at home, you know?”
A scene where the group is sneaking in to Burns and Stoke:
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen more security,” said Edna. “Surely
if this wendigo character knew we were coming, he’d be trying harder to stop
us?”
“Oh my God,” moaned Kevin. “Have you guys been living in
like, the twelfth century? Never invite the wrath of God by wondering why
things are going well!”
“Are you always this pessimistic?” asked Edna, ruffling
within her purple cardigan.
“Uh…undead, duh?”
As you guys can see I really like Kevin :D.
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