My Soul to Lose, by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Lose (Soul Screamers, #0.5)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release: July 1, 2009 *
Source: Publisher

It was supposed to be a fun day, shopping at the mall with her best friend. Then the panic attack started and Kaylee Cavanaugh finds herself screaming, unable to stop. Her secret fears are exposed and it's the worst day of her life. Until she wakes up in the psychiatric unit. She tries to convince everyone she's fine--despite the shadows she sees forming around another patient and the urge to scream which comes burbling up again and again. Everyone thinks she's crazy. Everyone except Lydia, that is. Another patient with some special abilities.

I’ve been wanting to read the Soul Screamers series for a long time, but for some reason haven’t. Recently, however, I finally picked up My Soul to Lose, a short novella that prequels the events in the first book in the Soul Screamers series, and it was great.

The pace of My Soul to Lose is a little slow for such a short story, but it definitely kept my attention all the way through. I wasn’t sure at all how a story about a girl that screams when people are about to die would keep me hooked, but My Soul to Lose definitely showed that it’s doable.

Kaylee is a decent character. Nothing about her particularly stood out for me, but it was still fun to read about her experiences in the hospital. Rachel Vincent also has a really great writing style, and I’m so eager to read more of her work. She hooked me with My Soul to Lose, and I suggest that you check this prequel novella out if you are interested in reading the Soul Screamers series.


* I read My Soul to Lose in Soul Screamers, Volume One, which is an omnibus including this novella and the first two Soul Screamers books. It was published on November 22, 2011.