Lenzi hears voices and has visions – gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can’t help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she’s a reincarnated Speaker – someone who can talk to and help lost souls – and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn’t make a decision soon.
Shattered Souls is a book that took me by surprise. The cover is gorgeous, but the synopsis almost made it the story sound almost identical to any typical young adult romance with just a dash of the paranormal. In fact, when I started this book the other day, I wasn’t all that excited about it and was a little underwhelmed in the first fifty pages.
Everything began there. While the first few chapters were odd, the narrator was introducing us to her life and why she believes she is crazy (which, in her position, I definitely would have too), the remainder of the novel snowballed.
No matter what I felt toward the protagonist that the beginning due to her alienating experience at school, it was hard not to feel empathy toward Lenzie. She is hearing voices, which is what happened to her father before he passed away, and that leads her to believe she may be schizophrenic. We later learn through—stereotypically—the main male character in the novel, Alden, that these voices are actually part of an innate ability to speak with spirits.
I know what you are thinking. Cute boy comes into the picture with all the answers, girl gets a crush, and so on. Well, even if some of these things happen, I couldn’t put this novel down. The concept of soul sharing, malevolent and hindered spirits, speakers and protectors, was something new to the paranormal YA literature that focuses on ghosts. I won’t name book titles here, but I’m sure you can think of a few.
Where the romance seemed somewhat obvious, at least to me, I absolutely loved it. I was rooting for Lenzie and Alden the entire time. Don’t even get me started on Zak. (Just read it, you’ll understand). I realize that there will be people who don’t like the similarities between Alden being an “old soul” and that he has lived a few lifetimes, just like Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Cullen. That being said: I still believe that Shattered Souls is a Young Adult novel that should be praised for the author’s superior usage of the somewhat commonplace literary devices in young adult fiction (i.e. strong romantic connections, male and female thrown together by extenuating circumstances, etc.)
Overall, I think that this is an exceptionally well written and plotted debut novel from Mary Lindsey. Secretly, though Lindsey tweeted me and said that Shattered Souls is currently a standalone, I hope there is more coming from Lenzie’s world. There were some loose ends left, seemingly so there could be a sequel, and let’s face it: I want to read it.
4 Bards.
Moving! 