Book details:

Soulless by Jacinta Maree
(The Immortal Gene #1)
Publication date: October 1st 2015
Genres: Dystopia, New Adult, Supernatural

Synopsis:
Welcome to Soulless.
We are the generation that laughs at death.
Reincarnation; what was once considered a gift of immortality has become an eternity of nightmares.
Nadia Richards lives in a world plagued by reincarnation, a system of recycling souls where all past memories, personalities and traumatic events are relived daily in disjointed sequences. Trapped within their own warped realities, not even the richest and most powerful are saved from their own minds unraveling. Madness is the new human nature, and civilizations are crumpling beneath themselves trying to outrun it.
Within a society that ignores death, Nadia appears to be the one exception to the reincarnation trap. Born without any reincarnated memories and with printless eyes, the hot tempered 19 year old quickly becomes the ultimate prize to all those wishing to end the vicious cycle, or for some, to ensure they could evade death forever.
Readers discretion: Adult language, violence and some adult scenes. For mature audiences only.


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My Review
 Soulless is a sort of dystopian-esque novel with an almost sci-fi or paranormal feel to it. It tells the story of a young woman named Nadia, who happens to be the one person different from every other person on the planet, or so it seems.

Reincarnation is now the norm. No one dies anymore; everyone just comes back with past lives/memories embedded in their heads. Except for Nadia, that is. She's the odd woman out. And because she is different, there are some very unsavory people who would love nothing more than to get her into their clutches and experiment on her to see what makes her so special. And when that happens, Nadia is saved by a very unlikely person and ends up discovering that some people are not what they seem to be.

I was really intrigued by the premise of the book when I first was offered the chance to review. It was unique, and I've always been fascinated by reincarnation. What would it be like to have a past life or two? Would those memories be overwhelming and cause you to lose your mind? Or would you only remember certain things based on situations that cropped up in everyday life? Kind of like a deja-vu thing, but a little more powerful.

After reading Soulless, I'll admit I had a hard time with actually liking the characters. Nadia just seemed way too indecisive at times, and she frustrated me with her actions, her words, and her mild naivety. Diesel, the other main character, was extremely unlikeable. His moods fluctuated between ready-to-kill to angry to annoyed. It was confusing and also a bit frustrating. His and Nadia's "romance", if that's what you'd like to call it, was very unbelievable.

Plot-wise, there's a lot of action at times, but other times there's a bit of a lull and it gets a tad boring. I had to push through those parts so I could finish the book. However, when the action is happening, the book is really good.

The world building is probably the best part. While not superb, it's interesting in the fact that it's so bleak and depressing. There is no such thing as happiness in this world that Nadia lives in. People are starving. People are killing. People are dying and coming back. And then you have the Elites, who are basically special little snowflakes who think they're the cream of the crop and deserve preferrential treatment. One of those Elites is a doctor, and he's not a nice person. Nadia's parents "sell" her to him so he can experiment on her for a cure, or so he claims. It's definitely not pretty.

Also, the book is in dire need of an editor. I know it claims to have been edited, but there are so many grammatical errors, spelling errors, wrong words being used, etc. As an editor myself, I find it very distracting and annoying when I have to start and stop while reading to correct the mistakes. Definitely needs to be fixed.

Overall, I'd rate Soulless 3.5 stars out of five. I loved the cover and the environment of the story, but the characters and some of the plot were hard to connect with. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something dystopian and/or sci-fi that's a little different than most other books of those genres. Check it out.

AUTHOR BIO:
Born in Melbourne Australia, Jacinta Maree considers herself a chocoholic with an obsession with dragons, video gaming and Japan. She writes a variety of genres including YA paranormal, steampunk, horror, new adult, dystopian and fantasy. Winner of 2014 Horror of the year and bestselling author, Jacinta writes to bring enjoyment to others while fulfilling her own need to explore the weird and the impossible.

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