Book Review: Soulless Creatures by Katharine Grubb

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Soulless CreaturesSoulless Creatures by Katharine Grubb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have some mixed feelings about Soulless Creatures. Like her other book, Falling For Your Madness, the characters are unique and intriguing, but the book didn’t capture me in the same way. (You can see the review I gave for Falling For Your Madness here.)

The Description

Set in the 80’s at Oklahoma University, Soulless Creatures is about 3 students: Jonathan, the rich kid desperate to transcend his status by living a modern day Walden; Roy, the street wise ladies’ man who is trying to transcend his druggie mom’s and con man dad’s legacy by making something of himself; and Abby, the “angel” both boys idolize, who despite her level head has a bit of growing up to do.

The hijinx begin immediately, as Roy’s dad and girlfriend steal Roy’s car on the way to school, Roy, with his roommate Jonathan’s help, makes plans to get Roy into the dorm floor President position, and Abby enters public instead of a Christian college with fear, uncertainty, and a secret boyfriend. They all meet during a chance minor collision in the local Walmart parking lot, and after finding each other again on campus, become friends.

After some time, Jonathan decides to hold a test to see if Roy really has a soul, the real stakes of the book in which the prize is Jonathan’s sweet car (280ZX, if I recall). Sweet, innocent Abby is elected as judge for the competition, which takes the rest of the semester to complete.

The Review

I have to say, that I didn’t really get into the story until the soul test. Everything before that feels like setup, and while it’s well done, I had a hard time getting into the story until we get to that crucial moment. I almost abandoned the story, initially, because it took so long to get to the good part, but went back to give it a chance after reading the author’s other stories (Falling For Your Madness and The Truth About the Sky).

Soulless Creatures not my favorite of the author’s, but it’s not bad. It’s a touching story with unexpected results, which I both enjoyed and didn’t. I think in the end my disconnect was that it just wasn’t my type of story. But well written and interesting enough, so it fairly earned the four stars I’m giving it.

There is some mild swearing, and no sex, so it’s a fairly clean book. **Trigger Warning: There is one scene in which Abby is very nearly sexually assaulted. It’s not graphic and it doesn’t go far (no clothes come off), but I did want to warn anyone who may be sensitive to such matters.**

Again, you can see my reviews for her other books here: Falling For Your Madness and The Truth About the Sky.

View all my reviews

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