YA Review: The Sixteen

The Sixteen (Soul Jumpers, 2) by Ali B., July 18, 2014. 206 pages. Published by New Shelves Publishing Services. Source: Cadence group.

There are people out there who don't die with their bodies. Their souls live on in the bodies of others. Some good, some bad-they are soul jumpers. Nothing in Iris Brave's world make sense anymore. Her father, Micah, is still alive-his soul survives in the body of a teenage boy. It is up to Iris and a group of soul jumpers called the Sixteen to save Micah. To do so Iris must take on the unscrupulous leaders of the Council. Can she save her father? Will she survive?

First Sentence:

I felt the cold pressure of the ice pack on the back of my head.

Over the weekend I decided to read The Sixteen by Ali B. and while I enjoyed the story and the author's writing, I felt that I probably would have enjoyed it more had I read book one. Alas, I did not read the first one because I didn't have it available...though it was still an interesting read nonetheless.

Trying to put aside my reading the series out of sequence, this was actually a pretty interesting story. While I have read book(s) before were characters were able to swap bodies (don't ask me for titles as I cannot recall), it was interesting to see how the Council and the Sixteen (the rebel group) were both working towards their own goals in regards to the secrecy of soul jumpers. Now that was interesting because both sides couldn't have been in more opposition in thought process. You could say that I enjoyed seeing the contrasting thoughts of the two sides, because it gave the character story-lines that much more drama.
   Even though I enjoyed seeing the two different sides of the story, I was left flummoxed because the story, apparently, picked up right after Iris was taken/joined the Sixteen in order to find her father. Well, let's just say that there was a lot of backstory that I missed with not reading the first book. Even so, I still found myself able to enjoy this one because Iris, and her story, was such an interesting one. Besides, I wanted to know if my theories were correct when it came to certain characters that left me suspicious of their motives.

Well, it took me some time to enjoy reading about Iris. Mostly because I felt left in the dark as to how she got to be in the situation that she was in, yet, as I read further and witnessed the way she pushed through the tough times and survived, well, that's when I really started to like her. In the end, I liked her because she had a clear goal, that of rescuing her father, and was not about to give up on it or him.

Plot-wise, The Sixteen was quite interesting as there was the whole traitor angle to consider. While I'm not going to tell y'all who caused the misfortune plaguing Iris in this book, I can say that I was totally right in my assumptions because I can smell a traitor from 200 pages away.
   Yet, while I enjoyed the plot, it was the main story-line of the soul jumpers that was really interesting to read about. Even though it was creepy how they could jump into the body of someone dying when their body was dying as well. Though, it was that point that made it interesting because the other "form" was already empty.
    My only problem with the whole soul jumping thing is this: how on earth is the damaged body they take over still functioning!!!! That right there bothered me. Sure, it was mentioned that the soul jumper's rejuvenated the new "form", yet, that is not enough of an answer for me. I want a concrete reason, within the world of the book, on how this works.

Other than my irritation of not reading book one and the how's and why's of the soul jumping, the only story-wise things that bothered me were the hunters. As ones that would find the new soul jumpers. I wanted to know how they knew were to look. I just felt that a little more information as to how that all worked out would have been nice.

Final Verdict: The Sixteen- Turned out to be a pretty fascinating read.

The Sixteen  earns

this book was received in exchange for an honest review.