2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
This book began with the main character finding out that his girlfriend was cheating on him. When he caught her, he was mad, and he heard something telling him to kill them with the bat he was holding. He didn’t listen and looked around instead. He saw a dark figure next to him and beat the shadowy figure instead. When the figure died, a glowing orb lifted from the body and forced itself into the main character’s mouth. This killed him, and he woke up as a reaper in Victorian England. He had an issue though. He was part reaper and part human for some reason that was never really explained in the book. This meant that during the day he was a human and during the night he was a reaper. He met another reaper, Charlie, who kind of explained what was going on. The job of a reaper was to collect the souls of people who died, and because of this, the main character witnessed what happened to the victims of Jack the Ripper. He tried to help the victims.
Review
The main character tried to change the fate of some of the people, but I was expecting more. I was expecting him to try harder, or do more. He tried to find out who Jack really was. Which he did but he sort of just stumbled onto the answer. He tried killing Jack, but wasn’t able to because of…reasons. I wasn’t sure exactly, and I didn’t feel like it was explained well. The main character felt like a weak character. He didn’t really do anything. I didn’t feel like he grew throughout the book at all.
The book had really loose and basic LitRPG elements to it. The main character had a book that had the total number of souls he had collected, the levels of his abilities, and his level. To upgrade himself he had to touch his knife to the book, and then he had to kill the spirits he had absorbed. I didn’t really understand that part. Why did he have to do that? I thought he had to use his Reap Soul ability when he did that, or use his knife, but he only did it sometimes. Other times he would lure the spirits into a building and set it on fire.
This book had an interesting idea but I had a hard time getting through it. The writing was okay. I felt like it was too passive. The beginning seemed to set up a general plot, but I felt like the plot unraveled the further I got in the book. I was a little confused as to what was going on throughout it.
I didn’t know what the point of the story was, especially towards the end. Apparently all of the reapers were actually familiars of a really high level reaper. And all of their reaped souls contributed to this bigwig reaper’s level. This reaper was willing to negotiate with the main character, which I thought was really weird. I was thinking about giving this book 3 out of 5 stars until that negotiation. I felt like it took the tension right out of the story. After all, what does the main character, and therefore the reader, have to worry about if the villain will just do whatever the main character wants him to do?
Another thing I was confused about was why the main character was so shaken by Charlie’s death. Yes, he was the only person who the main character had a relationship with, but the general vibe I got from the main character was annoyance and distrust toward Charlie.
I didn’t feel like the LitRPG elements in the book did much for the story. In my opinion, it would have been better if the book either didn’t have it, or had it a little more developed.
I liked how the ending was almost a full circle ending. After the main character found out what happened to Charlie, he used an ability he had to travel through time to when Charlie became a reaper and talked with him.
Overall, the story was okay. I felt like it just needed more. It needed more tension, more worldbuilding, more to the plot, more to the main character, and especially more to the villain.
Fireheart Books 