Librarything / Goodreads
Genre: Paranormal Young Adult
Received for review from publishers
Rating: 4.5 stars
Pages: 342
Publisher: MIRA Books
Summary: The entire school’s talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr Beck. That is, everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee’s no ordinary high-school junior. She’s a banshee — she screams when someone dies.
But the next scream might be for Kaylee.
Yeah — it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee’s going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine — her boyfriend’s needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human, either.
But Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life. Anything.
Thoughts: If I Die was my favourite Soul Screamers novel, hands down. Rachel Vincent resolved all my complaints, "beat my head against the wall" feelings, and shoot-Nash-in-the-face desires in one tidy little novel. How? Well, she gave Kaylee a gigantic wake-up call in the form of imminent death. *grins* Oh, the joy.
OK, I realise that makes me sound rather evil. But let me put it this way: when a character literally has no reason to hold herself back, she has the chance to let out her true self. And the "true" Kaylee? She's rather brilliant. You see, finding out she is about to die frees Kaylee... it frees her from Nash, from her father, from her schoolmates, and - most importantly - from herself. So when I say "finding out she is about to die is the best thing that ever happened to Kaylee", I really do mean it in the very best of ways.
Now, other than telling you that open-eyes!Kaylee is featured in If I Die, I can't really say much more without spoiling the book for you. In short: the villain was horrifically genius, Tod was swoon-worthily brilliant, Nash was ludicrously screwed-up, Kaylee's Dad was adorably protective, and Sabine was, well... Sabine. *sighs happily*
Bottom line? It is worth reading the first 4 books of the Soul Screamers series just to read If I Die. Seriously. Hell, just consider the first 4 books a very, very long prologue.
Finished the book already? Check out my interview with author Rachel Vincent for her thoughts on the series post-If I Die. She gave me some fantastic answers - read it if you are longing for something to tide you over until the next book!
This was by far my favourite one in the series too, it's almost like a start to a new series. I really can't wait for the next one to be released.
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