2 out of 4 stars
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What is your idea of Hell? Is it fire and brimstone? Is it waiting on the phone for hours just to cancel your cable service? In any case, Soul Retrievers by David Burton has a Hell just for you!
The concept of an after-life is key to this book and Burton really put some thought into the different parts of Hell represented throughout this adventure. That’s what this story really is, a sci-fi/fantasy adventure through Hell. The characters were interesting, the plot was intriguing, and the morals put forward, intentional or not, did make me think. There were a few bumps along the path as far as the writing goes so I cannot give this book a great score. After much thought, I have to give it a rating of 2 out of 4.
The foundation of the plot is that innocent souls can be sent to Hell instead of Heaven when they die due to misfiling, essentially. It is stated by the protagonist, Getter, that this appears to be happening more often lately. This recent surge of misplacing innocent souls seems to be corresponding with an increase of missing Soul Retrievers. Soul Retrievers are lifers (people who are not dead yet) that are hired to go into Hell and escort these innocent souls to Heaven. This story is about one trip that Getter, a Soul Retriever, makes to find and escort an innocent little soul named Brittany. It does not go as he planned.
The characters were very interesting and there are many of them. There are Soul Retrievers, souls, demons, and Hell creatures. While being interesting to read about, some of the character design and usage is one of the bumps I mentioned earlier. Getter and his decision-making is one of the biggest problems. It’s mentioned multiple times that he normally just goes into Hell and then gets out without any problems. For some reason, this trip for Brittany does not go that way. It’s a good story-making idea that this one trip goes awry for him, but there’s no example of him being a good Soul Retriever so I just kept thinking that he should really think about switching occupations.
Speaking of occupations, the demons showed me an interesting moral dilemma. For the most part, the demons are just trying to do their jobs. Their job is to torture evil souls that did really bad things in life. The author actually portrays many demons in just this way. They’re just doing their job and they don’t like the idea of innocents being trapped in Hell. So, when demons die, it makes you think “Wow, what a bad day at work.” The descriptions of the demons are very diverse, usually a mix of different animal parts. The only issue with the demon characterization is that a lot of their personalities are very similar, so it can be difficult to tell them apart when they appear.
My favorite character by far is Gregory MacGuffin. His last name is not actually MacGuffin, but I thought it sounded funny since he’s more of a deus ex machina. He is a soul that Getter encounters and befriends on this trip. He’s always there when he needs to be and is a big part of the story. I would love to read a spin-off book based on Gregory’s life and adventures.
There is one major character I have not mentioned yet and that is the environment. It really is its own character. Hell is a big place in this book and there are many different places where souls are tortured in various ways. They are all described vividly and you can almost imagine being there. The writer does a great job of showing the different levels of Hell. There are areas that would be scary to live in for eternity, but they’re not as bad as where rapists and murderers go. It really made me think, what would be the worst area for me?
Overall, the plot and storyline were intriguing and I really wanted to find out what was going to happen next. However, this is where the other bump comes in to play. This bump is the main reason why the rating dropped from a 3 to a 2. The plot kept getting stalled. The writer wanted to put obstacles in Getter’s way to show that he could figure out how to get past them. There is nothing wrong with that and it can be a good way of steering the plot. The problem was that the obstacles weren’t natural enough and they just stalled the story. Most of the obstacles took up too many pages and didn’t add anything to the plot. Near the end of the book, one of these obstacles just becomes kind of silly with its persistence.
I would recommend Soul Retrievers to fans of sci-fi/fantasy that are curious about reading an adventurous after-life story. There is no heavy religious message. There is non-graphic sex, violence, and death. The torturing of souls, including children, in various ways, is a large part of this book. There is also adult-level cursing, but it’s not excessive. I think readers of this book should be at least in their late teens.
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Soul Retrievers
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