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The humans – Leone and Mitch, primarily – were once Charlie's friends, until they misunderstood his experience in a ghostly deathloop (reliving that person's death, with real physical consequences) as a suicide attempt. At first, you wonder about their motives and how they fit into the story, and you share Charlie's mistrust of them. But, just as Charlie does, their real motives and personalities are revealed in a way that allow us to see the situation through Charlie's eyes, with a new understanding. I really loved reading this book. It has a thrilling plot, fascinating world-building and amazing character development. The writing is also great. And not to forget the queer representation. Not only are the main characters queer but also a bunch of the side characters. Triggers: mentions of disability, double-prosthesis, coming out, secondary character cancer/chemo, minor character child death, past history of meningitis, mentions of minor character death/suicide/murder
These were the sons of Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—that she bore to Jacob: 16 persons.The plot was generally good. Charlie, however, is a blinking idiot, who keeps leaping to conclusions that he is absolutely certain are correct, only to be proven wrong. Everyone treating his assumptions as facts had me close to yelling at the characters to stop being so stupid! Then he suddenly realises towards the end of the book that he's actually had the answers within his head the whole time and is able to lay out large sections of exposition. A couple of the major revelations felt a bit obvious from about halfway through, but there were still plenty of surprises and revelations to keep me entertained. Some of the revelations did feel like they came out of nowhere right at the end though, with characters and organisations dropped in to the text at the eleventh hour in a slightly jarring way. The reason why I am telling you all of this is to illustrate that I, as a mood reader, was basically set up to resent/dislike this book because I was being 'forced' to read it at a time where I could barely read anything at all, and then stressing about having to interview the author of a book I might not like and/or hadn't finished reading... The world building and all of the different characters can be a bit much but it was so well written you were able to follow everything within their respective timelines and lifelines. these are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and these she bore to Jacob—sixteen persons). I’m going to dive into one of the plot points because it reminded me of something I’d seen recently. I do not recall if this is spoiler-y or not, so I’ll use tags where needed.
What advice do you have for writers looking to incorporate supernatural and fantasy elements in their work? That comment goes for the approach to disability rep as well. We don’t see disabled MCs nearly enough, and disabled MCs done well are even rarer, so the minute Charlie is introduced with the main thing bothering him about his prostheses being the glitter polish his little sisters had taken to them, my heart sang. Reading little things like Charlie’s opposition to push handles on his wheelchair told me how much Talbot got it, and was so affirming. Just like his queerness, his disability is not a plot-point in itself, something he has to overcome, something that makes him special or gifted, something that’s forgotten about as soon as the action gets going, or any other kind of trope, it’s simply a consistent part of who he is. Again, the power in this character just boldly existing, and NOT feeling the weight of representation, blew me away. It feels like this book has the ability to teach people so much without them even realising it’s happening, which is something truly special. This was a wild ride through and through. Rosie Talbot has created a magical world with her wonderful writing and amazingly well fleshed out characters. I had no idea what to expect from the ending, but this absolutely blew me away.This book was just the perfect Halloween surprise for me. I was approached by one of my fellow team members at Fantasy Fellowship asking me if I'd like to interview the author, Rosie Talbot, with him. She's big on BookTok, he says, you have a lot in common with her, you both like spooky things, are both bi, and both share the same values when it comes to LGBTQIA+ and disability/chronic illness issues. I will confess that at the time, I felt a bit put upon, what with being in the middle of the Battle of the Five Worlds readathon, having already mapped out my TBR, and having already very recently done another video for the fellowship (like, within the same week). I also had a very very short window in which to read it between release day (Thursday) and formulating questions to send off to Rosie on the Friday. The interview itself would then take place on a Saturday. Sixteen Souls is a boundlessly clever, heartfelt queer take on the story of a sensitive young man who sees dead people. Talbot has crafted something chillingly delightful! Perfect for any ghoul-lover’s shelf!” - Adam Sass, author of Surrender Your Sons and The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers So in spite of the fact that it made for a great read, I couldn’t believe this trial would ever have gotten into the court system. The argument that the lives of the people on the Boeing should have been prioritized was not convincing.
Describing the aftermath of a collision like that would be enough to keep most thriller writers happy, but author Nance is a former pilot himself and decides to up the ante by having the emergency landing provide the possible crime in what then becomes a courtroom thriller. For it seems that, after the large plane lands, Marty finds himself on trial for murder, since a few of his passengers did not survive. And, if that weren’t enough, his attorney, Judith Winston, is a corporate lawyer pressed into taking the case rather than facing the ire of the trial judge. A delightfully spooky, humorous and marvellously plot twisty romp that hooked with the promise of ghost-filled antics, that I’m happy to report did NOT disappoint! Charlie, as a main character, was brilliantly written. As I said earlier -- and I'll probably keep repeating, because it's so important – he is relatable and interesting, capable of keeping your attention, stirring your emotions, and connecting with the reader in a way that is VITAL to a good book. I've read so many books with promising plots, but dull main characters, and there was NO risk of this here.
If you are looking for a queer paranormal fantasy for the spooky season, I highly recommend reading Sixteen Souls. Sam never got his own POV, but he was as much a main character as Charlie, right from Chapter 1, and that remained all throughout the novel. I never felt like he was forgotten, left behind, or that I couldn't connect to him because we never got to see his POV. The concept of magic is rather fascinating, our main character can see ghosts and there is this idea of mathemagics that blends magic with something more technical and logical, as well as seers, I also love how Charlie has some ghosts as real friends that are constantly there for him.
These are the sons of Zelpha, whom Laban gave to Lia his daughter. And these she bore to Jacob, sixteen souls.
What’s strange is I will recommend this book to so many people. I think it’s fantastic as a recommendation and it wasn’t written for me. It is YA so I will be giving this to all my nieces and nephews and telling anyone who knows teens to gift it. These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and she bore to Jacob these sixteen persons. These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.
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