Review: 8 Souls by Rachel Rust

Author: Rachel Rust
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: May 2019

All her life, seventeen-year-old Chessie has had recurring dreams about a little white farmhouse. Quaint? Not quite. The house is the site of the unsolved murders of Villisca, Iowa, where eight people were slaughtered in 1912. With her parents on the verge of divorce, Chessie is stuck spending the summer with her grandparents in Villisca—right across the street from the axe murder house.

She’s soon hearing voices calling out for help and begins unraveling a link between herself and the town’s bloody history. And when she falls for a cute boy harboring a big secret, the pieces fall into place as she at last discovers the truth of Villisca's gruesome past… 

8 Souls is exactly the type of YA supernatural story that I would have loved reading when I was a teen.  Don't get me wrong, as an adult, I did enjoy it, but this is the type of book I was craving in high school.  

In 8 Souls we follow Chessie (don't call her Francesca) as she stays with her grandparents for the summer while her parents are going through a divorce.  She begins to experience waking dreams and a ghostly presence in her closet.  She finally gives in and asks for help from two local boys who are into ghost hunting. There are also a number of local girls who  have gone missing. That is all you need to know before picking this book up.

I found the book very creepy and full of surprises. It was fast paced and made for a quick read. The characters were engaging and I didn't have a hard time becoming invested in them..  It's so hard to say my favorite part of the plot without giving away anything major.  I'll just say I loved the direction that the author went with one of the characters.  It was unique and not something I have read in a long time.  I highly recommend this one.  It's fairly clean and not gory, so I would say it's OK for age 13 and up.  I look forward to reading more from this author.