The World is Full of Monsters
We are presented with a character named Benjamin Poe, in the prologue, before the book begins. He wears an orange jumpsuit and has spent four years in a maximum-security prison. Did he really do it? What caused him to do such a thing? He is an ordinary guy who followed all the rules, but he “didn’t know until THAT night that the world is full of monsters. Monsters with dark souls and claws, waiting for the chance to tear you apart.”
Part One of the book tells Poe’s story. He is a firefighter in the small community of Lochton, Illinois. His son Gabriel is an uncommunicative teenager. He is old enough to work, drive, and move out on his own.
Poe’s wife, Lexi, becomes angry when he forgets her birthday. The strain on their marriage stems back to a time when their two-year-old daughter, Riley was killed by an eight-year-old boy named Billy Babbitt while their son, Gabriel, watched.
When fire breaks out at College Inn, where Gabriel works, Poe worries about his son’s safety as he speeds to the scene with his crew of fellow firefighters. The experts suspect arson and there are casualties. After Gabe is found, Poe begins to suspect Gabe of starting the fire that killed Gabe’s despised coworkers and boss. When we-the-reader meet Crighton, the collector of souls, and the devil’s right hand, we wonder whether Gabe had a choice in the matter. It is as if the devil made Gabe do it and he never really had a choice in the matter.
I was hooked by the tragic story of Benjamin Poe’s wretched, cursed life. The story is frightening and I resolved to read this nightmarish book early in the day, rather than near bedtime. I imagined Stephen King cowering in the corner in fear, reading this book, as I turned the pages and the chapters advanced. I made a note, seventeen percent into the book, “Creepy, dark, and scary.”
Part Two takes this story to a whole other level. I hope there isn’t such a place as hell, and if there is, I hope it isn’t as depicted in this book. The author paints a vivid, unforgettable picture of hell and the battle between good and evil from the perspective of the latter.
SOUL SEEKER is an exceptionally well-written book. The plot is relentless. The characters are artfully presented. What the author has created for us is something almost unimaginable, until she had the nerve to conjure it up. It IS like two, very different books in one, and who doesn’t like a buy one, get one deal?
Read it if you dare. My rating for SOUL SEEKER: five fiery stars.