The Oldest Soul: Animus
By Tiffany FitzHenry
I’m always commenting on how unique the books I agree to review are and this one is no different. I’m really not playing this up, this is truly one of a kind and I’m happy I had the chance to read it. I’ll admit, this is a bit out of my genre and I probably would not have ever picked up this book on my own. That being said, this is a prime example of how it is possible to write a good review for a book you may not have necessarily liked.
The first point I’m going to highlight is the editing. This was a great book for any grammar Nazi to read. I’m really not one who cares much for punctuation—I can five-star the worst edited book if the story is good enough! Don’t get me wrong, I’ll certainly point it out in my review, but I’m a reader that’s gripped only by the story and this story happened to have both great editing and great writing. It deserves an awesome rating just for that.
The next point is the characterization. FitzHenry had to work out a personality for a girl who’d been reliving life over the course of centuries. That’s something I can barely wrap my head around but it was done well. I really liked Eve and I liked the play on her name as the oldest soul, it felt like an homage to Eve from the Bible as the first female on earth.
The last thing I liked very much was the actual story itself. I do believe in souls and a certain extent of the supernatural—maybe even the concept of soulmates. I’m Christian after all! But I don’t at all believe in reincarnation so I took this in as a complete work of fiction. I’m not sure if the author’s intention was to have this interpreted as purely fiction, because there are belief systems that wholly swear by reincarnation, but for me it was fiction. And it was great fiction. I will say that there is a great amount of knowledge and depth poured into this book. If you don’t know much about the concept of reincarnation, then you will learn a bit here along with the input of the author’s amazing imagination.
The Oldest Soul is about a teenage girl named Eve. Eve happens to be the oldest soul on earth which is all cool but the trouble comes when she realizes she is helplessly torn between her ‘soulmate’ and a new romance with a recently discovered soul. It’s a classic love triangle right down to the soul. I’ve read that this book has been compared to Twilight as a cross between Twilight and The Da Vinci Code. I completely agree with that! It’s like Twilight for the thinking reader—I don’t mean much offense by that!
This is a book I would recommend to young adult readers who love romance and a bit of suspense. It’s definitely a refreshing departure from your average sci-fi or supernatural romance and you’ll love every word of it.
*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*