My Soul to Keep

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

My Soul to Keep is quite possibly the most horrifying story I’ve ever read. I could not live Jessica Jacobs-Wolde’s life. Imagine someone being so obsessed with being around you that he/she cannot allow you a moment of solitude. Imagine knowing that person is immortal, and has committed him/herself to making you immortal too, so that he/she can have you forever. But that’s just the primary plot. This book is so much more.

Much of the plot is driven by a strong emotion. Many people call that emotion love, but it isn’t really love. No, it is a cross between obsession, selfishness, fear, and hubris. That’s not love, but we don’t seem to have another word that accurately expresses this emotion. Dawit’s life is consumed by this emotion. He is immortal, and instead of living, as the other immortals do, among his own kind, Dawit desires to spend long stretches of time with the mortals. I can think of no way to describe his personality other than serial monogamist. Scratch that—an obsessive serial monogamist. He joins the mortals, falls in love, watches those he loves grow old and die. In this novel, he decides that he’s going to pass on his immortality on to Jessica and their daughter, Kira. It doesn’t matter what Jessica wants. He can’t be without his wife and daughter, so he’s going to do what he’s going to do.

This introduces another of My Soul to Keep’s themes. Jessica and Dawit are habitually guilty of not thinking through their ideas to their logical conclusions. Dawit is consumed with sharing his immortality with his wife and daughter. At no point does he consider the consequences. The other immortals would be after Jessica and Kira; they’d face eternal torture and/or imprisonment. Secondly, immortality among those who reproduce is impractical. Without death, there is no room for new life. For her part, Jessica, a journalist, is poor at the art of discretion in her personal life. She knows her life is in danger, but she can’t keep every secret. Her loose lips put people in danger, yet she can’t seem to stop herself. And most damning, she can’t seem to follow the evidence placed before her. speaking of that…

At some level, My Soul to Keep is about the misguided way some religious people think about religion, God, and the ways in which God guides lives. Often—always, when it comes to Jessica—people ignore the signs right in front of their faces and, instead, choose to fault God for the situations in which they find themselves. Every sign, every feeling, every intuition Jessica had told her to run. She didn’t run. Then, when everything went horribly wrong for her, she blamed God. “All the world was a lie. Even God, apparently. Her so-called God had abandoned her. She felt tricked. After David’s recovery at the cabin, she’d believed he was touched by holiness, and nothing could be further from the truth. So much for faith. Why had God led her to David at all in the beginning, and now led him back to her?”

Many, many people behave this way in real life. It’s frustrating, and it’s dangerous. Yet, people live this way. In this manner, My Soul to Keep felt very real—for a given value of “real” in a world with immortal humans. It depicts a horrifying life, and it does it very, very well. This was a great book with terrific world building, realistic characters, and truly frightening moments. I loved it.

A-

Death of a Cozy Writer

Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet

This mystery was good. Not great, but good, and very entertaining. I enjoyed St. Just as both detective and character. He was smart, but not unrealistically so. And the author did a good job of keeping him out of the way. The suspects, the Beauclerk-Fisk family, were fascinating on their own. I’ll definitely read the next in the series.

B-