I wanted to like this book, the concept is interesting and the characters play nicely off each other. But something about the book left me feeling deflated. The premises is different from any fantasy or gothic novel I’ve read before. Jane Silverlake has the ability to “see the souls of man-made objects.” And through physical contact she can share this gift. At first I was put-off by her ability, how can an inanimate object have a “soul”? While the synopsis on the back describes it as such, I think it’s more accurate to say that Jane feels the energy of the objects. They make lightheaded and feel ill and as the story progresses, her ability causes her to have flashbacks of the object’s life. Jane shares her gift with her friends Nathan and Madeline. Things take a turn for the worst when Nathan becomes too obsessed with Jane’s unique talent and finds himself trapped under the eyes of cult leader, Ariston Day. He goes missing and it’s up to the well-know inspector Vidocq to find him. But Jane and Madeline, who share romantic feelings for Nathan, can’t let Vidocq know the truth. In a desperate attempt to save their friend, Jane and Madeline must break the boundaries of reality. What I couldn’t get over was how little I cared about the characters. The romantic aspects of the novel were dry and predictable. I stuck with it out of curiosity, I will give the author that much. While this novel was entertaining (and even promising at first), it was lacking. A debut novel without much meat. There were parts that I found enjoyable but at one point I gave up reading it word for word and just skimmed the rest of the novel because it was moving so slow. I felt like nothing was reaching a resolution. The ending itself had a twist which helped boost my opinions of it, it was an ending that gave an solid explanation but was less than satisfying.
