Official Review: Sadie's Harvest and the Book of Souls

[Jax14]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Sadie's Harvest and the Book of Souls" by Josephine Usrey.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Sadie’s Harvest and the Book of Souls by Josephine Usrey is a fantasy novel and suitable for young adults. It is an adventure story with no profanity or scenes of a sexual nature, but does contain references to demons and devils.

Sadie and Simon are orphaned siblings who are desperate to find a way to keep their farm going and ensure they have enough money to survive. Simon is doing all he can to sell items off and put food on the table, while Sadie stubbornly clings to keepsakes in memory of their parents. They are approached by the director of the local orphanage who offers to take Sadie in, but even though they have heard great things about the orphanage, something tells Simon to hold back. The two go into town one day to sell a few things, where at a mysterious booth that not everyone can see, Sadie encounters a man named Mulidesa who assures her he can help with their harvest. All Sadie has to do is sign her soul away. The offer sounds incredible and Sadie signs the deal, unaware of the warlock’s evil nature. As promised, their harvest flourishes, but there is a twist and the warlock has sent evil birds to destroy it. Sadie makes another deal and seals her fate in order to protect the harvest as this new deal too has a twist. Simon now has the task of rescuing his sister and in his quest meets people from near and far in places he never knew existed. He will battle demons and wraiths, get help from a majestic elk, find the love of his life and meet beings that change his life forever. But will he be able to rescue Sadie’s soul from the contract? And what of all the other names in the Book of Souls?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a little simplistic in the writing in places, yet a clever idea and the way it was rolled out was consistent. You get caught up in Simon’s desperation to save the farm and his frustration with Sadie as she constantly pouts about him selling their items. You can, however, also feel Sadie’s worry that by getting rid of them that Simon is getting rid of the memory of their parents. The contract twists that Mulidesa has are very clever and the way Simon has to work around them with Riley’s help is a genuine lightbulb moment. There are a couple of parts in the story that come as a shock and you reread them just to make sure you read them correctly in the first place as they are things you never thought would happen. As the journey goes on and more and more characters are introduced, a whole new world of ideas is opened and it becomes heartwarming to see people working selflessly together to save others. The young adult take on the good versus evil emphasises the importance of doing good in a way that is not exceptionally scary for that age bracket but still has enough of a punch to bring the message home.

The writing is simple with short sentences so sometimes as an adult you want a bit more from the sentence but the length is necessary for the age group it is intended for. The editing was very good with only a few mistakes but my biggest gripe was that the story was, in essence, told from Simon’s perspective yet there were POV jumps throughout the entire story. This meant that you would see the situation from someone’s vantage point and the next thing you would be experiencing a different emotion in someone else’s head. This made it very confusing at times as you were not sure where you were seeing the story from until a name or trait was mentioned.

Overall, I thought the story was great fun in a sombre kind of way and I liked the underlying theme of sticking together and helping each other no matter what. There are a few scenes of violence that, while not described in graphic detail on the page, may cause a younger reader with a vivid imagination to struggle a little. But in the end, the lesson the reader should take out is to never give up. I enjoyed the story but had to take a star off for the confusing POV jumps so I rate Sadie’s Harvest and the Book of Souls 3 out of 4 stars and recommend it to those young readers who want a taste of adventure with a bit of supernatural thrown in.

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Sadie's Harvest and the Book of Souls
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[xoxoAnushka]

The story itself looks quite interesting. Nice review. I am going to put it in my TBR list.

[Rayasaurus]

Even despite the POV jumps, this book sounds like a thrilling read! The supernatural aspects would keep me on the edge of my seat, I think. Thank you for the review!

[Ngozi Onyibor]

Though I'm not the target audience, still, this seems like a fun read. Besides, I like that it's packed with life lessons for young adults. Thanks for your detailed review.

[Nisha Ward]

This reminds me of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe crossed with the story of the Snow Queen but set on a farm with no snow in sight, to be honest. There's a lot of classic fantasy elements here that I like, though I do wonder if Simon can rescue Sadie pppcompletely.