Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot

Title: Sixteen Souls

Author: Rosie Talbot

Genre: Supernatural/Ghost story

Publisher: Scholastic Australia/UK

Published: 1^st December 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: Someone is stripping Europe’s most haunted city of its spirits. When self-destructive, 16-year-old seer, Charlie Frith, realises that one of his own ghostly friends has gone missing, he must put aside his own safety—and reclusive existence – if he is to find them. Charlie reluctantly teams up with Sam Harrow – the new seer in town—and a rag-tag group of ghosts, to save their friends from a fate literally worse than death. But there is a dark purpose behind these disappearances—more sinister than Charlie could ever have imagined. And, as he slowly comes to terms with his romantic feelings for Sam, the stakes become even higher as time quickly runs out!

~*~

Double-amputee Charlie Frith has been able to see ghosts since he died and came back to life when he had meningitis – and he has two ghosts – Heather, a doctor, and Ollie, who died one hundred years ago, permanently attached to his side, amidst all the other ghosts he interacts with day-to-day as he lives in York, said to be the most haunted place in Britain. But rumours are swirling in the world of the ghosts, and Charlie’s got someone following him as well. Charlie is sixteen, gay, and a little bit self-destructive, so he has people worried at times, and everyone thinking he’s trying to do things he knows he isn’t. And when one of Charlie’s ghost friends disappears, he has to find out what has happened. But to do so, Charlie has to team up with Sam Harrow. Like Charlie, Sam is a seer – which means they can both see ghosts. But Charlie isn’t sure he can trust Sam – he knows something isn’t quite right, and Sam’s arrival just as ghosts start disappearing feels too coincidental for comfort. But as Sam and Charlie reluctantly team up and get two kids from school, Mitch, and Leonie, involved. It’s up to these four kids to try and save the ghosts of York from a fate worse than death – all whilst Charlie grapples with his feelings for Sam.

Sixteen Souls is a ghost story first and foremost, with a mystery and a touch of romance – which all tied together effectively to create this story. The ghost story and mystery were the key aspects of the storyline, and it ensured that each theme, each genre, each character was given a good amount of time on the page. This helped make the story well-rounded and allowed the characters to evolve and be who they were, wholly and genuinely as we got to know Charlie, Sam, Mitch, and Leonie slowly over the course of the novel. As a reader, I think this was effective, because it meant we got to learn about who they were as we might with people in the real world. We were drip0fed what we needed to know as we needed to know it, and I liked that these characters were diverse as well, and that they got to be who they were, and it didn’t matter to each character – it was just accepted.

I think having LGBTQIA+ characters in this novel, one of whom is disabled (Rosie Talbot acknowledges the help she had to get these details right in her author’s note at the back) allows readers to understand that there are different ways of being who you are. Everyone has the right to be who they are in their lives, and that’s why these characters work so well, and why this story is so good. The characters just are LGBTQIA+, disabled, and everything else that they are. I felt that the characters bolstered the story and the plot and characters worked seamlessly together – it is the kind of story that would work with characters of any identity, and it is definitely one that readers of all identities will get into because it speaks to the experience of young adults today – they’re open, they’re understanding, and they know what language they want to use for their identity. I think this is beautiful – it means they are learning more about acceptance and I think older readers could learn a lot from this book too. It’s one that is scary, so definitely for the older range of young adults, because it has lots of spooky themes as well as death and suicide related themes. It’s not one for sensitive readers, but I do think there will be an audience out there for it.

Another great book from Scholastic.