What if your soul could live on in the next life? What if that soul was the worst criminal that ever lived?

http://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2016/09/soulprint-by-megan-miranda.html

So you see, it’s not just the past life that can come back to haunt you. It’s the past in this life, too.
-Megan Miranda (Soulprint p 190)
Data can be used however one sees fit to twist it. The truth can be anything. We are dealing with human beings here. There’s no control for a human being. Way too many variables. It could be the truth. Evil is evil, Alina, there’s no other explanation.
-Megan Mirada (Soulprint p 289)
“I don’t care,” I say. But that’s not exactly true. It’s more that there are degrees of caring, and degrees of truth, and what you want and what you need are very rarely the same thing.
-Megan Miranda (Soulprint p 317)
There’s no pattern to falling in love. At least, nothing I can understand. Not something I could see beforehand. Not something I can decipher after, either. Trust can be earned, piece by piece, like links in a chain. But love is more like faith, or belief: it’s a leap. It’s hurtling over the edge of the cliff and trusting you will not drown.
-Megan Miranda (Soulprint p 351) ( )

Thank you to the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my review in any way.

I know we’re only a month in, but I have no trouble calling it – this is one of the best books of 2015.

Imagine your soul could be traced and you could find out who had it before you did. What would you do with that information, the information that you were once better or worse than you are now? Would you let it haunt you, take over your life? Alina Chase had no choice in the matter. Her soul belonged to a criminal considered so dangerous that when she died, all babies born were tested to see which one had her soul and the results were made public. For her own protection, Alina was contained on an island, always living in the shadow of the person she might turn out to be. When she manages to escape from her prison, her past self sets her on a path to uncover secrets to her past life which will change her own future.

From the very start, from chapter one, I absolutely loved it. It is exciting from the very beginning – it had my heart pumping and I don’t think it stopped until after I turned the last page. There are parts where it may seem a little slow but it doesn’t settle down (I think this is an important distinction) from the moment the escape starts to develop, as we learn what put Alina in her prison and how her life was not her own, how she was now paying for someone else’s crimes. We learn the motives of her co-conspirators and what they’re hoping to gain from her escape. I was invested the whole way through. Alina is determined and brave, and I couldn’t help but admire her and how she reacted in her rapidly changing situation.

The characters are extraordinarily well developed and complex. There were few of them that we really see, which meant there was enough time to really get to know each one. Soulprint is a standalone (rare in the YA trend of sometimes crazy long series!) so you don’t have multiple books to develop a multitude of characters. I loved the slow burn of the romance, another rare thing in YA, and it seemed as if I could really feel it developing, I could understand it. And the budding romance between Alina and Cameron, one of her rescuers, isn’t the only interesting relationship dynamic because you also have Cameron’s sister, Casey, a talented hacker. The familial relationship between her and Cameron is beautifully done and I loved the suspicion she had of Alina – is that a weird thing to say? Casey is very protective of her brother and this is portrayed in a fantastic way. The wary friendship she forms with Alina is shaken by Alina’s feelings for Cameron, which happens despite Casey’s protests and insistence that now is not the time. It felt realistic. And me? I love realistic, alongside all the secrets and tantalizing mystery.

And you know what else is great? The author has a degree in Biology! That really stands out for me as you can tell the soulprint, while less is known about it, is based on DNA and its written by someone who really knows what they’re talking about.

I could have easily read more books about this futuristic world, about the struggle that comes with knowing who you used to be, about the characters and where they went next. But I guess I’m okay with this being a standalone too – a story I can come back to again and again, which I anticipate I will do in the future.
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Soulprint is a new sci-fi/thriller novel with an extremely fascinating premise. It looks at the soul in an interesting way, looking at it from social and scientific viewpoints, rather than as a part of any particular spirituality. It takes place in a world in which science has advanced to the point of being able to soulprint, much like fingerprinting. The social ramifications of that ability are at the center of this book and the protagonist, Alina Chase.

Alina is not imprisoned, but "contained," solely on the basis of her soul having previously belonged to a woman that was considered to be an extremely dangerous criminal. The science and thought behind soulprinting was that the soul remains unchanged from life to life, leaving one predisposed to certain behaviors. Because of that belief and the depth of the criminality that her soul has supposedly possessed, Alina has lived almost her entire life isolated on an island, surrounded only by an ever rotating staff of people that take care of her without ever truly caring for her. And then things change and she has been broken out of her prison? But for what reason? And is her new life any less a prison?

This is a fast-pased thriller with so many twists and turns as Alina, and those who broke her free, explore her past to find answers. Her character is one I truly loved. She is smart, strong, and determined, unwilling to meekly follow others without finding answers for herself. The author leaves bread crumbs for readers, bits and pieces of the mystery that allow the reader to guess at different parts of it without giing it all away. It was a great way to build anticipation along the way.

Alina never really believed that her soul's previous incarnation meant that she, too, would be a criminal. But as her path to discovering more led her to question that and wonder if perhaps the soulprinter advocates were correct in their theory. The story was as much one of growth and change for Alina as it was a sci-fi thriller.

I loved that the book looked at the idea of souls, and reincarnation, from a point of view that was not religious. It was a nice twist to look at it from such a different perspective and it made for a interesting read.

My Recommendation: I would definitely recommend this for sci-fi and thriller lovers alike! ( )

When I saw the premise for this book it immediately sounded promising and I wanted to snatch up a copy. Who doesn’t like a speedy science-fiction thriller that sends you on an adrenaline rush though intrigue, mayhem, action, and romance? If you like all of those things, then this book is for you.

Megan Miranda packs a lot of interesting concepts into her novel and twists them in such a way to make them fresh and thoughtful. The very concept of soul printing and souls finding new hosts after death draws on an inventive way of looking at reincarnation and paying for one’s previous life’s mistakes. This is the catch for Alina; she is paying for another person’s crimes in a previous life when she’s done nothing wrong. Alina lives and survives injustice which makes her a heroine you can’t help but cheer for. She’s strong, witty, and a survivor.

The pacing and plotting of this novel is intense, fast, and keeps you hooked on the edge of your seat. I had a really hard time putting this book down, and I really love this book. There are so many twists and turns that if you look away you’ll feel like you missed something. As I’ve said with many books I’ve read lately in the dystopian genre, this novel reads as thought it was made for the movie screen. I’m sure it would make an exciting film. It’s that engrossing.

And yes, there’s romance in the story that will give you plenty of “awwwws.” Cameron…sigh. But I can’t tell you any more.

I could have used a little more development in the way of writing. This technical side of the novel left a little to be desired; the prose could have been polished and edited a little bit more. Some sentences and portions felt choppy. Furthermore, the character and world development could have been polished a bit; I still have questions about the characters’ backgrounds, looks, and feel like I still need a bit more to REALLY know them. Particularly I wanted more background development on the whole idea of soul printing, but this still didn’t detract from my reading experience I had enough information to make sense of everything, but just a tad more would have made the story perfect.

The bottom line is this book has everything YA fans look for in a great read: lots of exciting action, intrigue, kick-ass characters, romance, and cinematic scenes and plotting. If you’re looking for a great spring read, this book is sure to satisfy. I’m anticipating it being a huge success. I would absolutely read this again.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review, which does not affect my opinions.
This review originally appeared on my blog: https://literariium.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/megan-miranda-soulprint/ ( )