All her life, seventeen-year-old Chessie has had recurring dreams about a little white farmhouse. Quaint? Not quite. The house is the site of the unsolved murders of Villisca, Iowa, where eight people were slaughtered in 1912. With her parents on the verge of divorce, Chessie is stuck spending the summer with her grandparents in Villisca—right across the street from the axe murder house.

She’s soon hearing voices calling out for help and begins unraveling a link between herself and the town’s bloody history. And when she falls for a cute boy harboring a big secret, the pieces fall into place as she at last discovers the truth of Villisca's gruesome past…


THings evolved in ways I didn't expecct and the ending was sp a surprised, but there were rsome plot holes but it is little stuff in terms of timelines an clear connections.

I wasn’t able to read this one as I have not been able to download a copy. As I was bot able to read the book, I will still give it a five star review because it was not the author’s fault.

This book drew me in right from the start. I loved trying to find and figure out the connections to the Axe Murder House and Chessie and David's secret. I loved the predictability in the beginning that gave me some comfort in knowing what was going to happen but then that was all thrown out the window in the end. I really enjoyed this book and diving into the characters and their backstory as well as the history of the house. It was a very interesting read.

This was an okay book. Took a while to get into but got more interesting as it went along. It's about a girl who goes to stay with her grandparents for the summer, in a small town. She's bored and resentful, and to make things worse, right across the street from her grandparents' home is a house where 8 people were horrifically murdered. Before long the girl is having scary dreams that seem very real, starts hearing creepy voices and seeing freaky things. She enlists the help of two local boys who run a ghost busting service. It got more and more interesting as the mystery progressed. There was nothing particularly outstanding about it. The characters weren't particularly memorable and it was a bit predictable from about half way through. For the most part it was well written with a decent story, would recommend for people who like quick ghosty reads.

The plot overall took a surprising turn that I didn't see coming when I began the book and even better, I was completely wrong about the person who I suspected about the misdeeds (I actually love being wrong about book theories because that means the author did a great job with misdirection). I went into 8 Souls anticipating a ghost/horror story, and while there were terrifying elements and some ghostly activity, I feel like this was more a paranormal mystery with some romance thrown in for flavor. I liked what the author provided and I will completely be back for more of whatever else she wants to write.

This is the perfect standalone spooky read for anyone who likes mysteries, scary ghost encounters, redemption and romance. The characters were well developed and engaging and I rooted for some sort of happy ending even while I anticipated the worst. I ended up reading this in a day because I did not want to put it down, I needed to know how everything would play out. 8 Souls is the perfect choice for anyone looking for a paranormal mystery full of spooky ambiance and starcrossed love.

8 Souls was a book I couldn't put down. It was fantastic and I didn't want it to end. The characters were well developed, the plot was well thought out, and I enjoyed every moment.

What to say? What to say?
I honestly enjoyed this book a lot. It was. Alittle outside my wheel house, but I still enjoyed it.

It had some very well writen characters and a very fast paced and intriguing story. And I'm honestly super glad that I was able to get a copy of this one to try and give a chance to.

⭐⭐⭐⭐A most definite 4 star read for me⭐⭐⭐⭐

8 Souls is a creepy and disturbing book that was not necessarily my cup of tea, but has been a good treat for my high school students, especially during the Halloween season. It has bits of mystery, horror, and suspense. Thank you for allowing me to review it before adding it to the collection!

If you are looking for a horror/scary title that is like those scream queen movies where the main character is a girl who makes bad choices and has never seen a horror movie then this book might be for you.

For me it make the story feel really dumb in places. I just didn't really like the Cheesie at all and the story had some issues for me. Where things weren't explained and characters being cardboard cut outs of teens in high school.

At times the story felt like it was going to go way dark then just didn't. It made me feel like the author was trying to be clean without going to far into the dark corners of a horror story.

Overall, this one could have been really good but it lacked what I look for in a scary story.

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me through NetGalley. This book was just absolutely wonderful. It was just so easy to get lost in and I just couldn’t put it down. I was just so lost within this story that I just didn’t want it to end. I most definitely will read more by this author.

I am behind on feedback for things, but it is definitely past time for me to talk about how much I enjoyed this book. 8 Souls had a premise that I haven't seen in a story before, and I think that's probably what made me love this the most. See, Chessie has been having dreams about an old house for years, and now they're progressing to the point that she can't ignore them anymore. This book is a little bit horror, a little bit thriller, and a whole lot of mystery. The fact that there's a swoon-worthy boy in this book, who also needs saving by Chessie, was just the icing on the cake. The whole story of redemption, and of letting go of guilt, really spoke to me. I powered through this book in a matter of hours, and it left me hungry for more.

Chessie dreams of an old and derelict house every night without fail. Turns out, that house is right across from her grandparents house and has a dark past. Its nicknamed the axe murder house, how terribly clever right? She is staying at her grandparents house for the summer while her parents are getting divorced.

I'm unsure on how much I like the dialogue of the main character. I'm just not a big fan of her attitude but i really wanted to know what was going to go on with this house so I kept going.

"People are afraid of the devil when they really should be afraid of each other." David says to Chessie. This quote was absolute perfection to me.

Full of twists and turns, this book is sooooo good once Chessie steps up!

Excellent mix of fact and fiction to give a very entertaining story. Very well-written, engaging and not just for YA readers.

8 Souls, a horror book, was a solid 4 stars. Centering around main character Chessie-a 17 year old girl who is spending the summer with her grandparents in Villisca, Iowa. Subject to paranormal targetting, Chessie decides enough is enough, and investigates the happenings. Incorporating an interesting, and perhaps non-niche typicalised twist, Rust manages to encapsulate fear, and violence into a novel suitable for a YA Horror genre.

Thankyou for the chance to honestly review 8 souls. I can keep this short and sweet. I was intrigued mostly because of the Visilica Axe Murder House. The world and characters could have been fleshed out much more for my taste. It also needed some more "horror" aspects. 3 out of 5 stars.

What I Loved:

~The creepiness- I love a good creepy YA, and this definitely delivered. Chessie is staying with her grandparents who live in a house right across the street from the site of a brutal slaughter. 8 people were killed but the mystery behind who and why is still unclear, over 100 years later. 8 SOULS takes the familiar haunted house trope and gives it an exciting spin.

~The romance- Though the romance was sometimes stretched, it definitely has really sweet and spicy moments, and I found it overall to be a fun addition.

What Left Me Wanting More:

~Unclear plot- There are several times throughout where the plot seems to jump from one twist to another without really explaining the twist or putting the pieces together. In certain areas, this made me break my suspension of disbelief and pulled me out of the otherwise intriguing story.

Final Verdict:

I liked the first half a bit more than the second half, but overall, 8 SOULS delivers a deliciously creepy paranormal murder mystery that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy.

Thankyou to NetGalley, LLC Publishing and the author, Rachel Rust, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of 8 Souls in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought this book provided a good quick read. I was intrigued from the start.
The storyline was well thought out and written. It certainly was atmospheric in its imagery. Certainly provided a few chilling moments.
Worth a read.

I don’t believe I have read anything like this before. I went in not knowing what to expect, no prior experiences with this author, and I enjoyed it. I didn’t devour it in one sitting but it was good.

Villisca, Iowa is known for murder. For the deaths of eight people in 1912. For the Ax Muder house. The house that seventeen year old Chessie has been dreaming about her entire life, sometimes new and lived in, sometimes as it is now slowly falling in on itself across the street from her grandparents’ house. Across the street from where she’ll be spending the entire summer while her parents work out the details of their divorce. Amid nightmares and ghostly voices, Chessie finds herself stuck trying to figure out her connection to the Ax Murder house and David, the mysterious boy who knows more than he lets on and so, so many secrets.

So, I make no secret of the fact that I love haunted house stories and horror in general. The promise of a small town with dark secrets and a house that can’t forget pulled me to Rachel Rust’s 8 Souls. It’s a book that was pretty good for what it is and than just misses the mark for what I wanted it to be. Notable differences there.
This being a book published by Entangled Teen, I knew to expect a fairly large romance side plot. That’s just what they do as a publisher. The mysterious boy is mentioned in the blurb. It’s something that I was going to have to roll with. My issue, of course, comes not from the existence of this romance plot but from how much feels underdone in the face of and about it.

There were a lot of ideas that could have been fantastic if they’d been given more room or if they’d been introduced earlier. Most of the stuff about the haunting and David’s whole deal could have worked fantastically if they’d been worked in earlier and given more page space. Make that a thing alongside Chessie thinking that David and Mateo were pranking her with the whole ghost hunting deal. Spend more time with Chessie trying to figure out what’s going on instead of avoiding David and watching Netflix instead of looking into the thing haunting her. Even the romance itself felt rushed along once Chessie decided that she could trust what David was saying.

The antagonist gets hit with this harder than most other details. There’s a thread throughout the book about these little girls having gone missing and that there’s more disappearances and strange deaths in Villisca than most cities its size. But there isn’t much done with that until right at the end. It was almost to the point that I’d forgotten about it in a couple of places. There were a couple of characters who might have been antagonists or, in a more horror focused book, solid red herrings. But nothing came of them and the antagonist was left feeling like they’d been brought in out of left field. A last minute, one more thing, secret that David hadn’t bothered to mention yet. It was an idea that got introduced and used within pages so the story could rush on to the climax. That was frustrating for me, because the antagonist and the climax both could have been so, so good with a little tweaking and a little more page space.

That’s pretty well where I land on 8 Souls. Rust did a good job with the setting, a small town that’s losing people as time goes on. The real world Villisca, Iowa was actually the scene of an ax murder of eight people, so that’s something that could be interesting to look more into after reading this. But it is very much a book that wants for a little more. A little more to the horror, and the characters, and the buildup. As a YA romance with supernatural elements, it’s functional. With more time to percolate it could have been fantastic, and for that I give it a three out of five. I would be willing to read Rachel Rust again, but I also want to see what she would do in another genre.

*I want to thank Netgalley for sending me a copy for an honest review.*

In this book we follow Chessie who’s been having nightmares of a little farm house since she was a very young age. This house is the same house where 8 people were murdered and is now sort of haunted. Her parents are going through a divorce so she moves in with her grandparents for the summer, the problem is that farmhouse is right across the street from them. She starts to hear voices and experience paranormal behavior in her room which faces the house. She hears the voice of a little girl asking for help. While the hauntings are going on there are little girls in the town going missing and one even showed up dead. Chessie believes that the killing in the farmhouse is connected to the killings going on in her current time. So she tries to investigate what’s actually happened on that day and what’s happening to these little girls.

I went really excited to read this, it was a good and fast paced read. But I felt like there wasn’t enough scary things happening. I also felt like it was a bit cheesy and kiddish. Also the happy ending in the end threw me off completely and just lowered the rating for me. I felt like everything that happened was expected and not much of a surprise. It was also very underwhelming.

What I liked were the characters in the book. Chessie was a really good character to follow. I liked how crazy the villain was but I wished we got more details entailing exactly why he did it and why he changed his mind.

Overall, this is a story for someone getting into horror, paranormal books. Not someone expecting a lot more detail and a lot more scary events happening.