Review: If I Die by Rachel Vincent

If I Die (Soul Screamers #5) by Rachel Vincent
Released: 3rd February 2012
Publisher: MIRA
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5

Goodreads description:

No one wants to be this teacher's pet…

The entire school’s talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr Beck. That is, everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee’s no ordinary high-school junior. She’s a banshee — she screams when someone dies.

But the next scream might be for Kaylee.

Yeah — it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee’s going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine — her boyfriend’s needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human, either.

But Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life. Anything

My thoughts:

This is my favourite Soul Screamers book (so far) by a long shot. Almost instantly we're hit with a shocking revelation....Kaylee is going die. I mean, when was the last time you read a book where the main character DIED? Not only is that shocking in itself, but it added a whole different level to the book...a sort of dreadful anticipation, how will it happen, exactly when will it happen...will she ACTUALLY die?

I was a bit fed up of Kaylee in MSTS; but she pretty much redeemed herself in this book. She took the news of her impending death so well, and instead of going out and being totally crazy she chose to spend her last days of life helping people who would never know what she'd done for them; and that's so completely selfless, and so NOT what I would have done. I really admired her. She really held it together in the face of something no one should really have to experience and wanted to do something beneficial with her final hours. At the same time, she sorta let me down a little. All that APOLOGISING to Nash....in my opinion she had very little to actually apologise for, I really wish she'd been a bit stronger, had a bit more of a backbone and said "you know what, this is what has happened and that's it" no crying, and apologising and begging. 

Speaking of which...what happened....OMG. I mean, FINALLY. I totally didn't expect what happened on a more personal level between the characters; I wanted it to happen, but it's so...different to what would traditionally happen in YA that I never thought Rachel Vincent would go there, but she DID and it was EPIC. I am SO happy it did happen, and if you've read this, you know what I'm talking about ;)

Nash...I am so done with Nash. That's pretty much all I have to say about him. You can defend him all you want, but his behaviour in this book was despicable and in my mind, indefensible. He behaved appallingly and honestly I would not be bothered if he had a terrible, tragic accident in Before I Wake. Sabine...yeah, I still like her, I liked her a lot in this book as well, more than the last one because she was a bit less psycho and a bit more....humane. Tod...wow. Just wow. That guy is just, fantastic. He is everything Nash is not, everything Nash should be. We had HUGE Tod breakthroughs in this book and they were a long time coming IMO!

Plotwise outside of the whole 'Kaylee's gonna die' thing, I thought it was one of the strongest of the series. Kaylee was so focused, so determined to do the right thing, and she relied on the others instead of shouldering all the burden herself, plus she was pretty cutthroat about everything which I liked. The ending was totally awesome, I figured something like that would have to happen, but at the same time it didn't feel too predictable.

I thought at times the writing was a little melodramatic, but that's to be expected when everyone is doing big tragic speeches. It's not something I like to read, but it probably worked for a lot of readers.

I am so so excited for Before I Wake, I'm actually going to buy the US edition, because the UK one comes out TEN DAYS LATER and I just cannot wait that long!