Review of Cracked By Author Eliza Crewe

 

Meet Meda. She eats people.

Well, technically, she eats their soul. But she totally promises to only go for people who deserve it. She’s special. It’s not her fault she enjoys it. She can’t help being a bad guy. Besides, what else can she do? Her mother was killed and it’s not like there are any other “soul-eaters” around to show her how to be different. That is, until the three men in suits show up.

They can do what she can do. They’re like her. Meda might finally have a chance to figure out what she is. The problem? They kind of want to kill her. Before they get the chance Meda is rescued by crusaders, members of an elite group dedicated to wiping out Meda’s kind. This is her chance! Play along with the “good guys” and she’ll finally figure out what, exactly, her ‘kind’ is.

Be careful what you wish for. Playing capture the flag with her mortal enemies, babysitting a teenage boy with a hero complex, and trying to keep one step ahead of a too-clever girl are bad enough. But the Hunger is gaining on her.

The more she learns, the worse it gets. And when Meda uncovers a shocking secret about her mother, her past, and her destiny… she may finally give into it.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

About this author

Eliza Crewe always thought she’d be a lawyer, and even went so far as to complete law school. But as they say, you are what you eat, and considering the number of books Eliza has devoured since childhood, it was inevitable she’d end up in the literary world. She abandoned the lawyer-plan to instead become a librarian and now a writer.

While she’s been filling notebooks with random scenes for years, Eliza didn’t seriously commit to writing an entire novel until the spring of 2011, when she and her husband bought a house. With that house came a half-hour commute, during which Eliza decided she needed something to think about other than her road-rage. Is it any surprise she wrote a book about a blood-thirsty, people-eating monster?

Eliza has lived in Illinois, Edinburgh, and Las Vegas, and now lives in North Carolina with her husband, her hens, her angry, talking, stuffed dwarf giraffe, and a sweet, mute, pantomiming bear. She likes to partially-complete craft projects, free-range her hens, and take long walks. Cracked is her first novel

                  

 

Review of Cracked (Soul Eater #1)

Rating 5 stars

 

Normally the Main Character in a book is the good person but not in Cracked. Meda is bad, a monster, but a hilarious monster. I don’t think I have ever laughed so much throughout a book. Meda’s inner dialogue was brilliant and I loved her struggle between being good and bad.

 

Here are a few parts I took from book:

 

I consider the many tools at my disposal, eyeing his large blood-splattered frame, and settle on my weapon of choice – one so infrequently used I need to dust it off first.

My eyes fill with tears. “Wha–” I swallow hard “– what were those things?”

“Demons.” Thanks, Einstein. I got that part. I let a tear trickle over.

He hurries to reassure me. “Don’t cry – I’ll protect you.”

Humiliating. Absolutely humiliating.

 

                                                ****

 

 

❝ A small girl, still young enough to suffer the indignity of pigtails, holds out a dead goldfish in her cupped hand.

Thanks, but I just ate.

“My fish died,” she lisps around missing teeth. She looks at me expectantly.

Ah – catastrophe has struck and she’s in search of an adult to handle it. (…) Fortunately, I know just how to handle this one.

“Flush it down the toilet.”

(…)

What? It’s a fish. ❞

 

                                                ****

“There are some people you know you shouldn’t anger because it isn’t right. Like your mom – if she’s the nice sort.

There are other people you know you shouldn’t anger because they have the authority to punish you. Police officers, politicians, insane asylum wardens, your mom – if she’s the bad sort.

But there are some people you shouldn’t anger that you don’t know about, because no one ever survived to warn you.

I’m the third kind.

I eat souls.

 

The Secondary Characters where just as valuable to the story. My favourite been Jo, she was so angry at the world that it gave Meda so much ammunition for hilarious smart commentary (That went on inside her head) it had me laughing so hard. Uri was sweet, he was a kid who got to hang out with superman – superman being Chi. It was cute.

 

Overall the story captured me not for its plot or world building but because of Meda and her inability to feel compassion for others. Just hilarious. If you want a fun read that will make you laugh and smile then cracked is the one for you.