Unwilling Souls by Gregory D. Little

        If you know anything about me, you know that I am a huge animal lover, and this book gave me the loyal steed that I never knew I needed. Sort of creepy, sort of cute, surprisingly loyal and 100% awesome, the animals in this book are a well fleshed force to be reckoned with.

        "Naming the spider had helped her nerves. When she looked at a creature with a name, no matter how frightening, it was harder to feel fear or disgust. It was almost like a pet. A big dog. It's just a big, bristly dog I'm hugging. Just a big, bristly, eight legged dog."

        Seriously, almost everything about this book (at least in the second half) has to do with super smart, possibly immortal spiders that abhor violence, it's pretty awesome.

        "Arach Arbor. Ses struggled to suppress a shudder. She had no wish to live in a city built inside a gigantic, dead spider and filled with smaller, but still huge living spiders."

        "Inscrutable and supposedly invincible, only one thing about the spiderlings was certain: the only violence they tolerated in the corpse of their mother was that which they inflicted to keep the peace."

        See?! How can you not be in love with the spiders already?! But the spiders aren't the only thing that keep the story interesting, they're just an intense part of the world building. Our story begins far away from the spiders, with Ses Lucani, a 16 year old whose father is a terrorist and whose mother is a leader in the local government.

       Both of her parents have been in an intense feud for her entire life, so Ses was raised by her Grandfather. When Ses gets older she gets sent to a magical school located in the center of the earth, called The Pit. Not only is The Pit a magical school, but it also doubles as a prison for the gods. 

       Everything about this book was fun, the world was interesting, the characters were likable, and the story was overall very engaging. I hope that more people are able to discover this book because it's a great example of the gems that you can find when you try reading books by independent authors and/or publishers.   


Where to buy:
Amazon
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Abes Books
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Better World Books
Indie Bound