8 Souls by Rachel Rust follows Francesca ‘Chessie’ Carpenter who suffers from recurrent nightmares of a house, sometimes decrepit, sometimes new, but always the same and always beckoning of death. It’s not just any house either. It’s the Villisca Axe Murder House and her grandparents live right across from it. When she ends up being sent to Iowa for the summer so her parents can finalise a divorce, Chessie’s dreams turn into something more. She starts having visions during the day, and spectral manifestations at night. The ghostly goings-on aren’t relegated to just the Moore House either, but also to the death of a recently missing little girl. At her wit’s end, Chessie contacts a local ghost hunting group, both the best and worst thing she could have done.

The subject first drew me to this book. The Villisca case, as with most cold cases, fascinates me. Forensics is a love if mine, even though my hopes of a job in the field of forensic anthropology were thwarted by medical issues. The case is the same in this story, though the modern state of the house is not. Far from being decrepit and abandoned, the house is furnished and open to visit, preserved as a historical site. Ghost groups conduct investigations there at times.

As I started reading, I rapidly fell into Chessie’s world. The action is fairly fast-paced. While the haunting manifestations were creepy, overall, they weren’t dangerous. Indeed, they were there to help and they tried to warn against danger. Chessie thought they were warning against David, when in truth they weren’t. They needed her to help him. I don’t want to give a major part away, so I’ll avoid specifics. I did enjoy the hints of quantum entanglement threaded into the story, and that the major plot point was specifically not ascribed to God’s punishment. It’s that whole entanglement thing. (No pun on the publisher intended!) Overall, this was an awesome read! Highly recommended!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Entangled Teen Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed as part of the Chapter by Chapter blog Tour.