Die Grundidee war etwas Neues für mich, hat mich aber nicht gefesselt oder berührt. Lust, die Reihe fortzusetzen, habe ich auch nicht wirklich bekommen.

I have had my eye on Soul Beach for a while so was very excited to receive it, along with Soul Fire, in the post and I jumped in straight away.  The synopsis says it all so I am just going to jump straigh in with my review.

When Soul Beach begins we are introduced to Alice and her family and we get to see how they are coping with the death of Megan, Alice's older sister who is also famous.  As the story progresses we are drawn into the mystery of who actually murdered Megan and also the excitement of entering Soul Beach.
One of the main things I liked about Soul Beach was how even though Alice was in her room she actually felt like she was on the beach, and the way the author describes it, you can imagine it all and feel like you are there too. While I did enjoy the visits to Soul Beach, I did feel sorry for both Megan and Alice. Apart from the reason Megan is at the beach, the time on the beach isn't forever and could stop at any time making the time that they do spend together even more precious.
I loved the different characters on the beach. I was never quite sure of Triti but after her heart to heart with Alice I did feel sorry for her. Javier was someone who I changed my mind about a lot, and it mostly depended on what mood he was on whenever Alice visited. As we get to learn more about the guests at the beach and what life was like for them I did feel sorry for them all. Soul Beach may seem like an idilac place to be, but the lack of everyday things we take for granted, birds, seasons, made it repetitive for them.

Cara was a hard one for me to understand. I know the she and Alice have been friends for a while, but they are so completely opposite, not only in personality but their whole attitude that I found it hard to actually picture them as friends if they weren't characters in a book. I didn't like how she involved Lewis via Robbie, but I did like how he was quick to help Alice for no reason than just to be a friend.

Alice was one character that I was not only drawn to, but was one I could relate to. The life she has after Megan's death is not easy, and having a famous sister does nothing to help her grieve. But the way her grief is portrayed and how, not only herself but also her parents deal with it, is described in a realistic but sensitive way. She puts a brave front on for others while she is still trying to deal with it herself, and I think her visits to Soul Beach and having a goal to aim for helps her adapt to life without Megan

I found myself really enjoying Soul Beach and I did not want to put it down. The whole idea behind Soul Beach really made me think about what I would want if it was me. When it wasn't revealed I didn't find myself disappointed, I think this was due to the fact that there was so many other things going on in the pages, it just made me want to read Soul Fire even more.
Kate Harrison has wrote a page turning book that does not disappoint and this is one series that I will definitely recommend to others.

Also reviewed on the blog: http://gloriousbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-soul-beach.html

This book absolutely fascinated me. It was just so unexpected I was sucked right into it and loved ever second.

Alice was a great character who had recently lost her big sister. At first she thought the emails sent inviting her to Soul Beach was a sick joke until she found it was a place she could talk to her sister again. Weird right? It gets better. This Soul Beach is supposed to be this virtual world where only some dead people go and yet Alice can hear the sea calling and the feel of the sand tempting her to open her laptop up and fall into this other world once more.

I felt like Soul Beach was an introduction into the trilogy it's set to be, which I normally don't like because sometimes it results in the book having no real depth to it. Not in this case though. I was literally captivated with the characters both dead and alive.

The ending really shocked me and the next book really could go anywhere from the way Soul Beach was wrapped up, which was....not at all. The ending was left wide open which shocked me a bit.

I can't really say much more without risk of ruining the story but I do strongly recommend this one.

I haven't as yet read widely in the YA paranormal genre, but I found the premise of this book highly original. Combining social media, a murder mystery and the paranormal is inspired!

The characterisation of Alice is strong and she fully had my sympathy. Harrison has drawn her well at a few months after such a shocking loss, and deals effectively with the alienation she experiences from her friends, and her parents' grief-stricken behaviour. Her growing obsession with Soul Beach is also entirely believable, as are her initial reactions to it. I found this a fairly quick read, as it drew me in and I struggled to put it down. As well as Alice's character, her feelings for her sister and the relationship they have through Soul Beach are also convincing and formed part of the book's apppeal.

The intriguing premise of a paradise acting as a kind of limbo (but only for the young and attractive dead) creates enough interest to sustain the reader, with many associated mysteries (why can't other guests see Alice? what are the rules? who decides these things?) but Harrison doesn't rely only on this. Her voice is effective at keeping us reading on its own, and there are other mysteries to ponder also, such as the unsolved murder. Occasional passages in the murderer's voice heighten the mystery and encourage us to ponder who might be guilty.

My one complaint is that there is no overall wrap-up to this book. It's very definitely instalment one of a series. Now that I have finished it and thought about it a bit more, I suppose that the book does present Alice, the main character, with a problem which she does solve to bring about the book's finale. It's just that this particular problem has been a subplot rather than the main narrative thrust. It's hard to talk about clearly without being spoilery, which I don't want to do. But trust me, after my initial reaction (but I want to KNOW...), I can see that there is some resolution which brings about progress from the start of the novel. I suppose I just usually expect each book in a series to conclude more strongly and definitively than this one does. Leaving questions unanswered is fine, but this book does that far more than any others I've read. That said, I would still recommend it as it is a good read - I just wish that the second and third books were available now!

Inhalt:
Als Alice eine E-Mail von ihrer toten Schwester bekommt, hält sie das zunächst für einen schlechten Scherz. Dann folgt jedoch eine Einladung in die virtuelle Welt von Soul Beach, einem idyllischen Strandparadies, wo ihre Schwester Megan seit ihrer Ermordung festsitzt. Unter www.soulbeach.org entdeckt Alice eine völlig neue Welt abseits der Realität, die sie mehr und mehr in ihrem Bann zieht. Doch wer steckt hinter Soul Beach und warum herrschen hier so strenge Regeln? Warum wird der Strand nur von Jungen und Schönen bewohnt? Und warum sind sie alle tot? Wer hat Megan umgebracht? Und könnte Alice das nächste Opfer sein?

Zitate:
"Natürlich ist mit ihr was nicht in Ordnung, du dämliche Kuh. Meggie ist tot." (S.39)

"Aber dann, bevor sie verschwindet, sehe ich ihre Augen. Die Iris sind leuchtend blau, aber das Weiße ist nicht mehr weiß, sondern aggressiv blutrot. Dann breitet sich die Farbe über ihr gesamtes Gesicht aus, als ertränke sie in Blut." (S.101/102)

"Ich spüre einen harten Schubs im Kreuz und stolpere gegen die Tür, die nun ganz aufschwingt." (S.188)

Meine Meinung:
Das Cover sticht extrem heraus. Ich steh ja eigentlich gar nicht auf pink, aber bei dem Cover finde ich das echt cool. Es ist ein absoluter Eye-Catcher und es ist auch nicht übertrieben, da das Cover sonst nur noch mit schwarz und etwas weiß ausgestattet ist.

Die Idee hat mich direkt angesprochen. Ich fand es ziemlich einzigartig, dass jemand eine E-Mail von seiner eigenen Schwester bekommt, obwohl diese schon eine Weile tot ist, und diese jetzt an einer Art Strand lebt.
Die Umsetzung hat mich dann aber irgendwie doch nicht so mitgerissen. Ich hab so viele mehr als positive Rezensionen gelesen, dass ich wirklich hohe Erwartungen hatte.
Ich fand es aber ziemlich unspektakulär. Spannend fand ich es dazu auch nicht. Es macht dennoch Spaß es zu lesen und man möchte wirklich unbedingt wissen, wer der Mörder von Meggie ist und was es mit Soul Beach auf sich hat.
Obwohl ich es ziemlich unspektakulär war, gab es doch schon einige Wendungen, mit denen ich nicht so gerechnet hätte. Ich hab eher andere Dinge erwartet. Ich selber hab 2 Personen ganz stark im Verdacht, die Maggie umgebracht haben könnten und bei einer werde ich mir immer sicherer.
Der Schluss macht wirklich Lust darauf, weiter zu lesen. Er ist wirklich fies ausgewählt. Aber er ist toll. Mir hat er persönlich sehr gut gefallen.

Der Schreibstil war sehr einfach. Man hat die Seiten nur verschlungen und alles sehr gut verstanden. Ich konnte mir alles sehr gut vorstellen. Selbst den Strand und wie Alice vor dem Laptop sitzt, während sie ihre Schwester besucht.

Was mir an den Charakteren so gut gefallen hat war, dass sie so verschieden waren, sich aber alle verstanden haben. Meggie war die berühmte Schwester, die mit jemandem ruhigem zusammen war. Mit ihrer Schwester Alice hatte sie immer ein gutes Verhältnis und nun trauert sie. Dann waren da noch Alice Freunde und noch Lewis, der Nerd der ihr hilft. Und dann noch die Toten von Soul Beach, die für mich am interessantesten sind.

Fazit:
Im Großen und Ganzem war die Geschichte wirklich gut, aber für mich war sie einfach zu unspektakulär. Weiterlesen werde ich die Reihe aber dennoch, weil ich neugierig bin, wie es weitergeht.