My Soul to Keep

By Tananarive Due

Book Overview

"An eerie epic. I loved this novel." -- Stephen King

The award-winning master of horror, acclaimed author, screenwriter, and scholar Tananarive Due's classic African Immortals series starts with an electrifying piece of dark fantasy, My Soul to Keep.

When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity for a tense immortality, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, in this harrowing supernatural thriller, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.

Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this landmark work of Black horror that Stephen King called 'An eerie epic' is sure to win Due a legion of new fans.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006105366X
• ISBN13: 9780061053665
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Don't believe the hype

To be honest, I did not finish this book. I could not do it-- the main characters are both so incredibly unlikable. Dawit is centuries old yet doesn't understand agency, and Jessica is the most moronic, spineless main character I think I've ever read, yet the reader is supposed to believe she is an incredible investigative journalist. For horror, it's incredibly dull, for a thriller it's excruciatingly frustrating to watch clueless Jessica fumble through most of the book before finally catching on, and for a romance the power dynamic is Not It. Hard pass; life is too short to read bad books. It's a shame because Due's writing is lovely, but my God I've never hated the main characters more, not even Twilight is as dysfunctional and manipulative as David and Jessica.

MY Favorite Favorite

This book reads like a movie. It keeps U on your toes the whole time. Its one of the books I've twice. Blair Underwood was supposed to star in the movie. Idk what happened. Ms Due is under rated. Most of her stories need to be filmed. If you get this book you won't be disappointed.

Once Is NOT Enough

I'm an avid reader and I enjoy a good science-fiction more than anything else. When I stumbled across this book in 1998, purely by luck, I was not prepared for the ride it took me on. Ms. Due has earned her place among the ranks of Steven King and Spielberg. Since 1998 I've read this book twice -- and I'm not normally a person who reads a book more than once, but this story grabs you, takes you to a another place altogether and you'll never in your life forget the main character, Dawit (or Daud, or David-just one of his many names). This book leaves you hoping that just once this could be true, that there really could be people out there like Dawit and if you're really fortunate, maybe one day you'll meet one. I sincerely hope, as I've been hoping since '98, that Ms. Due will do a sequel. It will be well worth it!

Enraptured

This is one of those books that while you read your eyes may be burning, you know you have to get up at 5:30 am the next morning and you still have to do some chores around the house, but you just DON'T CARE. There is nothing that could tear that book from my hands. This is my first book by this author and I can't even pronounce her name correctly, but I am a fan for life. The book started off with a sense of mystery and suspence. Things on the surface seemed okay, but I knew, as anyone who reads this book will know, that things are just not as they seem. Then Tananarive took me on the ride of my life. I wanted so much to hate Dawit and I just couldn't. I wanted Jessica to get away from him and then I wanted her to stay with him forever. "Forgive him, he loves you!" I screamed and cried. Why won't these people listen to me. Dawit is an immortal who has lived for over 500 years when we meet him. Jessica is a reporter with a loving family. When a story she's working on leads her to find out about Dawit and who he is, especially how he fits into her life, all hell breaks loose. This book takes the reader, especially me, on an emotional roller coaster. There were times when I had to put the book down saying that I just can't take it anymore, but it wouldn't be ten seconds before I picked it up again. Tananarive made every character so real that I couldn't help but care for each of their well being. Another great characteristic of her writing is that I never wanted to skip part because they were boring. I may have wanted to skip ahead to see what would happen, but never because a part was too boring or too wordy.In summing up my review, I really don't want to say anything that will give away the story or plot, but this story reminded me of Octavia Butler's work. Even though I am not the type that really goes for science fiction or anything in that ilk, but this book had me out of breath, crying, scared and best of all, it left me wanting more. I urge you all to read this book.

This has been added to my all time list of favorites!

Forget the fact that I am not a science fiction buff. This book along with Janice Sims's Out of the Blue has made a convert out of me. This book is soooooo gooooooood. David Wolde whose real name is Dawit is over 450 years old but doesn't look a day of thirty. That is because he has the Blood. Mentored by Khaldin who gave him the blood, Dawit has been living as a mortal with his wife, Jessica, and young daughter, Kira. But now his time as a mortal is drawing to a close. Malmoud has been sent by Khaldin to bring Dawit home. David/Dawit's idealistic life is about to blow up. He is getting desperate. In order to preserve what he has he makes graves errors but he loves his wife and daughter desperately. Dawit has traveled through a time warp. As Dawit he was born in ancient Ethiopia. His wife died in childbirth at thirteen. He was a slave in the 1840s named Seth and saw his beloved Adele hung. As jazz musician Spider Tillis, he wrote well-known songs and disappeared leaving a wife and children. Jessica has always been in awe of her husband. He is nicknamed Mr. Perfect by one of best friends. She is beginning to think he is too perfect. This was superb writing and I had an opportunity to meet the author who is releasing a sequel next year. A MUST READ.

Beautiful

This is the story of an immortal who gets swept away with the lives of mortals and desires to maintain the love affection and closeness he has with those individuals. David aka Dawit is an African/ African American who has inhabited this earth for the past 500 years. He has had many lives, many experiences, many wives and many children. However, whenever the powers have told him to leave his life amongst mortals, he has done so without reservation.However, along comes his wife Jessica and the Kira, the daughter they share and his life changes based on his sense of love and devotion to these 2 people. David aka Dawit's blood is everlasting and once infused into the body of mortals, accompanyed by the Ritual of Life, individuals live forever. Although Dawit is sworn to secrecy, his love for his wife causes him to break the covenant and risk the life not only of himself but his family as well. It is with his blood that he attemtps to ensure that his new wife and child have everlasting life. Although the character of Dawit is somewhat odd and sinister, he has redeeming qualities based on his sacrifice in the name of Jessica and Kira. It almost makes the acts he commits during the book seem OK. In an odd way, this is the story about what a person will do in the name of love.I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and it had a very interesting religious twist re: the blood of Christ. This author is very talented. I have read all three of her novels and each one is very well written. However, her novels show a great deal of versatility, each with a completely different subject yet each beautifully well written. Highly recommended.

SUSPENSEFUL AND ENGAGING! Favorite Book of 2000!

My Soul To Keep (MSTK) by Tananarive Due is one of the best books that I've Read in 2000! This book was just awesome and included all of the elements of a good read. MSTK was well written, scripted with a vivid imagination and creativity and included a strong storyline, great character development along with cliff hanging plot twists and turns. I must digress for a moment and admit that I had MSTK on my "To Read List" for two years but was a little reluctant to read it because of the genre. Once I committed myself to reading MSTK, I found myself really getting into this book and the storyline; I ravenously turned the pages and became so all consumed that I didn't want to put the book down. MSTK engrosses you in the tale of David/Dawit the immortal who will do whatever is necessary to maintain his family, the love of his life wife Jessica, and Kira his young daughter. The plot grabbed me from the beginning as Ms. Due had a wonderful way of telling the story and taking one back into time. Once Ms. Due had your attention she took you back periodically to help you understand How Dawit/became David. I felt that I was actually back in the various timeperiods depicted in the book and actually waiting to travel back to present day. Due weaves Past with Present in the telling of MSTK and in doing so she provides the reader with enough background information to keep the reader on the edge of the seat while adding depth and giving substance to the storyline. MSTK keeps the reader fully immersed and satiated until you have finished the last page. There is so much to absorb and enjoy in MSTK that no one can really tell you about it; MSTK is a book that you must experience in order to receive the full scope, the full meaning of the story. I plan to read MSTK again...hopefully a little slower this time so that I can SAVOR AND DIGEST the small details as well this time. Ms. Due combines a fine blend of history, science fiction, and drama to make the story riveting and to hold your interest from beginning to end. I recommend MSTK as an excellent read for everyone and I can't wait for the sequel...I know David/Dawit is still out there and I can't wait to hear what he's been up to since I last read about him.