Soulless

By Christopher Golden

Newly reissued, the rollicking, action-packed zombie story from one of the genre's hottest writers Times Square, New York City. The first ever mass s ance is broadcasting live on the Sunrise morning show. If it works, the spirits of the departed on the other side will have a brief window--just a few minutes--to send a final message to their grieving loved ones. Clasping hands in an impenetrable grip, three mediums call to their spirit guides as the audience looks on in breathless anticipation. The mediums slump over, slackjawed--catatonic. And in cemeteries surrounding Manhattan, fragments of old corpses dig themselves out of the ground.... The spirits have returned. The dead are walking. They will seek out those who loved them in life, those they left behind...but they are savage and they are hungry. The horror spreads quickly, droves of the ravenous dead seeking out the living--shredding flesh from bone, feeding . But a disparate group of unlikely heroes--two headstrong college rivals, a troubled gang member, a teenage pop star and her bodyguard--is making its way to the center of the nightmare, fighting to protect their loved ones, fighting for their lives, and fighting to end the madness.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416551352
• ISBN13: 9781416551355
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: MTV Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.9" x 5.0"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Zombies Are Coming!

Zombies are experiencing a resurgence of public interest. Check out the latest movies, comics, novels, and video games and you'll discover that the undead have staked out a distinct and larger terrain of their own. Worm-riddled and decaying, they claw up from the grave and set out searching for the nearest brain buffet. For whatever reason, zombies apparently are the monster of choice for horror fans. One of prolific author Christopher Golden's latest novels is SOULLESS, his offering to the genre made famous by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD creator George Romero. I haven't seen anything new when it comes to zombie fare in a long time. DAWN OF THE DEAD is really creepy because the zombies move so fast, much faster than Romero's original creatures, and freaked me out when I first saw one of them sprint across the screen. I mean, if zombies can run down speeding cars, heroes just don't stand much of a chance. Normally, zombie creators either don't tell the audience what caused the dead to rise, or they present a pseudo-scientific reason, such as nerve toxins or meteors. Golden chooses to go a different route with his three mediums linked on a live television broadcast in NYC. These prominent mediums gather to use their spirit guides to link them to the Other Side in order to make believers of the audience and the rest of America. Saying things go awry doesn't do the result justice. Golden builds up the ensemble characters he uses to tell his tale. He doesn't go very deep into the characterization of any of them, choosing instead to glide over each of them so that the reader easily fills in the extra details. I didn't get blown away by the black/white relationship that takes place between Noah and Matt, nor did I see any special surprises in what took place between Tania and her chauffeur/bodyguard. Tania's worries about losing her girlfriend and her audience almost immediately took back seat to the developing action. The gangbanger arc was really thin, but his friend's death was surprisingly emotional. Action is what Golden delivers so well in this novel. The whole event is over in eight hours, from start to finish, and the book never lags. Not only that, but all the action takes place in the daylight, something that I did not expect. But my imagination, fired by more zombie movies then is probably recommended, easily followed the author's direction. He set up a situation, and I threw in the emotion, from fear to anger to pride. He briefly described characters, and I cast them in a heartbeat. When he mentioned the harsh click-clack of a pump shotgun seating a fresh round, that sound echoed inside my skull. At first, the quick cuts back and forth between the scenes involving the different characters got on my nerves, but I quickly realized it was only my anticipation of the story that made me feel that way. In fact, if Golden hadn't shifted back and forth between those different points of view, he would have been doing a disservic

Freaky, fast-paced, and creepy

This book is like a cross between I am Legend and The Happening. It really captures the apocalypse feeling of both movies and keeps you on your toes. Not because you'll be surprised if somebody dies, but because when something does happen it jumps out and scares you like in the movies. Like The Happening, the deadly phenomenon moves quickly and spreads like wildfire. It doesn't inexplicably end, and there is no scientific cure for it like I am Legend. This book doesn't pull punches and gives no easy answers. None of the heroines/heroes have it easy. The gore is classic horror, without being over the top. The antagonists are realistically scary. Not normally my thing, but the author does a really good job writing it.

fast-paced fun

I liked the premise of Soulless a lot. A mass seance on an early morning television show designed to reconnect the living with the spirits of their long lost loved ones for a few moments goes horribly wrong and awakens the dead. The dead are HUNGRY! For the FLESH! Of the LIVING! And a bunch of people with nothing in common wind up trying to survive the outbreak of flesh-eating corpses and ultimately end it, together. This was my introduction to Christopher Golden and it was pretty great. All in all, I had a lot of fun reading Soulless. The book moves along at a really nice clip. Even the brief moments in which the characters pause to catch their breath as they outrun the dead move quickly. Whenever I put this book down, I wanted to pick it back up again. And speaking of characters, there are a variety of them here. The novel has multiple POVs and Golden uses them to great effect. He doesn't look at the zombie apocalypse the same way twice; each character begins with firmly set personalities, differing ideas and beliefs and watching all of these things crumble as the pages go by is fantastic and fascinating. I particularly enjoyed experiencing the horror through the eyes of Tania, a Disney-type star dealing with a tabloid scandal, and Phoenix, whose formerly absent father is at the heart of the seance. NOW. Let's talk zombies because that's what we're all here for. The zombies in Soulless have a bit of a twist that I found really neat: they're specifically targeting their loved ones. How fantastically creepy to think that if someone you love has died, they'll be seeking you out to eat you, as opposed to your every day, non-discriminating zombies. But don't let all the fun fool you--Soulless doesn't shy away from the troubling moral conundrums that arise when the dead arise. There is a neat, ghostly thread throughout the book about the separation of spirit and soul; your soul is pure and moves on after death and your spirit is the desperate, saddest part of you that stays behind--your ghost. This is the foundation of Golden's dead and it offers much to contemplate. So not only is Soulless fast-paced and full of action, it's a thoughtful, well-rounded horror story as well. Check it out!

Undead and Loving It

It was supposed to be controlled. It was supposed to be a seance led by the nation's three top mediums, televised for the masses. It was supposed to be a way for the living to get some closure, to move on after speaking to their loved ones who had passed on. It wasn't supposed to raise the dead. It did. The corpses that rise from their graves are not compassionate, nor are gentle. They are violent, hungry, and soulless. They are intent on getting home, and will attack anyone that gets in their way. Meanwhile, those directly involved in the seance - the mediums and the two newsanchors - have sunk into a comatose state. Their hands are firmly grasped together, and nothing and no one can separate them. Christopher Golden's return to young adult fiction ought to be celebrated. Earlier this year, Poison Ink seeped into the brains of readers. Now, the zombies in Soulless seek to feast on those brains, and those who dare to fight the undead may not live to speak of the tale. I'll speak for them instead. After all, I've been talking about this book non-stop since I finished reading it. I highly recommend Soulless to fans of horror movies and novels. It is far and away the best of the many zombie-themed books that came out in 2008. Soulless is so action-packed that I've taken to calling it a movie bound in a book. From the start of the ill-fated seance to its bitter end, the pacing never falters. The main characters - including the daughter of one of the mediums, a couple of college students, and a pop singer whose personal business is often splashed across the cover of tabloids - weave in and out of each other's journeys with ease and overlapping storylines. The book's action sequences and rise of average people and headstrong teens as leaders in the fight will appeal to fans of Heroes. Of course, all good zombie stories have violence, decay, and destruction, and Soulless has all of that without ever being gory for gore's sake. It raised not only the dead, but many thought-provoking questions: Do we want to see our loved ones again after they pass away? If they return as zombies, unlike their living selves, would they be better left to rest in peace? With its wide variety of characters, overlapping stories, and fast-paced plotting, Soulless will appeal to teens of both genders and throughout the teen age. Golden's third-person narrative permits the reader to get inside the minds of the various leading characters, who represent different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, even orientations - but all have a common goal, to bring this crisis to an end, and that is why their crossing-of-paths is inevitable and enjoyable. There's more to this book than meets the eye: it will hook readers with its eerie plotline and keep them turning pages due to the action and great writing, but all the while, it will really make them think. With its exploration of life and death, fear and family, love and loss, Soulless is a memorable book sure to inspire weight

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

I have a thing for zombies. Don't worry, it's not as horrible as it sounds. Okay, yes, it probably is kind of gruesome. But anyway, back to the task at hand, which is Christopher Golden's SOULLESS. I can basically sum up this review in four words: This. Book. Is. Awesome. However, readers have come to expect more from our reviews, so I'll do my best to oblige. The best thing about SOULLESS, besides it's amazing characters, great dialogue, and superb writing, is the actual premise. I can honestly say that I have NEVER run across this plot line in any other book that I've ever read. That point right there makes picking up a copy of the book imperative. So now you're wanting to know what the premise is, right? We've all read myriads of stories about séances. We've also read tons of books about zombies. But have you ever read a book about a mass séance that produces zombies? I didn't think so. This is the dilemma that New York City finds itself in after three leading mediums, Professor Joe Cormier, Annelise Hirsch, and Eric Honen, get the brilliant idea to hold a mass séance on live television. I have to admit, it IS a brilliant idea. While mediums, on their own, can contact someone who has recently died, a group of mediums, "pooling" their power and resources, should be able to contact numerous dead, so that they can communicate with the loved ones they left behind. Appearing on the morning show Sunrise, hosted by Amy Tjan and Steve Bell, the three hope to open the lines of communication with all of the recently departed within a few miles of the studio for a few short minutes. Their plan works. Too well. Well enough that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dead rise from their graves, hungrily searching for the ones they left behind - not to communicate with them, but to eat them. (Yes, I got a little thrill just from typing that. Again, it's that gruesomeness I spoke of earlier.) And so begins SOULLESS, a book that will take you on a wild ride through New York with an unforgettable cast of characters. From the gang member who decides to go searching for his family, to the two college guys who have to put their political differences aside to make it home, to the young actress/singer who just had her heart broken by her girlfriend, to Joe Cormier's daughter sitting in the audience of Sunrise, this is one story that you won't soon forget. Needless to say, I loved SOULLESS. Even if you're not a typical zombie lover, you won't be able to resist this story. Although there's a finite ending to SOULLESS, I really, really hope that Mr. Golden will write more, if not about these same characters, then at least about zombies running rampant, hungering for human flesh. (The thrill, again!) Pick up a copy when it goes on sale on October 21st. You won't regret it - although you might stay up a bit late with the lights on. Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"