Unfortunately, this book, for me, was a DNF (did not finish). I found it very hard to get into and lost intestet even though the synopsis was extremely compelling and interesting! I will give it another go in the future because I am really curious about it and about what the story has to tell. I may have struggled finishing it because of what was going on in my life at the time but as of the date of the review, I was unable to finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had to DNF this and if you know me you know that I find it incredibly difficult to DNF. I saw the ratings and tried to still go in with an open mind.

The good thing about this book is the synopsis. It sounds really interesting and I was also glad that the author put trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, thank you for that and more authors should do that.

Unfortunately that is where it started to go wrong. The writing is very clunky which to me means it is overwritten and yet the sentences don't make sense. A lot of sentences I had to keep going back to as they didn't make sense in my brain on the first read but due to this being an ARC I hope it was later fixed in editing.

Other things I disliked in the 4 chapters I actually read was the backstory. Maybe it comes into play later on in the book but I do not understand why the main character's dad had to be Nazi. Yes there are of course books dedicated to the atrocities that happened but I feel like this wasn't one of these books and it felt out of place in a book that is labelled as Fantasy. I think it also doesn't help that it doesn't mention it in the description at all and it plays heavily in the first chapter. I only was prepared by the trigger warning page and even then I was a bit confused at where that would fit in.

I think that it would be better for these trigger warnings to actually be mentioned in the description of the book as it seems that a lot of people have been misled by the description and have received an entirely different book than they were expecting. I am sure that there could be an audience for this so it may be best to market the book in this way if the author wanted it to be a main focus whether it was just in the beginning chapter or if it does flow through the book.

I am saddened to have to DNF but I hope the author learns from this and all of the reviews don't dishearten them but helps them progress their writing.

The synopsis sounded great, but unfortunately it’s a DNF from me as the writing fell VERY flat I couldn’t even make it passed chapter 3.

This book was a strange one for me, I think the language used is very complicated when it didn’t need to be, so its a very difficult journey as a reader to go through and I think it spoilt the story a little. I think this book tried to be an under the whispering door crossed with sword in the stone but had a very strange outcome. Not sure I’d recommend!

DNF @ chapter 2. The book deliberately avoids stating that the main character is the son of a nazi in the summary. Had I known, I would've skipped right past it. And even if that information was not blatantly hidden from the reader, it wouldn't change the fact that the writing style is beyond awful.

I hate to give books bad reviews but this one was just not for me. It sounded so interesting but I just couldn't get into the writing, it was to confusing. So this is a dnf for me.

This wasn't a good book for me, i couldn't even read two chapters it was that bad. The writing makes no sense and the characters were dull.

I DNF'd this book after the third chapter; the writing style was all over the place, it was in need of heavy editing, there were factually inaccurate things which took me out of the story, and I just didn't like any of the characters enough to continue reading.

I received an ARC for this book in exchange for an unbiased review. I couldn't even get past the first chapter. Not only was it written incredulously and insipidly, but it was misinformed too. I was put off from page 1. How was I as a reader even supposed to feel reading the line, "My fists closed in white knuckle crunches and my dumb, so very dumb, smile had a stroke and died."? My jaw literally dropped at that. And then you want to bring in Muslims. If you're going to write about a culture, religion, ethnicity, etc. that you don't belong to, it's obvious you should do due diligence and represent that group. So tell me why I had to read this line: "I didn’t know much about Eid, except that it was an important celebration which stopped my friends from eating during the day." That's not it at all. You could have pulled up Wikipedia and copy-pasted that and it would still be more accurate. Not only do you not fast on Eid, but the one that's mentioned isn't even the one you fast before, that's Eid al-Fitr, not Eid al-Adha, smh. The author couldn't be bothered to even do a basic search even though they chose to write about a group of people they most definitely don't represent. I don't even care anymore at this point to go on.

The premise of Voice from the Dead is very intriguing, but overall this story was a bit of a disappointment. The writing is very complex, which might work for some people, but I found myself getting lost. I think the author needed to hold the reader’s hand a bit more through this complex narrative and spent more time developing the characters we’re supposed to care about. The protagonist’s backstory is provocative (read: son of a Nazi) and could have been an interesting rumination on guilt and the horrors of war, but instead feels like a glaring, problematic oversight. There was a lot of potential in this story and wish it could have been executed properly.

The blurb for this book sounded so interesting but unfortunately this story fell flat for me. It could have been an amazing story but this is poorly executed by the author. I found myself feeling so bored and detached from the story. There is a lot happening here but not much explanation into the characters or why a particular scene is happening.

There are definitely some interesting characters in there and I wished they were properly introduced instead of jumping straight into the story. There were also little to no character development and plot line which really made the story very draggy.

Overall, a great premise but it's a shame that it wasn't executed properly. Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the arc.

Big oof. Some of the points made about the MC were questionable at best. I typically get through a book of this size in about 2 hours. I couldn't even read the first chapter in two hours. This book needed another go through with the editor and it may have promise. Otherwise, I had to DNF and I do not do that lightly. I hate to attack someone and the work they put into a novel, but please...pull it, edit it, move some stuff around and try again.

I struggled with this one. There was so much information that it made the story very confusing and too complex to follow. I finished it because the premise of the book was intriguing and I hoped it would get better. But unfortunately that didn’t happen.

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Tosha is in purgatory, as a shadow he is stuck there until he can become a spirit and move on. He makes friends with a group of spirit guides who set him on a mission to find the 'Sword of Batholomew' which will turn him into a spirit. To complicate matters his body also houses the soul of Merlin, who the guides know and who wants to take his body over. The quest moves them through several realms and dangers which cause him to doubt the loyalty and motives of the guides he has befriended. Merlin is attempting to overthrown the current regime.
The plot is very complex, although the characters are interesting and varied I kept getting lost and had to reread several passages. For me this was just too complicated and detailed.

I don't feel I can give an accurate review of this book because I was not able to finish it. I will say that the description of the book was intriguing, but it was not executed as carefully as the subject needed it to be.

This was quite hard to get through. Like many have said the cover is what pulled me in but upon reading the story, I had to dnf it on the realization that the main character was the son of a Nazi, killed by displaced jews. Hard as they tried I could t sympathize with the main character when I realized that and the thought followed me.

Such a gorgeous cover for a book about a Nazi’s son who gets killed by, let’s face it, displaced Jews. No one else in Germany would have had that kind of reaction to a Nazi’s family since most Germans went along with what the Nazi party did.

This book NEEDS to mention in the synopsis that the MC is the child of a Nazi because that is what made me stop reading after the first chapter. Had I known, I would never have picked up this book.

Also: the Nazi kid’s best friend being a Turkish Muslim is kind of ironic considering the high amount of antisemitism in Turkey. If you want the MC to be relatable, don’t have his friend also be someone from a background of Jew hatred.

This was the quickest I have ever DNFed a book.

I really wanted to like this book but I marked it as "did not finish" around 60% of the way through. I appreciate what the author was trying to do but it was not for me.

I just could not get into this. I understand the author wanted to provide a "different perspective..." I don't know. It was a rough read and I did not care for it at all. I'm sorry. I usually try to avoid negative reviews.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really found it difficult to get into this book. The premise felt confusing and I wasn't sure whether or not I should be sympathizing with the main character. The writing felt pretty slow at times. I thought the concept was interesting, but I unfortunately didn't really enjoy the execution.
[Reviewed through Netgalley]