"She turned, knocking over a giant fan precariously piled with various unidentified objects. Over it shone her bright face with impossible snow white skin, blood-red lips and amazing blue eyes. She tried to catch some of the things before they crashed down. She was an oversaturated photograph, too extreme to be real. She broke into a smile. She looked about 16.
'Good morrow, sweet sir,' she said.
Her smile was utterly contagious and embarrassingly beautiful."

I had high hopes when I began reading this book — the cover is absolutely beautiful and the summary looked promising.

Unfortunately, I believe that most of the book needs heavy editing before it should be published. For one, the writing is awkward and teeming with purple prose, making it tiring just to read (look at the above description of the character Elise, and then imagine that this happens every single time someone else is introduced. Except it’s not just limited to introductions: florid examples of characters’ ‘sea-green’ and ‘piercing’ eyes pepper the descriptions without any prompting). Throughout the book, spelling, grammar and mechanical errors can be found, and most strangely of all the entire last chapter is copied and pasted twice.

Although the book presumably begins in 1961 Berlin, the characters talk stiltedly and unconvincingly, and the introduced characters seem to fall more into stereotypical archetypes than actually fleshed-out people. In the beginning, the plot with the bullies seems like bumbling buffoons from a post-WWII B-movie, complete with brutish name-calling and a battle of machismo over a girl’s affections. (The same kind of stereotypical evil bad guys appear again much later in a scene set in Indonesia, which left a bad taste in my mouth when I read it). There’s a brief interlude with a Turkish family that’s mentioned in one page and never seen again, before we move on to the aforementioned Elise, who for some reason speaks in stereotypical medieval speak straight out of a Nashville Renaissance Faire. I did have some affection for Bartholomew’s strange British accent (‘Cricky-O-kazawee’ made me snort), which for some reason carried over to the other characters and resulted in Tosho, a presumably Berliner of German descent, saying ‘bloody’ and ‘blimey’ in his monologues, and Merlin the presumably ancient mage saying ‘old chap’. Lil’Mon the spirit guide introduces us to the Egyptian pantheon and there are mentions of various other mythologies, which did little to immerse me in fantasy but only made me feel vaguely like I was in a Percy Jackson ripoff. Merlin, Tosho’s evil but flirty(?) companion who resides inside his soul, is just exactly that and nothing more: his villainous motivations are flat and throughout the entire 30 chapters we see nothing more from him.

The plot moves at an incomprehensible pace that makes it hard to follow, especially at the beginning, where all of a sudden Tosho is dumped into this fast-paced fantasy world and meets an eclectic cast of characters that serve only as ornamental side-pieces but not actual characters. We don’t see their goals or motivations, only marvel at the strange ways they speak and act. My main concern is that while Tosho does grow somewhat throughout the novel, nothing about him makes me want to sympathize with him or anyone else. The romantic subplot seemed forced and there is no real buildup for it. To the author’s credit, the writing does improve as the plot goes on. I did think some of the plot devices about souls and spirits had potential to be interesting, but Shock did not delve deep into any philosophical questions/thoughts which I was extremely disappointed by, because there was just so, much, potential! There isn’t much I can take away from Tosho’s hero journey, despite it spanning a pretty lengthy amount, because Shock does not expand much on detail but focuses only on writing the next plot section which makes for an uninteresting read.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A boy who dreams of brighter futures finds a world in need of a hero. After being killed by bullies at 16, Tosho collides with a mind-bending afterlife that's gripped in a battle for leadership of the dead. But while a vibrant resistance group of teens welcomes him with open arms, someone in the afterworld wants him gone. Not only is Tosho carrying a heinous family legacy, but he had a gift for angering the powerful in his past life. Now, someone with a monster of a grudge is set on taking their revenge and devouring him down to utter oblivion. Pursued from one end of the afterworld to the other, the trap closes in. Barely escaping the gnashing jaws of the nightmares hunting him, Tosho must figure out who wants him gone, or his new friends will become victims once again. With the status quo crumbling in the afterlife, will Tosho figure out who’s behind the evil force hounding him? And will the beautiful world his friends have built for centuries be ripped from them and destroyed?

Bland and might just have driven me into a void of reading slump. Even though, the cover is super gorgeous, sadly, I can't stand our MC, Tosho. He's....he's just meh. The whole book is just disturbingly bad. I'm so sorry but I can't enjoy this book as much as the other readers that might like it just fine.
Thanks Netgalley for the copy!

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t connect with the characters or writing style. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, of course—everyone has different tastes so if the description appeals to you, give it a go.

Oh dear…this was not what I thought it would be at all.

The story sounded like it was going to be so interesting but the writing style is all over the place. I felt like I had no idea what was going on most of time. There’s also a large, and what feels unnecessary amount of racism in the book too. Ultimately I did not enjoy this.

I hate to be "that person" but the only good thing about this was the cover and title. There was potential but it fell so flat. This needs to go back to the drawing board. Themes that were racist and honestly shocking that no one edited out. The voice from the dead was just eh. Im so disappointed in this book and disappointed I requested it and wasted my time reading it.

wanted to enjoy this one after such an intriguing cover and promising storyline but voice from the dead really fell short for me after seeing the many low reviews detailing both the poor execution and excessive talk of nazis, alongisde other inherently racist themes; so i think i'll save myself the time and skip out on this one.

thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

okay, bear with me. i've got to be honest, i've read better work on AO3. This book felt really chaotic. the world building was loose and just felt like a mish mash of different folklore/beliefs/ideas. it didn't flow as though the author truly had a grip of their own story while at the same time i felt like i was missing bits? like the author wasn't giving us the whole picture. i also found some of the dialogue pretty cringe... this book had potential!!

oh boy oh boy. i really wish i never requested this book. the premise was great, but thats it. just the premise. this book infuriated me, the writing was confusing and all over the place, there were so many details and aspects to the story that were historically inaccurate, which made the reading even more frustrating. i really wish i didn't read this.

The cover is stunning but the writing style just didn’t do it for me. I DNF’D it at 10% because it just felt too all over the place for me. I neverrrrr dnf books but I just couldn’t with this one. I think this book is made for a very specific audience.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity!

The bones are there, but everything else was poor to middling. The 2 stars is for the concept alone, because it could have been good...it just failed at every point.

The characters were messy, the writing felt like a bad translation and was clumsy, and I genuinely thought "I should just DNF this" every other page.

The world doesn't make sense, even with the character explaining thing every other page, none of the action was well written enough to follow at any point, and towards the climax of the novel there were errors in the ebook that made it near-impossible to understand.

I'm glad I finished it so I can put it down and never think about it again.

I falling in love with the cover, the title and the description. It is scream ghost history adventure. And I spent all my time trying really hard to understand what this book about.

First chapter I still can followed our main character. The Nazi's son with nickname sound like Japanesse. Then his friends are Turkish, okay..
And then after he died, I am started struggle to follow the plot. With all stuff mixed from Merlin and end with Egypt mythology. I think this book isnt my cup of tea.

Thank you for my copy Netgalley.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get through this book. It was a DNF for me. From page one I was confused—the writing style and overall plot/characters seemed to be all over the place. I was so excited because the premise was so interesting and the cover is absolutely breathtaking, but in the end, it missed the mark. I think this book has potential, but it needs more work.

(Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to review this novel)

I’m really sad to say I just couldn’t get into this novel. The description seemed hopeful, and I was eager to dive in; however, the writing style didn’t resonate with me— at all.

The writing seemed very disconnected, almost like several different people wrote stories and they were tossed together to make a hodgepodge storyline. I found myself having whiplash jumping from one weird story to another, and quickly found myself dreading turning the page.

This was a quick DNF (do not finish) for me— which is a complete rarity as I usually finish any book I pick up…

⭐️/5

Well folks, I can honestly say I've never read a book quite like Voice from the Dead. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started the novel, but it certainly wasn't a jumbled mess of characters, disjointed concepts and awkward time jumps that left me feeling shaken and confused as I read this middle grade story. The premise is good: a 16 year old boy named Tosho dies and finds himself in the world of the dead, inhabited by a soul that is not his own and sent on an epic quest to become a full fledged enlightened spirit. However, this quickly gets lost in the many extra elements that are introduced, often with no warning and no reoccurrence later in the story. I found myself outright bored at some points during the novel. I quite enjoyed many of the characters, especially the sidekicks Elise, Lil'Mon and Alpheus, but found myself wanting more character development and better pacing. I would not recommend this novel to others unfortunately, and for me, it gets 2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of "Voice from the Dead" by Aster Shock

By the cover of this, I was immediately interested but it wasn't as expected. Extremely Nazi based as the MC's family are Nazis. I didnt feel comfortable reading that and attempting to sympathising with a Nazi, especially given history. As a character, Tosho was annoying and just overall a horrible MC. Some areas felt rushed, some areas were too slow. Pacing was faulty.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book. Some people might? But it's a no from me.

The cover and synopsis of this book immediately drew me in: a boy, killed by his bullies, finds himself in a fantastical afterlife being chased by Power Thieves looking to steal his soul and send him into oblivion.

The story itself, however, unfolded in a confusing, haphazard way. It was difficult for me to follow at times and I seriously considered leaving this book unfinished. The flow between chapters was sometimes too stark and I had to reread things frequently to grasp what was happening and with which characters.

Tosho, himself, is not a character I grew to like at all - there was no real arc or development for him. His constant feelings of worthlessness and his self-sacrificing nature deterred from the story with their overwhelming consistency. Tosho has several moments that could have provided some enlightenment and developed him into a relatable character throughout the story, but he remained unchanged.

There are dark themes and consistent mention of Nazis, especially in the beginning. This is something to consider before starting this book.

The building blocks of a great story are here. I truly enjoyed characters like Kemsit and Alpheus, and the magic system has great potential. I laughed multiple times throughout Tosho’s conversations with his soul, especially in the beginning. The hierarchy and explanations of the workings of the afterlife was also very interesting - I really would like more time in the world that was created on these pages.

There are strong redeeming qualities in this book. This truly could be a fantastical adventure that captivates readers, but not in its current state.

I DNF'd this one only a few chapters in. The description sounded great, but right off the bat there a LOT of talk of nazis-- and the main character's father was one. It seems Tosho, the main character, hated his father for that, but there was no mention of nazis in the description of the book, even though it factored HEAVILY into the first chapter (and was the reason Tosho was killed). The writing was also hard to get through. It jumped around a lot, and new information was introduced in a way that was often incredibly confusing. It also read really young, prose-wise-- it read like lower MG. Overall, I was confused from the get-go, and there was nothing about the characters, the prose, the setting, or what I read of the plot so far to keep me reading. Based on the description, it sounded like a great book and I was very excited for it, but I think it would have needed some more heavy editing to get there.

I think the biggest thing for me was that the description referred to Tosho's father being a nazi as "a heinous family legacy," completely skirting over just what the legacy is. When it comes to things like naziism, that needs to be stated up front so the reader can make an informed choice about reading the book. Just including it in a list of trigger warnings isn't enough-- it needed to be in the description. For this, and many other reasons, I set the book aside very early in.

Well, I really don’t know what to make of this book.

If the trigger warning at the start of the book wasn’t any indication, I didn’t know what was in store.

I found the cover to be misleading, thinking I was going to be reading a fantasy of some kind, and the story of a Nazi’s child is not what I expected in the least.

Did not like overall, just confused with the concept.

Quando comecei a ler este livro, pensei isto não vai correr bem. O herói deste livro é invulgar, um filho de um nazi. Acaba por ser difícil criar empatia com a personagem, até porque ele tem alguns comentários bem depreciativos e desnecessários.

Após a morte de Tosho e da sua ida para o além, o livro assume uma complexidade que torna muito difícil acompanhar o enredo. Temos uma mistura de espécies sobrenaturais, deuses míticos de várias culturas, entre outros. Uma autêntica mixórdia.

Infelizmente foi um livro que não funcionou para mim. O ponto positivo foi os capítulos curtos que tornaram a leitura ligeiramente mais rápida.

!! Foi-me cedida uma cópia avançada deste livro em troca de uma opinião honesta.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for proving this e-ARC.

Voice from the Dead has a very intriguing synopsis and the cover is simply gorgeous, on top of that, it was available to read and review instantly. So, obviously I downloaded the book and started reading with a lot of excitement. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm quickly faded and I found myself thoroughly confused with the plot and how the story progressed. I thought that there were too many characters that contributed too little and the world building, though fascinating in the early few pages, quickly escalated to being ridiculously bizarre. I do not DNF books, but I had to force myself to finish this. My intension is in no way to discourage the author, but I do feel that it could have been written in a better way. This was sadly a miss for me.