Heather’s Bookshelf: The Safekeeper
Author: Esther Archer Lakhani
Released: October 13, 2020
Genre: YA Scifi
“It’s a unique relationship, bringing about unique outcomes. Very hard to define but irrefutably making a stronger team when together."
“The Safekeeper” introduces Macy, a fifteen year old attempting to balance the social demands of high school with her responsibilities at home. A common enough dilemma for teens everywhere, except that Macy has the added complication of assisting her parents in out of body retreats from beings not of this world. There’s so much more that Macy doesn’t know, even about herself. Will she be able to figure it out all out before everything falls apart around her?
While trying to help her parents with an especially challenging and secretive retreat, Macy can’t help but notice other unusual occurrences around her. Gargoyles are moving and crows are talking. To make matters even more complicated, the interesting new guy in school, Nick, is clearly not what he appears to be.
Macy quickly finds herself in one dangerous situation after another while also having to navigate the ins and outs of the knowledge that she has recently gained about herself and the universe. In an instant, her life becomes filled with out of this world creatures, sentients, and portals while also becoming an extremely important person within this world.
Trigger Warning: Violence
Overall, I enjoyed the scifi and fantastical elements of the story. While the concept of body swapping is not new, the way that it was done and the reasoning behind it was especially interesting. All of the other creatures and off world species were also creative and different. I also enjoyed the blooming friendship between Macy and Nick. Their banter adds a degree of humor to the story as does the author’s descriptions of Macy’s internal dialogue. The part that I had trouble with was the believability of Macy’s evolution. She starts the story as a relatively naïve girl abiding by her parents wishes, is given an extraordinary amount of information in a very short amount of time, and then suddenly turns into a boss who must run this interstellar show. While the journey was enjoyable, the pacing was off and it made it hard to get completely onboard. I did enjoy how the story all came together at the end, however, and would be interested in reading more of Macy’s adventures in the future.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A coming of age scifi journey about organized body swapping, invading species, and survival. The pacing was a little off, but the world building was well done.
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