Solace & Grief by Foz Meadows

Solace and Grief follows the story of a 17 year old girl called Solace. She was raised in a foster care, but when she finds out she is a vampire she is compelled to run away. Soon, she finds herself within a group of other strange young adults. They are part of ‘the Rare’ and each one of them has a ‘Trick’, which is a superpower or a supernatural ability. For example, Jess is a psychic reader, and Solace is a vampire. But soon things start to get a little weird... A Faceless man is stalking her and Professor Lukin is a bit too interested in their ‘Trick’...

This is the first book of a series called The Rare. It is set in Sydney, Australia and I found it interesting that Foz Meadows has used real places in the city but added twists to make them supernatural. At the beginning of the book, the story seemed to be droning on to nowhere. However, some things that seemed irrelevant at the start actually ended up being important towards the end. I didn’t like how Solace and her friends went to the Gadfly and got drunk, then stayed home all day. This seemed to happen several times, and I think it stalled the story a bit. Nevertheless I continued reading, and I’m glad I did.

I loved the variety of characters in the book. They all have different ‘Tricks’ and personalities. I found it a bit hard to remember who was who at the start, because a lot of characters are introduced all at the same time.

There are a few twists in the book, which makes the book very exciting. I thought the story was quite unpredictable, and with all these mysterious characters there are lots of mysteries to be solved. I also liked the extensive vocabulary used; I even learnt a few new words by reading the book.

The book ends with a cliff-hanger, to make you eager to read the next book. To be honest, I am a little confused by the story and am unsure who is good and bad, but I think some characters are in between. I’ll have to read the next book to find out :) 

After reading a few reviews from this book, I found that people’s opinion on the book varied a lot. Some people said that the story was too long and seemingly pointless, whereas others were intrigued by this supernatural world that Foz Meadows has created. I think I am somewhere in between; the story was long at times but overall I really enjoyed reading it. If you like supernatural fantasy, then this is definitely the book for you.