Reviewed by me for Reader’s Favorite.
Beyond Possession is the fourth book in Deb McEwan’s The Afterlife Series. There are angels and evil souls. While angels are trying to maintain peace in the world and keep the evil spirits away from the good souls, the devil’s minions are trying everything in their capacity to turn up the chaos. Amidst this battle between the good and the bad, there is a fight for authority amongst angels. One of many chores of angels is to ensure a smooth birth of a soul into the world; however, when one of such soul birthing operation (of Val) went amiss due to an over-confident angel and somehow Val entered into the body of a child named Daisy (who loved being called Ninja). Anyway, Daisy’s family noticed a behavioral difference in Ninja but were unable to put their finger on the problem. With Val being in Ninja’s body, Ninja’s own soul got stuck with nowhere to go. With evil souls — Harry and Goth being the two most active — on a mission to create as much trouble as possible, it’s imperative to rescue Ninja.
The author has done a fabulous job of presenting her perspective on angels and evil souls. The angels are not filled with miraculous superpowers. They are struggling with the fight between the devil and God. They are always on the move and are following orders of a committee. They are punished for not being obedient. Other than all this, they must respect a hierarchy. They are promoted and demoted according to their actions. One might think that all this would have taken away the angelic factor of the angels but that would not be farther from the truth. There is a vibe about these beings that distinguish them from humans. I relied on them to take away all the darkness and spread happiness all around. The expectation of a reader from a character shows great writing skills. The author managed to convince me that angels would fix everything. The opposite is true for evil souls. The author managed to produce a fear of the evil in my mind. I was convinced that these evil minions would harm many people.
The paranormal parts are spread throughout the book, but they could be more horrifying. If you are a weak hearted person like me, then you would start sleeping with one eye open; however, if you are an avid horror reader, you would not be impressed with the paranormal activities. This, in no way, demeans the gripping plot of Beyond Possession. I could not put down the book without knowing what happened to all the characters. Since it is the fourth book of the series, there are so many things that I, as a reader, was not aware of. For instance, an angel had a particular animosity toward Goth, but being a first timer, I could not connect with her anger. A quick flashback would help bring all the readers on the same page and connect with the characters and their emotions on a deeper level.
I would recommend this book to the readers who like to read a quick paranormal fiction with a gripping plot. The author has written a story that would not disappoint the readers. If you think it’s only about angels and evil, I have not explained right. Human characters are sharing an almost equal space with these divine beings. This implies a presence of a range of emotions: envy and love being the two topmost emotions.
