Soulmates and Other Ways to Die – Melissa Welliver

After reading Melissa Welliver’s previous novel last year, and loving it, I’ve been excited to read another from her. So, I was so excited to pick this one up as soon as I could. Soulmates and Other Ways to Die is an action-packed, thrilling and unique YA dystopian novel that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Everyone has a soulmate somewhere but it is all caused by a deadly virus. If you feel pain, your KinTwin does too. If you die, you die too. Control freak Zoe is determined to stay alive. She carries a survival kit for every eventuality. Expect for when she gets a notification that she is blood-matched to Milo, a boy who lives for recreational danger. Now they must find a cure before love wins, or worse. 

This book is told from dual POVs with each chapter alternating between Zoe and Milo’s POV. I’m a huge fan of dual POVs as I feel like it allows the reader to get to know the characters a lot more. It adds a lot of depth to the main characters and was one of the the things that kept me hooked.

I loved both Zoe and Milo. Zoe begins the book as shy and afraid to leave her house during the apocalypse but determined. As the book progresses Zoe finds out more about herself and we watch as she becomes more confident in herself. Milo is the popular guy at school and seems to know who he is from the start. But, we see he has a lot more to learn and he is a lot sweeter than he appears on the surface.

The romance in this book is an opposites attract. Zoe and Milo are very different which brings up some interesting discussions about how being KinTwinned could force a relationship that might not happen otherwise. I thoroughly enjoyed them as pair!

This book has such an interesting take on the subject of soulmates. It brings up the discussion of if there is someone you are predestined to fall in love with or not. Also, how that can take a lot of choices away from who people form relationships with. Not only that but it discusses how being KinTwinned affects so many different things.

I read the entirety of this book in a matter of hours due to how fast-paced and action-packed it was. Although the apocalypse itself is quite a ‘slow’ one it doesn’t take away from the pace of the book. I found it so interesting that if your soulmate dies so do you, if you are hurt so are they and if you get period pains so do they. It brings the book into the dystopian genre without the need of a, sometimes unbelievable, apocalyptic event.

Melissa Welliver is certainly an author whose books I would highly recommend. She has a real talent for writing YA dystopian books and I cannot wait to pick up whatever she releases next!

Overall, Soulmates and Other Ways to Die is a unique, fast-paced and fun YA dystopian that I would highly recommend picking up!