At the heart of this psychological suspense novel is the haunting depiction of a family’s fall and the extraordinary gifted dog, Caity, who knows the truth.

As the drama unfolds Caity evolves from protector to savior, from scapegoat to prop, and eventually, from avenger to survivor. She is an unselfish soul in a selfish world—and she is written with depth and grace by authors Ketchum and Mckee, who display a profound understanding of a dog’s complex emotions.

With her telling instincts and her capacity for joy and transformative love, Caity joins the pantheon of great dogs in contemporary literature. Eleven year old actress Delia Cross is beautiful, talented, charismatic. A true a star in the making.

Her days are a blur of hard work on ­set, auditions and tutors. Her family—driven, pill­-popping stage mother Pat, wastrel dad Bart, and introverted twin brother Robbie—depends on her for their upscale lifestyle. Delia in turn depends on Caity, her beloved ginger Queensland Heeler—and loyal friend—for the calming private space they share.

Delia is on the verge of a professional break through. But just as the contracts are about to be signed, there is a freak accident that puts Delia in the danger zone with only Caity to protect her.

The Secret Life of Souls was a book I’d never heard of or seen anyone post about, ever. But then a Bookstagram/Twitter friend was raving about how amazing it was, and this one caught my eye in a big way.

Because:

-Dogs. I mean…dogs.

-Jack Ketchum. Now, I’ve only read Off Season and The Girl Next Door, but found both to be brutal & very impressive books.

-And then I did a cartoon spit-take when I saw Lucky McKee’s name on the cover! To start with, I had no idea he had worked with Ketchum on a few novels. And while I would hesitate to refer to McKee as one of my “favorite directors”, having only seen two of his films, he did direct a movie that I am fucking madly in love with. May, if you’ve not seen it, is an absolute gem of a horror movie, one that I’ve watched a whole bunch of times & just completely adore.

The Secret Life is Souls tells the story of the Cross family. Delia & Robbie are fraternal twins, aged eleven. Delia is a burgeoning child actress, going from commercial set to commercial set, audition to audition. She enjoys it…to a point. But it’s clear pretty early on that her mom, Pat, is kind of one of those “stage mothers”. Delia’s father, Bart, meanwhile, happily tinkers around the house, buying classic cars & the latest and most expensive TVs on the market. All the money coming courtesy of Delia’s acting work, of course.

Robbie is just…kind of there. The unexceptional one. Not totally forgotten, but certainly made to feel less than.

None of this feels healthy.

Then there’s Caity, the family dog. Ostensibly the twins’ dog, it was clear to the family almost immediately that the bond between Caity & Delia was incredibly strong, preternaturally so. Robbie loves Caity as well, and doesn’t begrudge Delia that relationship. And Robbie and Delia themselves have a really sweet relationship, not without its challenges…but they are close in their way.

At this point, there’s not much else I can say about the plot without giving away too much. Needless to say, things take increasingly dark turns in this book, and the cracks that were already there in the Cross family begin to widen.

This book is…a tough one to read. Even having read what seems to be Ketchum’s most disturbing & controversial novel, The Girl Next Door, I wasn’t all the way prepared for the dark places that The Secret Life of Souls took me. But there’s also something incredibly beautiful about this book as well. The bond between Delia & Caity is something like magic, and it’s really what’s at the heart of this book. You also occasionally get to see things from Caity’s POV, and I think the authors brought a really unique & insightful perspective to those sections.

Look…I’m gonna do something I don’t think I’ve ever done in a review, but I think it’s appropriate. If you want to read this book & have your experience completely spoiler free, you should get out of here now. And I’m only doing this because I know how sensitive some folks (myself included) are about stories with dogs. So again, LAST CHANCE TO BAIL OUT….

Still here? Ok…..

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(The dog makes it through to the end of the book. I just feel like that’s information some people would want to have before deciding to read this. If I’m wrong, I sincerely apologize.)

That being said, this book takes such a hellishly dark & violent turn, and it’s a lot to process. Like, I’m still processing it & I’ve already finished three other books since wrapping up The Secret Life of Souls. Either way, this is definitely something I’d recommend. In my limited experience reading Jack Ketchum (R.I.P.), he’s just a phenomenal writer. And collaborating with someone as wildly imaginative as Lucky McKee really gives this book a very unique voice. This one was dark & disturbing, but also kinda sweet in its own way. And I mean…oof…dogs.