The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn – a Review

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Description:
If you could trade your biggest burden for someone else’s, would you do it?

Five teenagers sit around a bonfire in the middle of the New Mexico desert. They don’t know it yet, but they are about to make the biggest sacrifice of their lives.

Lo has a family history of MS, and is starting to come down with all the symptoms.

Thomas, a former child soldier from Liberia, is plagued by traumatic memories of his war-torn past.

Kaya would do anything to feel physical pain, but a rare condition called CIP keeps her numb.

Ellen can’t remember who she was before she started doing drugs.

Kit lost his girlfriend in a car accident and now he just can’t shake his newfound fear of death.

When they trade totems as a symbol of shedding and adopting one another’s sorrows, they think it’s only an exercise.

But in the morning, they wake to find their burdens gone…and replaced with someone else’s.

As the reality of the ritual unfolds, this unlikely group of five embarks on a week of beautiful, terrifying experiences that all culminate in one perfect truth: In the end, your soul is stronger than your burdens.

Review:

The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn is a YA novel with a very unique concept. When I read the description, I thought to myself, this is different, and it really interested me. What would you think about 5 troubled teenagers, with various issues physically, mentally, or on drugs that find themselves in the midst of a healing ritual that will have them unknowingly switch their burdens with someone else within the 5.

In the beginning of The Way We Bared Our Souls, we meet our heroine of this story. Lo is undergoing an examination as to symptoms she has been having that might be the sign multiple sclerosis, which her beloved aunt recently died from. She tries to hide her fears by pretending nothing is wrong to friends and family. While walking home from school, she comes across a stranger and his coyote. We meet Jay, who is a shaman. Jay tells her things about herself that no one really knows, and she begins to believe him when he talks about a healing ritual. Agreeing to give it a try, she must find 4 friends, who suffer from different types of conditions, and meet with Jay on the weekend.

We get to meet and learn more about the 4 friends that she will find to help complete the ritual.
Kaya – who suffers from inability to feel physical pain, due to a rare condition called CIP that makes her feel numb.

Kit – who is deeply lost in grief for his dead girlfriend.

Ellen – who has become totally hooked on drugs, causing her memory loss.

Thomas – a young child soldier, who can’t get past the nightmares of horrors he witnessed.

When all five meet in a cave in Santa Fe, Jay explains the ritual that will help them cleanse their souls. They will meet back in a week, and after Jay leaves, the 5 sit there not sensing anything different. But later that night or the following morning, they find that they have swapped their burdens.

Lo takes on the numbness of Kaya; Kaya takes on Thomas emotional nightmares, but her own history; Ellen picks up Lo’s pain; Kit enjoys the new feeling of be happy, but without the drugs Ellen was taking; and Thomas takes on Kit’s fears of death.

All this is early on, and what follows is an interesting story that leads each of them to look at things in a different perspective, different pain; which also brings about revelations, coming to terms with their own lives and bringing them all closer, as well as tragedy. Will they find their way back to their own burdens? Will they be able to recover? You will have to read the book to find the answers.

This was an interesting storyline, completely different than I have read before. There were times that I found myself rushing it along with some slow parts early on. However, I did enjoy the story, the friendships, and wanted to find out how it all ended. I do recommend that you read The Way We Bared Our Souls.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher