Wayward Souls

by Susan J. Morris

🐣🐣🐣🐣

4/5 ducklings

tl;dr men are the worst…nope, that’s it. Men are the worst.

This sequel to Strange Beasts is a fun gaslamp fantasy romp that reunites me with two of my favorite fictional women right now. I was so happy to be back with Sam and Hel and watch them solve the latest mystery while being harassed by various men.

The events of Strange Beasts left their marks on Samantha Harker and Dr. Helena Moriarty. Sam still has flashbacks to her encounter with M. Voland, and Hel’s loyalties are questioned more than ever. Jakob Van Helsing is fine though.

It is with Sam being interrogated about Hel’s actions regarding the case in Strange Beasts that Wayward Souls opens and it is fitting foreshadowing for the themes of the rest of the book.

Being the only non-English agents available, Sam (American), Hel (Irish), and Van Helsing (Danish) are sent to Ireland to investigate the gruesome and seemingly impossible deaths of two men.

From the start, it’s clear that Hel is afraid to return to her home country where she burned her every connection to her family to the ground. She knows her father will be watching, seeing everything she does and targeting anyone she cares about. Hel’s unwillingness to put Sam in her father’s crosshairs weighs on their relationship, which is strained further by Sam’s unnerving discovery of raven feathers in impossible places and the lure of her Channeling powers, made worse by a song only she can hear.

As the mystery becomes more and more tangled, Sam begins to question everything: her feelings for Hel, Hel’s feelings for her, who her grandfather really was, whether she really is a monster, and that perhaps Van Helsing is right and it’s better that he kill her before she can truly become one.

The through line of book is men treating women badly. Hel is constantly questioned and criticized for her family ties, her self-confidence, and unwavering attitude. Sam is dismissed at every turn because she dresses like a lady and doesn’t have combat training (which, by the way, no one has offered her). Jakob Van Helsing, meanwhile, is treated with deference and an authority on all things, despite his outright incorrect assumptions about Ireland, its people and its mythology.

Spoilers ahead. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In the course of their investigation, they uncover a secret society dedicated to harnessing magic for their own uses made up of powerful men and a single woman, another Channel, that they use for her blood and little else.

The secret society somehow managed the unthinkable: capture the Morrigan, the ancient Irish goddess of war, death, and prophecy. And they wonder why their members are being attacked.

That twist had be so angry, Actually, this whole book had me angry. Sam in particular, is treated like a child at best and a tool at worst. She is told to be grateful that her childhood best friend is willing to kill her in the event she becomes a monster. She is shut down again and again by her boss, her explanations of the Strange Beasts case is blatantly disregarded in favor of the way things have always been done in regards to magical creatures. Even Hel treats her poorly, withholding information because she assumes it will frighten Sam, taking Sam’s chance to decide for herself. A group of delusional men captured a woman more powerful than they are to use her power to benefit themselves and because they are afraid of her and what she could do.

I say this book made me angry, but I love a book that makes me feel something. I don’t love books that revolve around sexism, especially when it amounts to gaslighting women into questioning their sanity, but Sam’s and Hel’s character growth makes up for a lot of it. Both of them push back against the restraints of the patriarchy, Hel making her authority known, and Sam finally standing up for herself and making Van Helsing understand her anger and frustration.

Wayward Souls was fun! I love Sam and Hel, I love the world and how Morris plays with the tropes of classic literary characters. This installment was an emotional roller coaster and she grapples with devastating discoveries with care and tact, the characters might not handle said discoveries well, but Morris does and does it in a way that feels consistent with what we know about the characters.

If you’re looking for a good mystery, well developed characters that are by turns lovable and frustrating (in a good way), and lush turn-of-the-century settings, I highly recommend Wayward Souls.

Originally published March 17, 2026