Reviews

I’ll be honest when I say I went into this not knowing much and only seeing a few booktubers and such giving it high praise and ratings. I’m happy to say I can join in that excitement about it!
Now what is this book about? Wolf Willeford is writing a book about the dead, about Mrs Death and her journey so far. It’s all written in poems, diary entries, interviews, etc.
It’s hard to describe more than that however. Your best bet is that if even the synopsis or the cover interest you, give the first pages a try, give the first few chapters a try. You’ll either fall in love or be confused and overwhelmed. In the end it all reads as a love story to death (not Mrs Death but death as a concept).
It was hard hitting and emotional and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I received a copy of this for free from Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you so much!!
#MrsDeathmissesdeath #Netgalley

julieh46's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

alibrareads's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.5

That was an experience, I guess. I forgot this was written partially in verse, and I don’t care for poetry/lyrical writing. This was basically a bunch of musings about death. There’s no plot really, but in a loose way you’re following a guy named Wolf as he meets Mrs Death and starts to write down her story and things she has seen. I didn’t get hopeful or positive vibes from this. If you’re looking for catharsis by just reading about death, and aren’t looking for a pep talk or silver lining necessarily, and you enjoy poetry and non-traditional/provocative writing, you might like this.

I was only truly pulled in by one story (not sure if it’s true or fictional): that of Tilly Tuppence, a prostitute who was the first victim of Jack the Ripper. Very captivating story. Other than that, I found myself not worried about paying too close attention to this book because it was so random and rambly and didn’t really have a plot or point.

theeuphoriczat's review against another edition

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4.0

I really loved reading this book. I thought it was a great study on death, grief and the power of invisibility & insignificance.

We follow Mrs Death who is a simple older Black woman who is usually overlooked and not attributed to anything of significance. Her job is exhausting and people obvious lack of appreciation for all she does to maintain balance has exhausted her and she needs someone to unburden her conscience to.

This is how we meet Wolf who is a struggling aspiring writer who believes that a new desk will solve all their problems (as Wolf Willeford was not gendered, I will use she/her identifies in this review). When Wolf was a child, she had faced death (had seen Mrs Death) when the building she and her mother caught on fire due to shitty construction and lack of proper fire maintenance structures. So upon seeing and interacting with Mrs Death, Wolf begins by questioning and getting to know the parameters of death and if Mrs Death have ever missed death.

I thought this book was a great study on time, how position has humans in time, the functionality and importance of death not just for population control but for purpose. Most people thrive to leave a make in time because of death. If we were to live forever without worrying about dying or death, no one will do anything, no one will thrive for anything.

I loved the way invisibility was used as a cloak for death and the characterization of Death as a middle age Black woman just further highlights the current gap in equality. They unseen, the silenced, the abandoned, the unthought-of, we don't think or appreciate death until it is staring us in the face.

This quote just fully encapsulate the importance of death.
Death. To imagine your own death is to be living. To be friends, to be friendly with knowledge, the knowing that death will come. This should make you try harder to be living, to be fully alive and lively. Surely you know you are all dying? You know - you all know - that you're going to die. This should make you all want to be good, to be better.

wolfeekitten's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

santas_reading_elf_'s review against another edition

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The prose Just did not gel with me

stanro's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The last audiobook I finished was said to be narrative poetry. As an audiobook, I couldn’t tell. This, however, at times is clearly poetic in its repetitive rhythmic prose built around wordplay. I mean, the title gives that away, after all.

Mrs Death is no “Grim Reaper.” She’s something else - though I’ll leave the reader to discover just what or who. The book is a report by the early-twenties would-be writer Wolf, on what Mrs Death gets up to. Wolf first saw Mrs Death while surviving an apartment block fire as a child, a fire in which her mother (and many others) died.

It’s a strange book. I can’t decide whether the author, Salena Godden, lost her authorial conviction or if it was always headed where it went. I feel some dissatisfaction when the direction changes. Then there’s the poetry. If you look her up as I just did, you find she is an already-established poet and this is her first novel. “I blow smoke, and talk fluent fire.”

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