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theeuphoriczat's review against another edition
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.
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
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
The prose Just did not gel with me
stanro's review against another edition
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.”
voodoomoose's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
hollyb15's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
telly_in_town's review against another edition
1.0
This book had so much potential and I was just awful. I feel like this book is something that some niche group of high society’s would love. This whole book is just the word snobby all over.
The random poetry and incoherent plot was all over the place. I love poetry but this was just not it. I loved the idea of Mrs death telling the sad deaths from years ago and that’s what I thought it was at first with the Jack the Ripper story but this just slowly divulged into madness and edge.
The random poetry and incoherent plot was all over the place. I love poetry but this was just not it. I loved the idea of Mrs death telling the sad deaths from years ago and that’s what I thought it was at first with the Jack the Ripper story but this just slowly divulged into madness and edge.
kokarina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
niknakreads's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
jjelliacee's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0