Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Mrs Death Misses Death

This book is unlike anything I’ve read. The book is more speculative, being more a compilation of different types of prose rather than just a normal story with chapters. Although underneath all the different thoughts and feelings, there is a baseline story, I don’t think that’s really the point of the book. The subject is more the feelings and thoughts surrounding death and the passing of people around us, and the changes and affects that has on us.

altogether it was an interesting and unique read. I did find some of the book a little tedious and hard to get through, but overall the book was interesting. Enjoyed reading it!

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kylajaynebooks's review

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-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

3.5

This book is certainly quite peculiar in terms of narrative form and also of point of view (the chapters from the perspective of a desk, I mean what was that?!).
I think that when it worked for me, it worked really really well and I was left really impressed by the writing style and the profound and poignant exploration of a certain topic. However, when it didn't work, it really really didn't work for me and I just felt very confused and like the narrative style had been overdone a bit too much.
Also, some sections where the character of Death was talking sounded to me too much like an essay, maybe too much "telling, and not showing", not very subtly handled.

At times it felt a bit overly graphic (the list of content warnings is so long that, honestly, it'd be easier to say what is not included) and I'm not sure if it was really necessary for the story. So many examples of very brutal crimes are included and the section with example after example of different types of deaths is quite taxing to get through.

I think it was a bit of a mixed bag for me but I'm still glad to have tried something a bit out of of my literary comfort zone.

You grow and
become who you are
you grow into your shape
I could have been anything
but this was the shape the world
carved into me.

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katiewhocanread's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

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terrik_'s review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Mrs Death Misses Death is a story about Wolf and his encounters with Mrs Death. She shares her stories with him - the various people she had to fetch and the story of Life and Mrs Death and Time; over time, they develop a bond as Wolf writes a book based off everything that happens.

Wolf and Mrs Death were undoubtedly brilliantly written characters. They had so much dimension to them - at times they were confusing, at times they were annoying, and at times I wanted to hug them. Apart from that, all the other characters were compelling in their own ways. Minor characters as they were, the situations that led to their death and the impact of their deaths were all so properly flushed out.

But there was one thing the author did that made me really dislike the characters at some points - the onslaught of swearing.

There were many issues touched upon in this book and I feel like it was sometimes inelegantly put forth. There were paragraphs where there would be repetitions sentence after sentence and each would contain the word ‘fuck’ or ‘fucking’. I understand that Mrs Death was an angry woman - and rightfully so - but it just made me want to put the book down and go ‘please no more’.

The structure of the book often made took me out of the story. It was a mixture of both prose and poems and songs. However, I felt like the poems really didn’t do much for the story. They felt like prose with random line breaks. And there were also chapters where everything / was written / like this to / signify line breaks. I just think it’s have been much better if the book had been written all in prose or if the poems had deeper meaning where you could read between the lines.

I love how the book slowly revealed that Wolf is an unreliable narrator. I think it’s my first time reading a story where I truly don’t know what’s happening because of the protagonist. It was confusing but at the same time mind-provoking.

But at the same time, everything happened very quickly that I got whiplash over it.

There was also one more thing: I felt like a lot of the book was about telling and not showing. Mrs Death continuously says how women are ignored. She continuously repeats that humans are destroying themselves and that women are the ignored. Which are true! But I feel like this was just really pushed into our face by the author. I just wished that her anger and frustrations were shown instead of told more.

I think that overall the book was really nice, but the execution just left me a bit ? over everything. But I’m happy to have read it. It’s a short read so if you have time give it a shot!

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lyndseygemm's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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