Reviews

Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman

tawfek's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

There is a whole thing out there, and it's all part of living.
The good bits, and the bad bits, and the dull bits, and the painful bits...


Death walks the earth in mortal form one day each 100 years.
The Target is for her to try life and to try death, to feel compassion for humans.
To eat and breath (yeah turns out the endless don't breath!) and live one day only each 100 years.
The world accommodates her very presence, everyone is giving her things for free, because she doesn't have much money, yeah screw that Lucifer series guy, who had infinite money, our goth girl had only 10 dollars and 2 cents, and wait till you see what the 2 cents will be used for.
As we come to expect from Gaiman we get many interesting characters.
Mad Hettie, is obviously a 250 years old witch, why is she hiding her heart?
is it being hidden from death herself so she can go on living?
Sexton, made me think of something, is it a rule or something that people who get bullied in their life, actually turn out the nicest most decent people later on?
I hate it when things become surreal.

As readers we love it when things become surreal in a story we are reading, but in real life? i don't think anyone of us would find it a good thing at all, Sexton has to go through this first hand, but among all the weird surreal things that are happening, Sexton was on the verge of suicide, so what did he have to lose? His run in with Death Herself, actually made him want to continue to live, whenever Death enters someone's life it changes it for the better, except for when she is killing babies of course by orders of the Almighty.
The macabre depressing singer was interesting, but only because i was wondering if neil gaiman was the one actually writing her songs.
We also have the mysterious Blind Eremite and his apprentice, whose goal was to steal the Ankh of Death.
I thought about this, does the Ankh really have power? like Dream's Tools?
and it did seem to have some kind of power for a while, Death seemed lost and seemed to be forgetting everything that she is without the Ankh, but then she just bought a new one, and it took on her powers immediately, The Ankh by itself is not power, the power comes from Death, she just needs an Item to channel it, and i honestly think that it could be any item.
It would be really good if death could be somebody funny and friendly and nice and maybe just a tiny bit crazy.

That's what Neil Gaiman gave us and we love him to death because of it.

mxmarymax's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

trilbynorton's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Even though I love Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, I've never been particularly interested in all their various spin-offs, and this stand-alone tale of Dream's perky goth sister Death doesn't do much to elevate my interest. I liked it well enough - Gaiman, of course, knows how to tell a good story, and the conclusion is especially good - but it feels mostly like a retread of "The Sound of Her Wings", the landmark Sandman issue which introduced Death and her surprisingly upbeat outlook on life.

newnosejar's review against another edition

Go to review page

  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

duparker's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Very enjoyable entry into the series. I am pretty sure I read this back in the day, but it wasn't sad familiar as the regular series was upon re read.

bluestjuice's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I liked it. It's short, so it's concise, and I liked the premise, although I didn't think it was amazing. I liked the artwork in this one a lot, as it happened. Honestly, it's so short I feel like a huge cheater letting it count toward my Goodreads totals, but here we are.

atlibrarienne's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I read most of these in comic book form many, many moons ago. It was nice to revisit it in one collection. Nice to see a female character fleshed out and front and center without relying solely on her sex appeal.

hellsfire's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Visit V for Vertigo, Episode 64 to hear my review at http://vforvertigo.blogspot.com or on iTunes

gonesavage's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional medium-paced

3.75

adperfectamconsilium's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's a perfectly formed short story over three issues and like any good story I didn't want it to end. But a story is like life.

'It always ends. That's what gives it value.'

Spinning off from The Sandman comes a tale featuring Death. Not the skeletal scythe wielder in the public consciousness but a teenage goth happy go lucky rock girl. This personification of Death is someone you could be best friends with and as she tells us, she knows everyone.

In this tale we follow Death in the identity of 16 year old Didi in the one day of the century where she has to take on mortal form to experience the life that she takes from everybody.

She ends up spending most of the day with depressed teenager Sexton who is the counterpart to her bubbly nature.
It's two teenagers out on the town with Sexton being taught the beauty of life.

Along the way there are elements of the fantastical as they encounter a 250 year old woman who wants Death to help her find her heart, and there is a mysterious entity determined to steal Deaths power.

The graphic novel collects the three issue series along with a six page story written as a health promotional tool for information about AIDS and safe sex.  There's also a short introduction to Death and her appearances in Sandman and the book has an intro written by the musician Tori Amos.

With artwork from Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham and Dave McKean it's a high quality package. Short but full of value.