Reviews

The game requires the players to torture each other with their own memories. The only way to win is if you have nothing to loose/everything to gain. The winner is the person with no regrets and who truly knows themselves.

Imaging grabbing a thesaurus every time you thought a word was to commonly used, but creating a writing style that is very engaging, with comical characters and witty exchanges - that is basically this book. There was a lot of unnecessary language, but the concept of the game was so interesting, and all the joy and emotions the characters expressed really pushed “humanity is a gift” theme of the book.

The ending, however, was too perfectly rounded off - there is no open ending which fell flat considering the rest of the story was very fun. I love mystery surrounding the end of a story, and I was left with nothing to question myself over which was disappointing.

Would probably have given 5* if i was a few years younger when i read this:

In “the game”, the stakes became so high and people kept losing in such a short amount of time the final goal became less meaningful.
The unraveling plot was extremely predictable - the spoiler was easy to guess, so all the final plot points were not shocking at all.
The semantics of the meaning behind characters actions comes up a lot and is a bit tedious
eg god regrets fox - not regret raising him but regrets underestimating him, which then caused fox harm, therefore deaths regret is felt because of fox’s hurt(p 367)
- good morals for a child's book, however this is more YA so the semantics were a bit annoying.

selahmay's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

kitkat175's review against another edition

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3.0

This book feels very slow and feels like it's dragging and sometimes it feels like it's very confusing.
This book feels like it's dragging on and on. To be honest this book does not seem like my vibe.
This book was okay. I did give it three stars because I did like the ending, and I think that was all thatI liked to be honest, it was a very meh read and I guess just not my type of read or book, or maybe it was the style of the author's writing I don't know it felt like it was all over the place.

eswinbanks's review against another edition

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4.0

When you play the immortal game there is only one rule: don’t lose.

Masters of Death is a brilliantly bizarre and cryptic caper that had me spellbound. It begins as a simple story of a haunted mansion and an estate agent who hires a medium to get rid of the ghost, and then morphs into an epic quest to save humanity from a demon king.
The book features an array of mythical creatures including vampires, ghosts, demons, reapers, angels, gods, and demigods, as well as some mortals for good measure. The characters are richly drawn, sassy, witty, and compelling. They had depth and felt real despite the fact that most of them were not human. I had a particular soft spot for Viola and loved her banter with Tom. And while the archangels Gabriel and Raphael only made a relatively brief appearance in the story, they were hilarious and stole every scene. I’d have loved more of them and would definitely buy a book with them at the centre (hint, hint). Another aspect I really enjoyed was the narration from Death that opens the book. It gave things a sinister, forbidding vibe that captured my imagination and I would have liked to have seen more of this, too.

Darkly funny, offbeat, moving, and addictive, Masters of Death is an entertaining and ambitious fantasy from a true storyteller.

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