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knitchick's review
5.0
Connected to Gaiman's Sandman universe, this graphic novel focuses on Death. It's a bittersweet story, but it shows how compassionate and kind Death really is. If you love Sandman, even if you don't, do read this! It's worth it!
romination's review
3.0
It’s hard to really know what score to give this one – it’s not like I was dying to know more about Foxglove and Hazel (even their appearance in the previous, High Cost of Living, was a surprise), and especially not in the form of a sort or generic “fame’s tearing us apart!!!” narrative where Foxglove gets too big and cheats on Hazel and leaves her home with their kid and doesn’t see her enough. Their sexuality provides a different wrinkle to it, of course, since they have to also keep their relationship secret, but some of these parts do feel kinda paint by numbers.
And really the thing I thought about as I ended this one was I was how clever Neil thinks he is. That he spends this whole volume just teasing another sad lesbian romance, where one has to die, where happiness again is denied to the non-heteronormative people in his story (a problem that’s plagued this series), and then at the very last second, whoops, pulls it away, and they DO get a happily ever after! Let’s never mind the optics of a black man killing himself to save two white women; after all, even today, it’s pretty rare to see stories where the queer couple doesn’t end in some kind of personal tragedy between them.
The story itself is basically half looking back at their relationship and how it was in the past, half looking at their current situation, and all based around Hazel talking to Death about a deal they made that she has to pay up for. It's kind of weird that super normies like Foxglove and Hazel are so involved with the Endless like this that they're in what, 4 different stories with them? They're not particularly interesting as characters, though I'm glad this one actually took the time to flesh them out then since they've hovered on the edges so much.
More than anything this one reminds me those stories with Dream where there's all sorts of other drama going on and then the Endless person comes in at the end and goes "oh what? ok i'll kinda take care of this i guess since this is what the readers are here for." Specifically like the first story to introduce this couple, but also similar to something like the Dream Hunters. Coincidentally I was lukewarm on those stories too.
It's not that I need the Endless to play larger parts in every story - I want a good story that can be tinged with them like a delicious spice added on top of something already good. And I just didn't find this story particularly good is what it comes down to. There wasn't much of a reason to care about these two - it never took the time to show their love, it only took the time to tell us about it. Hell, if we're getting down to it we even see that both of the people involved here have completely different stakes in their relationship, with Hazel remembering certain things with such fondness and Foxglove having no recollection of them at all, not even as a passing "oh right, that happened!" And while I'm glad their story was put to rest happily (as I'm a human and we tend to enjoy happy endings), the fact that 2 people had to die and both women almost killed themselves in order to get there makes it feel a little pyrrhic.
Hopefully they won't run into the Endless again because all it does is wind up as tragedy for people around them.
This was an ok story in the end, and it does feel like Gaiman's just sitting on a money and awards throne, smirking at you, going "aha.... subverted your expectations, didn't I!?" And while that's good for a first read through, repeat readings aren't going to have the same effect if it's just not put in with a good enough, well, everything else. Maybe I'm being too harsh on it, I don't know, but I feel like I've been very tough on this whole series in general. I wish Death was involved in better stories in particular - I liked her bit in Endless Nights, and the idea of the lasting effects she has on people when they come in contact with her. I guess I would have liked to see that explored more, but she got to be a manic pixie dream girl and then a background character for people to give exposition to, and it's unfortunate she was used like this. I guess I like this one a little more of her two stories because it's not just Garden State with immortals, though. Maybe he'll be revisiting this character at some point, but based on these, you can consider my interest in it happening being kinda tepid.
And really the thing I thought about as I ended this one was I was how clever Neil thinks he is. That he spends this whole volume just teasing another sad lesbian romance, where one has to die, where happiness again is denied to the non-heteronormative people in his story (a problem that’s plagued this series), and then at the very last second, whoops, pulls it away, and they DO get a happily ever after! Let’s never mind the optics of a black man killing himself to save two white women; after all, even today, it’s pretty rare to see stories where the queer couple doesn’t end in some kind of personal tragedy between them.
The story itself is basically half looking back at their relationship and how it was in the past, half looking at their current situation, and all based around Hazel talking to Death about a deal they made that she has to pay up for. It's kind of weird that super normies like Foxglove and Hazel are so involved with the Endless like this that they're in what, 4 different stories with them? They're not particularly interesting as characters, though I'm glad this one actually took the time to flesh them out then since they've hovered on the edges so much.
More than anything this one reminds me those stories with Dream where there's all sorts of other drama going on and then the Endless person comes in at the end and goes "oh what? ok i'll kinda take care of this i guess since this is what the readers are here for." Specifically like the first story to introduce this couple, but also similar to something like the Dream Hunters. Coincidentally I was lukewarm on those stories too.
It's not that I need the Endless to play larger parts in every story - I want a good story that can be tinged with them like a delicious spice added on top of something already good. And I just didn't find this story particularly good is what it comes down to. There wasn't much of a reason to care about these two - it never took the time to show their love, it only took the time to tell us about it. Hell, if we're getting down to it we even see that both of the people involved here have completely different stakes in their relationship, with Hazel remembering certain things with such fondness and Foxglove having no recollection of them at all, not even as a passing "oh right, that happened!" And while I'm glad their story was put to rest happily (as I'm a human and we tend to enjoy happy endings), the fact that 2 people had to die and both women almost killed themselves in order to get there makes it feel a little pyrrhic.
Hopefully they won't run into the Endless again because all it does is wind up as tragedy for people around them.
This was an ok story in the end, and it does feel like Gaiman's just sitting on a money and awards throne, smirking at you, going "aha.... subverted your expectations, didn't I!?" And while that's good for a first read through, repeat readings aren't going to have the same effect if it's just not put in with a good enough, well, everything else. Maybe I'm being too harsh on it, I don't know, but I feel like I've been very tough on this whole series in general. I wish Death was involved in better stories in particular - I liked her bit in Endless Nights, and the idea of the lasting effects she has on people when they come in contact with her. I guess I would have liked to see that explored more, but she got to be a manic pixie dream girl and then a background character for people to give exposition to, and it's unfortunate she was used like this. I guess I like this one a little more of her two stories because it's not just Garden State with immortals, though. Maybe he'll be revisiting this character at some point, but based on these, you can consider my interest in it happening being kinda tepid.
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