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directorpurry's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Death
Minor: Fatphobia
sueog's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Alcohol
Minor: Fatphobia
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I had the deeply bizarre but lovely experience of reading this book for the first time, while the whole time it felt like rereading an old and well-loved favourite.
Also, the book itself didn't make me cry, but the introduction did.
Also, the book itself didn't make me cry, but the introduction did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Animal death
Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, Fatphobia, and Racism
Minor: Torture, Excrement, and Xenophobia
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Mort feels like the point in Discworld where Pratchett really started to figure out what he wanted the series to be. The humor feels more subtle and the serious bits deeper. Do brace yourself for period-typical sexism, ableism, and fatphobia, and xenophobia (the period being the 1980s); but otherwise sit back and enjoy a pretty darned good read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Xenophobia, Classism, Ableism, Fatphobia, and Sexism
Minor: Animal death
sreddous's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Breathtaking.
I don't know how Terry Pratchett does it. This book is, all at the same time, spit-your-drink-out hilarious, tense, haunting, beautiful, poetic. I found myself laughing out loud and reading descriptions out to people in other rooms, I found myself muttering "oh dang!" at some of the twists and character reveals, I found myself chewing my lip in anxiety.
It's a take on the myth of Death that I haven't seen before. The plot is easy enough to follow and IMO is perfectly-paced, not too fast, not too slow. The descriptions of each character, each location, each process tell the reader exactly what they need to know in extremely clever ways. "Show, don't tell," is a sometimes hard rule to follow as a writer. "Immerse, don't show," is something that Terry Pratchett is uniquely a genius about, and holy crap, does this book really put that talent center-stage.
The characters' motivations are consistent and realistic even in this place where space and time don't matter. Death can be a cruel master. He doesn't understand humans and emotions and "why", so therefore, there are times he's setting Mort up for failure. Therefore, the stakes are always super high. Mort can be a bit unlikable sometimes and say and do some sketchy things but -- yeah, what would I do in his shoes? It's so easy to get completely immersed in this drama, this wonder, this tension.
For this story specifically, I don't love the fat jokes that pop up here and there, and there's some not-insanely-graphic-but-still depictions of animal abuse and death, so heads up if that can be upsetting to you. But those aren't too over-reaching. Can't wait to keep reading more Discworld books in general but definitely the Grim Reaper-related ones.
I don't know how Terry Pratchett does it. This book is, all at the same time, spit-your-drink-out hilarious, tense, haunting, beautiful, poetic. I found myself laughing out loud and reading descriptions out to people in other rooms, I found myself muttering "oh dang!" at some of the twists and character reveals, I found myself chewing my lip in anxiety.
It's a take on the myth of Death that I haven't seen before. The plot is easy enough to follow and IMO is perfectly-paced, not too fast, not too slow. The descriptions of each character, each location, each process tell the reader exactly what they need to know in extremely clever ways. "Show, don't tell," is a sometimes hard rule to follow as a writer. "Immerse, don't show," is something that Terry Pratchett is uniquely a genius about, and holy crap, does this book really put that talent center-stage.
The characters' motivations are consistent and realistic even in this place where space and time don't matter. Death can be a cruel master. He doesn't understand humans and emotions and "why", so therefore, there are times he's setting Mort up for failure. Therefore, the stakes are always super high. Mort can be a bit unlikable sometimes and say and do some sketchy things but -- yeah, what would I do in his shoes? It's so easy to get completely immersed in this drama, this wonder, this tension.
For this story specifically, I don't love the fat jokes that pop up here and there, and there's some not-insanely-graphic-but-still depictions of animal abuse and death, so heads up if that can be upsetting to you. But those aren't too over-reaching. Can't wait to keep reading more Discworld books in general but definitely the Grim Reaper-related ones.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Fatphobia and Animal cruelty
kagebrain's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
blymanor's review
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Not sure how I feel about the overall plot, but there are some incredibly well-written jokes and sardonic comments in here that make it worth it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Confinement, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
sockandkey's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcohol and Vomit
One of the main characters is frequently put down by the narrator for being fat/plus-size. There are caricatures of Middle-Eastern people who appear at least twice, but are not very relevant to the overarching plot.sigynmoon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Classism, and Animal cruelty
Fatphobia: Throughout the book a character is described as chubby in a way that implies she is unattractive for it. Murder: There's a lot of murder and death in this book as a whole, the whole story is revolved around death. Animal death and cruelty: Near the beginning, a bag of drowned kittens is found. We do see these kittens come up as ghosts which personally made me feel better but it's still definitely saddening for animal lovers. A man attempts to sacrifice an elephant but fails, however the elephant is still injured in the process. Classism: A princess throws out a bit of classism here and there.vigil's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
this is a tough one for me to puzzle out enough for a proper rating. once the main plot with princess keli kicked off, i realized almost immediately i didn't care about it or her. i actually wanted the "no one escapes death" ending rather than the plucky hero changes reality out of pluckiness that i got. the hero himself, mort, was only enjoyable as a protagonist up to a point, and after just got bullheaded, unreasonable, and overall grating. he was right, he definitely wasn't cut out for this kind of job. i found his romance with ysabell to be both abrupt and bland, and clearly set up for the plot following the later books with susan (from the knowledge i gathered when i looked up the death series) who is hopefully more engaging. i felt apathetic towards the death vs mort scene towards the end, and the way death acted didn't quite seem to be in line with the character in the rest of the book. the book is over three decades old, so the subtle fatphobia annoyed, but didn't shock me. the hints of attraction between cutwell and keli who are 20 and 15 respectively was disgusting and didn't need to be included at all.
all this aside, i really enjoyed death as a character, the atmosphere of discworld, and pratchett's writing style that even though i was ambivalent to most of the plot, kept me entertained.
all this aside, i really enjoyed death as a character, the atmosphere of discworld, and pratchett's writing style that even though i was ambivalent to most of the plot, kept me entertained.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Fatphobia