A review by shrrawat
This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death by

4.0

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. I was surprised to get the book, then find that it's a sequel to another book which I hadn't read. That'll teach me to read the giveaway details more closely, instead of going straight for the plot line. Still, there was no harm done, as the book was simple and clear to read, even to a fresh new reader like myself. That point alone caused me to give it two stars.

The rest of the book earned the other two stars. As I have mentioned before in my other reviews, I do have a weakness for short stories, so one can say that I'm slightly biased. But truly, the stories in this book were remarkable. It is hard for a story to stand out in an anthology, but the majority of the tales in this book managed to do just that. It also conquered another challenge many short stories face: predictability, or some stories sounding exactly the same as others. But with so many authors coming from so many different walks of life, this obstacle was cleared, with many fresh, new stories to be offered to the reader.

There are few flaws to be found in this book. Yes some plot lines in some of the stories are predictable (at least to me), and there are a few with a bit too much melodrama. But I believe that this book will be as popular as its predecessor (I think the first book was popular to demand a sequel), to both old and new fans.