Scan barcode
A review by phyrre
Living the Good Death by Scott Baron
3.0
Living The Good Death is a romantic dark comedy, which is right up my alley, complete with she-death, meet-cutes, some pretty big-wig mythological name drops, and enough mystery to keep the reader guessing.
I confess, I came close to DNF'ing this at about 10% because I just couldn't get into it and wasn't sure where it was heading. About 15% in, it picked up, and I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It's funny (if you're into dark humor) and has a wonderful ending/moral.
Thanks to the author and Edelweiss for a copy of this. (Although, I also apparently purchased it at some point, because I don't know what I'm doing anymore?)
Thoughts:
- Death being female was a nice touch, and I enjoyed seeing her struggle to cope with being human. I mean, trust me, it's a drag. I laughed quite a few times as she discovered things that we take for granted, and I thought this was done well.
- Her meeting with Randy is adorable in its realistic awkwardness. I mean, obviously they're going to be a couple because this is a romantic comedy, but this meet-cute doesn't go quite as planned, and I actually really enjoyed that.
- The cast of characters is interesting and entertaining and made me laugh more times than I can count. The banter was great. I especially loved when Curtis, Randy, and Dorothy/Death were together and the way they exchanged quips. Stein was quite funny, too, though I don't envy the poor guy.
- The drops of supernatural and mystery in the book were well done, I thought, and I liked that there was enough plausibility to really make the reader question what's going on. Is the main character really Death? Or is she Dorothy, the delusional mental ward patient? Who knows? I loved the duality of the book in that way, where everything that happened had two explanations and it could definitely go either way.
- The ending was lovely, and even though I guessed where it was heading, it was still satisfying.
Sticking Points:
- The villain felt very villainy and one-dimensional. There's a backstory to him that was alluded to but not really explored, and even that just adds to his role as a Bad Guy™. 90% of the crap he did was extremely illegal, yet no one called him on his BS. No one reported him. Everybody hated him, and some feared him, but yet nobody actually acted against him ... why? It's not really said. Especially in this day and age with cell phones, I'm not buying that he's getting away with any of this crap.
- The ending fight was anticlimactic ... and not really actually a fight? There's been this big built up between the antagonist and protagonist and mind games and one-upmanship and trying to break each other, and finally, FINALLY, we hit this moment where they're going toe-to-toe ... and then it's over. Just like that. That easily. I understand why and how, but it really left me feeling cheated after all the build-up.
- There are a lot of places where you have to suspend your disbelief (beyond the obvious fantasy aspect), and mine was often stretched past the breaking point. There were aspects of it that were great in its fantasyish-ness, and for the most part, it danced between the real world and the created fantasy world nicely. But there were too many times I felt like I'm just not buying it anymore.
I confess, I came close to DNF'ing this at about 10% because I just couldn't get into it and wasn't sure where it was heading. About 15% in, it picked up, and I'm glad I didn't give up on it. It's funny (if you're into dark humor) and has a wonderful ending/moral.
Thanks to the author and Edelweiss for a copy of this. (Although, I also apparently purchased it at some point, because I don't know what I'm doing anymore?)
Thoughts:
- Death being female was a nice touch, and I enjoyed seeing her struggle to cope with being human. I mean, trust me, it's a drag. I laughed quite a few times as she discovered things that we take for granted, and I thought this was done well.
- Her meeting with Randy is adorable in its realistic awkwardness. I mean, obviously they're going to be a couple because this is a romantic comedy, but this meet-cute doesn't go quite as planned, and I actually really enjoyed that.
- The cast of characters is interesting and entertaining and made me laugh more times than I can count. The banter was great. I especially loved when Curtis, Randy, and Dorothy/Death were together and the way they exchanged quips. Stein was quite funny, too, though I don't envy the poor guy.
- The drops of supernatural and mystery in the book were well done, I thought, and I liked that there was enough plausibility to really make the reader question what's going on. Is the main character really Death? Or is she Dorothy, the delusional mental ward patient? Who knows? I loved the duality of the book in that way, where everything that happened had two explanations and it could definitely go either way.
- The ending was lovely, and even though I guessed where it was heading, it was still satisfying.
Sticking Points:
- The villain felt very villainy and one-dimensional. There's a backstory to him that was alluded to but not really explored, and even that just adds to his role as a Bad Guy™. 90% of the crap he did was extremely illegal, yet no one called him on his BS. No one reported him. Everybody hated him, and some feared him, but yet nobody actually acted against him ... why? It's not really said. Especially in this day and age with cell phones, I'm not buying that he's getting away with any of this crap.
- The ending fight was anticlimactic ... and not really actually a fight? There's been this big built up between the antagonist and protagonist and mind games and one-upmanship and trying to break each other, and finally, FINALLY, we hit this moment where they're going toe-to-toe ... and then it's over. Just like that. That easily. I understand why and how, but it really left me feeling cheated after all the build-up.
- There are a lot of places where you have to suspend your disbelief (beyond the obvious fantasy aspect), and mine was often stretched past the breaking point. There were aspects of it that were great in its fantasyish-ness, and for the most part, it danced between the real world and the created fantasy world nicely. But there were too many times I felt like I'm just not buying it anymore.