A review by terrik_
Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Mrs Death Misses Death is a story about Wolf and his encounters with Mrs Death. She shares her stories with him - the various people she had to fetch and the story of Life and Mrs Death and Time; over time, they develop a bond as Wolf writes a book based off everything that happens. 

Wolf and Mrs Death were undoubtedly brilliantly written characters. They had so much dimension to them - at times they were confusing, at times they were annoying, and at times I wanted to hug them. Apart from that, all the other characters were compelling in their own ways. Minor characters as they were, the situations that led to their death and the impact of their deaths were all so properly flushed out. 

But there was one thing the author did that made me really dislike the characters at some points - the onslaught of swearing. 

There were many issues touched upon in this book and I feel like it was sometimes inelegantly put forth. There were paragraphs where there would be repetitions sentence after sentence and each would contain the word ‘fuck’ or ‘fucking’. I understand that Mrs Death was an angry woman - and rightfully so -  but it just made me want to put the book down and go ‘please no more’. 

The structure of the book often made took me out of the story. It was a mixture of both prose and poems and songs. However, I felt like the poems really didn’t do much for the story. They felt like prose with random line breaks. And there were also chapters where everything / was written / like this to / signify line breaks. I just think it’s have been much better if the book had been written all in prose or if the poems had deeper meaning where you could read between the lines. 

I love how the book slowly revealed that Wolf is an unreliable narrator. I think it’s my first time reading a story where I truly don’t know what’s happening because of the protagonist. It was confusing but at the same time mind-provoking. 

But at the same time, everything happened very quickly that I got whiplash over it.

There was also one more thing: I felt like a lot of the book was about telling and not showing. Mrs Death continuously says how women are ignored. She continuously repeats that humans are destroying themselves and that women are the ignored. Which are true! But I feel like this was just really pushed into our face by the author. I just wished that her anger and frustrations were shown instead of told more. 

I think that overall the book was really nice, but the execution just left me a bit ? over everything. But I’m happy to have read it. It’s a short read so if you have time give it a shot!
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