Loss

by Jackie Morse Kessler

Grade: 4 stars
Story: Billy has a miserable life. His dad left, he's bullied horribly every day at school, his grandfather has Alzheimer's, and he is haunted by dreams of a nasty white man who terrified him as a child. Then one day, Death himself rings the doorbell, and Billy is off to save the world and wield the bow of Pestilence.
(See the first two in the series: Hunger and Rage, and the fourth one: Breath.)

Thoughts: So now it's Pestilence's turn! Finally. And I was perfectly satisfied with how his character turned out. It had kind of bugged me in the first two books that Pestilence was the only one who was not cool. But this one turned him into an actual character, not just a gross, slimy guy who was supposed to get along with Famine but didn't.

My feelings about this book are somewhat different than the last two in a couple ways. I think mostly because this book is written from a male perspective. So, for instance, my criticism for the last two books about Death being described as "sexy" too much was not present for this one. This, in my opinion, allowed him to be much more realistic as an Anthropomorphic Personification of Death. In fact, I was very pleased indeed with Death this time. It delved into his nature a lot more, which is always intriguing.

But perhaps because the viewpoint was changed to a male perspective in this one, I didn't find the Issue (bullying) quite as shockingly horrible. But again, I have no experience to draw on whatsoever. Quite the contrary. I, thank God, have not had to deal with any of the Issues presented in these books.

So, still looking forward to the next one. This'll be Death's book. I have no idea what she's going to do for this one, as Death is not human like the rest of them. We shall see, eh?

P.S. Death as a character is pretty darn cool. Thus, see: Top Ten (Or So): Anthropomorphic Personifications of Death.