Breath

by Jackie Morse Kesslar

Grade: 3 1/2 stars
Story Summary: Now we've done Famine, War, and Pestilence, and we're finally on Death. And he's seriously depressed. As in suicidally depressed. And it's all up to one also suicidal teenager named Xander to save everything.
Sequel to Hunger, Rage, and Loss.

Thoughts: I really love these books. They're "issue books", which isn't usually my cup of tea. But...it's the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! How could I resist?

This one delved much more into the mythological aspects of the series--finally. I'd been wanting a bit of background. Most of it was pretty cool, and there were some things that finally made sense. I still wish some things were slightly better explained, but the books aren't really supposed to be about that. So I'm ok with it.

Spoilers in the paragraph below.
I was, however, a little unhappy with the end. Unfortunately, I'm very behind on reviews and so I read this book about a month ago, and don't remember what happened exactly. I do remember that there seemed an indication that much of the story was in Xander's head--a bit of a cop-out. It seemed like it could still work in that Harry Potter way: "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?" But it wasn't clear enough, and I didn't quite approve.

P.S. Death shows up on my Top Ten (Or So): Anthropomorphic Personifications of Death.