As someone quickly approaching 40 with a penchant for urban fantasy, this book should have been right up my alley. Except… the plot is weak, the world building is lazy, and the romance doesn’t really make sense.

I think the book sums itself up well.

“Oh God, Daisy,” ***** said, letting her head fall to her chest. “You have it all wrong.”

“Have what wrong?” I asked as a feeling of dread washed over me.

“Every good story has a major plot twist,” she said slowly, growing more agitated with each word.

This is on page 155 of 164. Daisy (our MC) is finally finally learning… and still got it wrong. And it’s not even (in my opinion) that sensible a plot twist. And then the book ends. It’s very much set up for a sequel; without which, it doesn’t really stand alone.

So… despite this being an oddly well reviewed book in general, it’s just really not my cup of tea. Perhaps you’d like it more. Perhaps it gets better.

Onward.

A bit more detail (Bit of a rant. Sorry.)

Plot: It takes a while to start up and unfortunately, almost the entire plot is based on our main character being… kind of dumb?

Due to my stupid habit of assuming I knew what the hell was going on, ***** and I could probably not be fixed.

She can see dead people, which she takes in stride (rather than looking for mental help or something). Sure. Goes with the genre. Yet, despite actually having someone she can ask, she spends entirely took long not sure what’s going on and trying to fix that.

Worldbuilding: the thing that (for whatever reason) bothers me the most about this?

“Does he have a counterpart?” I asked. He had to. Right? If someone’s afterlife was in question there had to be a good Grim Reaper… or some sort of benevolent being, something like that.

I rolled my eyes at myself and waited to see what Gram would say.

“Angel of Mercy. The Angel of Mercy is the counterpart to the Grim Reaper. A tire!” she shouted at the TV when Richard Dawson asked for something you fill with air.

It’s just … assumed through the entire book that the Grim Reaper is teh one who sends souls to Hell. Despite the fact that (at least at first) our main character isn’t much of a believer. And despite that in most cultures, at least the one I’m familiar with, Death/the Grim Reaper’s job is a neutral figure. A force of nature; enforcing the natural order of things.

Also, the story plays fast and loose with how decayed the dead are. Sometimes they are so rotten they can’t talk and fall apart (which I think is entirely to make the joke about glueing them back together… but how does that even work?)… but when they need to communicate something, they find a way.

And… romance. At least it’s not an immortal falling for a teenager. But it’s really not any better.

“Age is simply a number. I’m not exactly a spring chicken. You… challenge me,” he said, seeming truly surprised about the statement.”

They’ve talked… once at this point? I think? There’s no build here. It could be interesting, but it doesn’t quite land. Really, for this to work, I’d want the ancient character to actually feel ancient and then have a reason to change. Something more than ‘quirky middle age woman being quirky’.

So it goes.