Still Here!
I know, I know, you were probably starting to wonder. What can I say: life, the universe, everything. I’ve only got a couple for you this week but they’re a couple of good ones so let’s get into it.
If you read Rushby’s first book, Slashed Beauties, you know she’s a master of the Victorian macabre. In All Her Beautiful Deaths, she adds a deft and delicate shade of the Gothic to her dual-timeline tale of two women longing for freedom and embroiled in the same deadly mystery.
This intricate tale of deception, artistic truth, cruelty, altruism, love, and hate spans centuries and continents, and yet we are never lost. Both stories are compelling, strange, and so mysterious, it’s difficult to find a place to pause and put the book down (I stayed up far too late “one more chapter”-ing two nights in a row). The characters are original and individual, each with their foibles and quirks, the villains unexpected and the heroes motivated by forces one would never expect. I loved that the item that connected the two timelines was an album of Victorian death portraits; Victorian death culture is fascinating and this discussion of it in All Her Beautiful Deaths will whet your appetite for more (I suggest looking into the death warehouses). The hints of the Gothic, especially as regards a particular house, added to the ambiance of the tale without burying it too far in the supernatural, which I think would have taken away from the story; perfectly done.
I was truly shocked by the ending (if I’ve left out details of the book it’s because I don’t want to give it away) in the best of ways. Bravo and I can’t wait for more from Rushby.
11/3
Our lives are run by corporations, why not our deaths?
I’ve really enjoyed Dara’s S.C.Y.T.H.E. Mysteries thus far (A Grim Reaper’s Guide and Catching a Killer and A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death) so I was excited when the opportunity to read the third installment crossed my email. And A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Living Twice did not disappoint.
Jack McCoy was murdered. He kind of had it coming. But he wasn’t ready to go yet and, so, he possessed his Reaper, the elderly Margaret Chen. Everything was going fine until one of his friends (who also, probably, had it coming) ended up on his collections list and recommended one more job. One more job to help the only girl Jack has ever loved. It’s going to be dangerous. It’s probably going to blow his cover. It’s most likely going to ruin his not-so-afterlife. But how can he say no?
A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Living Twice had me laughing out loud. It’s full of huge personalities completely lacking in self-control, several of whom bear Trouble as a middle name like it’s a badge of honor. Who adhere to some piratical code of honor and have since they were kids, who found a family that understood them and loved them, even if they didn’t always like one another, and who are going to hang onto that family even after they die. Who are going to be there for one another even when they’re not necessarily wanted, who will risk anything to protect one another.
That said, the book also asks you to consider who your real friends are. Who will stand by you in tragedy. Who will survive with you. What it means to live. And what it means to die.
Style and substance. The heart of the S.C.Y.T.H.E. mysteries.
And with the hint that death is breaking down, it seems there will be more to come.
A short but sweet return. Talk soon.