Keturah and Lord Death

Book: Keturah and Lord Death
Author: Martine Leavitt
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: saving the village and finding true love by telling stories to Death

After trying to follow the elusive white stag, Keturah is lost in the forest outside her village for three days. Lord Death comes for her, but she is able to buy herself some time by telling him a story and withholding the ending until the next day. Now she has one day to find her true love and save her village from the coming plague, or Lord Death will take her the next night. He has an unearthly beauty and regal bearing, and she realizes that she's seen him before. Ever since she was a child, Keturah has been able to see Lord Death waiting near people about to die.

She manages to put him off two more times, but that is the limit of his patience. Keturah secures love and happiness for her friends, health for some who should have died, gets the lord to fix up the neglected village, and even attracts the love of the lord's son. When the time comes, however, she is shocked to discover the identity of the man she has always loved.

Leavitt offers a striking combination of classic fairy tale/ fantasy elements and high romance. Death's presence in life is effectively portrayed, both as something to be feared, and something that makes life sweeter and more precious in contrast. Really well-written, highly recommended for fans of high fantasy/romance or fairy tale retellings.

My biggest hang-up with the story is philosophical. Lord Death is portrayed as holding the ultimate power in the universe, and being the true source of good. After all, if there weren't death and destruction, would we ever truly see the beauty in life? Saying Death is the ultimate good because he provides counterpoint for life seems backwards; if there were no death, life would still exist and be good, but without life death does not exist. Maybe that's just my wordview. But it's a good story that makes for entertainment, good discussion and deep thinking, which is a good thing, right?

The Death Collector

Book: The Death Collector
Author: Justin Richards
Audience: Grades 5 to 9
In a Nutshell: The Victorian London X-Files

George Archer works a quiet job at the British Museum until a scrap of paper and a zombie plunge him into a world of murder, monsters, and a megalomaniacal industrialist (that's fun to say). George has recently been offered a transfer to the Museum's Department of Unclassified Documents, a sort of Victorian X-Files, and what's happening definitely falls under their jurisdiction. His friend, Albert Wilkes, shows up at home for tea and dog walking four days after his own death. The Museum receives a set of diaries from a famous scientist named Glick. They seem like a minor thing until George's friend in Archives is murdered when armed thugs break in and try to steal the diaries. George ends up with the burned remains of the final diary page, and now rich industrialist Lorimer will do anything to get it. The young pickpocket Eddie Hopkins and aspiring actress Elizabeth Oldfield also get tangled up in the hunt for the truth about Glick's research and what Lorimer has in store for the world. There's also George's recently-deceased friend, the giant monster Eddie sees in the darkened fog, a (not entirely) phony séance, and a warehouse full of exoskeletons meant for no good.

Creepy, quick-paced tale with horror, adventure, dinosaurs, zombies- what more is there?

Engaging reading of the audio book by Steven Pacey.