About The Life of Death
One soul. One pact with the Devil. One chance at love.
Elizabeth Murray has been condemned to burn at the stake. As she awaits her fate, a strange, handsome man visits her cell. He offers her a deal: her soul in return for immortality, but what he offers is not a normal life. To survive Elizabeth must become Death itself.
Elizabeth must ease the passing of all those who die, appearing at the point of death and using her compassion to guide them over the threshold. She accepts and, for 500 years, whirls from one death to the next, never stopping to think of the life she never lived. Until one day, everything changes. She – Death – falls in love.
Desperate to escape the terms of her deal, she summons the man who saved her. He agrees to release her on one condition: that she gives him five lives. These five lives she must take herself, each one more difficult and painful than the last.
My review of The Life of Death
The Life of Death is a dark, gothic tale of love, longing and the suffering in death. It's a frank and disturbing story about one young woman's decent into a life that is plagued with demons and darkness. This is made even more poignant when you know that the author wrote this story while undergoing treatment for terminal cancer. It's hard to put this real life perspective out of your mind as you read, as you are very aware that real life impacted upon what we see on the page. And what we see is a story of beauty, intelligence and honesty. It is like no other book I have read.
Lizzie is only 24 when she makes a pact with the Devil. He will have her soul but she will live as Death. From this stems a story of Lizzie's inner turmoil to live an immortal life while carrying out the work of Death, as she falls in love. Lizzie does another pact wIth the Devil, five souls for her own soul and a chance to live a normal life. The result is a dazzling dark portrayal of survival, of that need to belong and of loving.
Sometimes brutal and graphic, the narrative flows beautifully and kept me hooked from beginning to end. It's incredibly poignant, the fact that this young woman, as Death, wants to live again, but the odds are against her in her quest for survival.
The Life of Death is an absorbing, emotional and thought provoking read. It does make you question, what it truly means to live and be alive. The story of Lizzie Murray will stay with me for a very long time.
With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy.
The Life of Death is published by Unbound and is available to buy now.
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