REVIEW: Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt
Her job is to die for. Literally.
When most people think of Death, they picture a skeleton in a black potato sack. Maybe with a scythe. Truth is, she’s just a woman doing a job, and she’s very good at it. Still, even Death needs a break. But when she finally takes some time off to live on earth, things start to go terribly wrong. Someone is killing people not on her list (well, not yet anyway) and it’s up to her to find the killer before it’s too late.
To make matters worse, her sanctimonious sister Life – whom Death hasn’t gotten along with in millennia – won’t stop blaming her for the unplanned deaths . . . and then there’s the slight problem of the charming (and sexy) parasitologist she can’t quite trust.
But she’ll be fine, right?
After all, who better to investigate a murder than Death herself?
CW/TW – Death of an animal
Dear Ms. Dapunt,
I know I start a lot of my reviews by saying something along the lines of “This sounded interesting” or “I didn’t really know what I was going to get.” Both apply to this book. But I will be honest and say that what I thought I was getting is not what I got and I’m not thrilled with what I got. The blurb promised a murder mystery investigation by Death but that fumbled around before taking a turn into religiosity and a near Apocalypse. If only Life and Death had sat down and had a “five minute conversation.”
Since Death has been involved with souls (human and otherwise as any deaths – even single celled organisms – are dealt with by Death) for billions of years and whinges on about how annoying some humans can be after they realize they’re dead, you’d think Death would have a better handle on human emotions but she doesn’t.
I got bored and tired of Death dressing “quirkily” because she’s tired of the way humans have always pictured her in a black sack. For me the joke quickly wore thin and the rest of the humor got tiresome and overused, too. Lots of little worldbuilding details are revealed along the way in a ‘just when readers need to know’ style but at times this seemed like the book was being maneuvered out of a corner it had been written into.
The pacing was on the slower side. Many scenes just go on too long and more explanations get piled on for the whole thing to try and continue to make any sense. The mix of goofy humor and dark secrets gave a disjointed tone. I won’t give too many details but by the end, when the real reason for the Unplanned Deaths became clear, I realized that most of the middle section of the book was basically not that important.
The book started as an employee with ‘billion year’ burn-out, then switched to a murder mystery and then seemed to be trying for a social or religious commentary. It was all over the place and never quite melded for me. Now having said that, there are a lot of reviews by people who loved the humor and the plot and I think this could be a nice mindless read. Maybe I was just overthinking it. C-
~Jayne
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It’s currently on sale for about 1.99 at Kobo, but I was on the fence. Oddly enough I was on the fence because I have read a couple of books by the publisher (Sourcebooks) and have found their stuff sloooow and disjointed. But it’s not a bad price at the moment.
@Maria Schneider: Yeah, it has a 3.8 rating on GR so it’s working for a lot of readers.