TL;DR: Boooooo!!!!! 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

I'm not going to do my normal review style for this book because it has already wasted enough of my time. What I liked about the book: Cool premise/take on Grim Reaper lore.

Here's Why I Don't Recommend It Anyway: It's thinly disguised Christian propaganda - it doesn't have the genre tags on any platform I have seen, it wasn't until I was pissed off enough to look up his other books and found his website that I found out he writes books with Christian propaganda and goes on Christian Homeschool Conference tours with his books.

It was very much the YA male fantasy with mediocre writing: Perfect very attractive teenage boy who, through his blessed genetics is very important and the only one who can save the world. He also catches eye of all the teenage ladies (of course there is an instant love triangle over him!! HE IS GOD'S GIFT TO EARTH... possibly literally) AND the big bads who know him and target him/his loved ones because again, he is super duper important.

I listened to the audiobook version, so I can't quote this, but I wasn't super thrilled with the authors descriptions of POC characters and women. Additionally, I never need a male author have his male characters compare the pain they experience to labor pains.

This book was incredibly long with a ton of world-building... and the world still didn't make sense by the end of it.

Is it fair to give this book a 1 star without going through my usual process? No. Was it fair to trick me into listening to almost 12 hours of Christian propaganda? ALSO NO. Even writing this review is giving me a headache again.

My thanks to my local public library for having this available as a Hoopla bonus borrow. Even though this book was a dud, libraries are never a dud!! GO SUPPORT YOU LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!! They (unlike this mediocre teenage protagonist) are the real MVPs!

TL;DR: Boooooo!!!!! 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

I'm not going to do my normal review style for this book because it has already wasted enough of my time. What I liked about the book: Cool premise/take on Grim Reaper lore.

Here's Why I Don't Recommend It Anyway: It's thinly disguised Christian propaganda - it doesn't have the genre tags on any platform I have seen, it wasn't until I was pissed off enough to look up his other books and found his website that I found out he writes books with Christian propaganda and goes on Christian Homeschool Conference tours with his books.

It was very much the YA male fantasy with mediocre writing: Perfect very attractive teenage boy who, through his blessed genetics is very important and the only one who can save the world. He also catches eye of all the teenage ladies (of course there is an instant love triangle over him!! HE IS GOD'S GIFT TO EARTH... possibly literally) AND the big bads who know him and target him/his loved ones because again, he is super duper important.

I listened to the audiobook version, so I can't quote this, but I wasn't super thrilled with the authors descriptions of POC characters and women. Additionally, I never need a male author have his male characters compare the pain they experience to labor pains.

This book was incredibly long with a ton of world-building... and the world still didn't make sense by the end of it.

Is it fair to give this book a 1 star without going through my usual process? No. Was it fair to trick me into listening to almost 12 hours of Christian propaganda? ALSO NO. Even writing this review is giving me a headache again.

My thanks to my local public library for having this available as a Hoopla bonus borrow. Even though this book was a dud, libraries are never a dud!! GO SUPPORT YOU LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!! They (unlike this mediocre teenage protagonist) are the real MVPs!

Rating: 2.5 ☆

Lowkey enjoyed the short story at the end much more than the actual book (would have given that one four stars).

it's been so long since i've struggled to put a book down. i was constantly chomping at the bit to keep reading, at the risk of my sleep and my scheduled antidepressant dose time.

The Serious Review bit:
This is a wonderfully constructed urban fantasy narrated by our main character, Claire. She's witty, funny, relatable, and insane in the best of ways. The plot itself had me guessing until the last minute, with so much going on that it was difficult to predict what would happen next. And all the characters are so well established! Even if they don't appear for very long, each one has their own motivations and desires. It adds a lot of dimension to the story and makes for such a fun read.

There were a few formatting issues I found in the e-book (i got mine on Kobo), but the story itself is so good that it didn't really impact my overall experience. I just kept reading and reading and reading.

the less serious bit:
i would kill and/or die for Claire. Dreyson is blond and i know that's a deal breaker for some people but i promise he's a great guy. it's all in the details y'know? and that's just Claire and Dreyson. i love so many of the characters in this book, if you're like me and the characters matter a lot to you this book is like free real estate. and that's just the characters. the world building is great. there's so much you learn about it just through context clues which is something i absolutely love. like yes i was confused sometimes but i prefer that over being given everything on a silver infodump platter.

anyway highly recommend, if i could give it more than 5 stars i would.