This is so many things. It's sad. It's a battle cry. It's upsetting. It's unnerving. It's poetic. It's not what I expected. It's a stream of consciousness. It's perhaps a little indulgent. It's not my cup of tea, it turns out.

2.5 stars

From the synopsis for Mrs Death Misses Death I didn’t know whether this book would be like The Book Thief in the way it has the conversations with death as a person but it was actually very different, however I did end the book feeling quite disappointed.

Death herself I enjoyed reading and I thought the writing at times was incredibly beautiful, near the start I found myself actually making notes of some of the quotes as I found the writing so poignant regarding life and death, it’s incredibly insightful and at times inspiring when talking about living with death essentially following you. Also that death is a woman, specifically a black woman, the most overlooked of people who can walk near invisible, and that women give life so should be who also takes it. This felt such a fresh take on things and I enjoyed it incredibly.

That said, the book isn’t consistent and changes quite dramatically. Other than death, we also follow Wolf, a young man who faced death when he was a boy and she took his mother, we follow him as he talks with death and writes her story. His chapters felt unnecessary and at times, unwanted, one chapter in particular has the c word used like a comma, perhaps the contrast is deliberate but for me it tainted the beautiful prose. There are also poems I couldn’t make sense of, the direction felt jumbled and I could honestly not tell you how the book ended. This was so disappointing when at the start I fell in love with this book pretty quickly, it felt like a missed opportunity to not just focus on death herself because she was a wonderful creation.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy to review.

I wanted to like this book, with its promises of unique narration and philosophical musings, yet I was left disappointed. Remember parties where you were drawn to the enigma, colourful & loud, yet quickly saturated in their contrived tales of self-obsession and eager to escape? Woke name dropping with all the trendy issues of today (fake news, mental health, poverty, sexism, racism) & keen to remind us this has never been written before (it has, The Book Thief did it so much better!)

If you haven't yet, read it with an open mind (& perhaps a large glass of red wine) but it wasn't for me.

2.5*

I would have loved this book if it wasn't for a few false or partial false ideas being promoted (oh the irony of Mrs Death complaining that in the age of information people choose to promote fake news) in this book, that really, really grated on my nerves.
But I will start with what I liked. The subject: my first thoughts upon requesting this novel was that the subject seems to be quite unusual and unique - and I love exploring anything that might be outside the box. The form: I've enjoyed the amalgamation of prose, poetry, spoken word, introspection, diary. It was like a bit of fresh air: especially when Wolf's introspection, which at times bored me, was cut off by bits of poetry. But also the final diary entries as verses - I really loved those. The play-on-word was another aspect that I really appreciated. I don't really know what you'd call this technique (I would have thought alliteration but google says it's epizeuxis or diacope?) of using the same word, at times with different meaning in the same phrase but I'll exemplify: I met Time sometime and next thing I know Time is all mine and Time is so beautiful and it is a beautiful time and when we were together time stopped and we were timeless. How time flies when you’re having fun.. This word play is being used various times, every time with gorgeous results. Oh and seen that I am here, where Death talks about Time, I also want to highlight another passage about the reality of living in the present that I found clever: If you stop and face Time, take a deep breath, you’ll find your own reflection in that eye. It is then you’ll see who you were and who you are and then you’ll see who you want to be. Often you’ll find that you were never moving forward or looking backward, but you were always just in one place, inside you and here, the place we call the present.
I've been fascinated by Tilly Tuppence's story and the take on Jack the Ripper's identity - that was smart.

Now the other side of the coin. The idea of Death as a woman is nothing new, please don't pat yourself on the back prematurely. Despite you thinking that Death is never a women because society doesn't want to give so much power to a women, the idea is false: Death has been represented as a women in mythology, art, literature etc. In fact in many Romance languages, where words have gender(as opposed to English), Death is feminine and you'll find Death portrayed as an old ugly woman, for example. Another good example is Hel, the goddess of death in Norse mythology. Now for Grim Reaper - it's more of a modern invention that has spread like fire in our collective imagination but it is suppose to be asexual. I do agree that many see it as a male. The reason behind that, in particular in the modern age, is not due to discrimination against women but in fact due to discrimination against men. We see Death as a negative thing(it takes people too early, takes people we love away from us etc) and we love to portray villeins as men. I agree with your dissatisfaction of not seeing females as villeins, I think women are as capable of inflicting tremendous damage just as men are. But once again we, as a society, are doing this because we discriminate against men and we are very apologetic versus women and very lenient when it comes to their wrongdoings. Same story with fertility and ability to bear children - I agree that it can be both a blessing and a burden, but bearing children is essential for humanity's continuity therefore we do celebrate those who have this ability and it is used many a time to discriminate against men: see family courts issues, for example.
Societal conditioning and women victimhood - I abhorred this 2 ideas, wide spread between modern feminists and obviously not based in science. We are indeed shaped by all sort of factors including social norms and accepted behaviours but we are not tabula rasa and that has been demonstrated with the rise of genetics and neuroscience. The ever present idea of women as perpetual victims is beyond enraging. We are not all victims for goodness sake. We are not weak human beings that cannot change what is wrong around us or in us. We are perfectly able to think for ourselves and take matter into our own hands, the idea that feminist think otherwise is beyond diminishing and goes against what feminism is suppose to be about.
To close a word a caution: it is commendable to try to speak for the voiceless but we should be careful in the process of doing it not to refuse the status of victim to certain people due to their skin colour, their status in society, their origin etc. I am thinking here in particular of the Grenfell Tower fire that's being repeatedly mentioned in association with words like "the poor". People from all walks of life lost their life in the fire, they are all victims regardless if they can be classed as poor(which is anyway arbitrary in this case, cause you can be poor even if you're not awarded social housing) or not!

Mrs Death Misses Death is not a normal kind of book. If you come to this expecting a prose story you'll be a little surprised with what you find here, because it's more like a series of poems and lyrical text that comes together to tell one story, but in a way that I've not really seen any other books do before. The narrative follows Wolf Willeford, a 'Biracial, Bisexual, Bigender and Bipolar' writer, who one day just before Christmas sees the perfect writing desk in the window of an antique shop that's closing down, a desk that they know they need to help them with their writing; and a desk that once belonged to Mrs Death.

But the book isn't just about Wolf, it's also about Death. Not just the process of life coming to an end, though that does feature heavily in the narrative, but the actual person who travels through the world moving people on from life to death. But Death isn't a black robed figure holding a scythe, it's not a pale old man or a skeleton; instead Death is the someone invisible, someone who society has trained people to ignore and overlook. Death is a 'poor old black woman, a homeless beggar-woman'. Not only does this make the Death, or rather Mrs Death, of this book a fairly unique take on the character of the personification of death, but it also makes a lot of sense. It makes sense because Godden acknowledges that there are hierarchies to the world, that there are people who are looked down upon, or simply ignored all together because of the way society has trained people to act, and Mrs Death would have to be one of the most ignored types of people to move so freely around us all.

Together Mrs Death and Wolf talk about the role of death in the world, the reasons why death happens, the people it happens to, and the effect it has on people. At times the book feels more like a stream of consciousness rather than a story, and there are sections written from Mrs Death's point of view where we become swept up in her unique perspective. We get to see the world as she sees it, this being who has existed since the dawn of time, since humans took their first breaths. We see what hundreds of thousands of years of walking through the world unseen and ignored, crossing people over the threshold of death has done to her, how tired it has made her.

It soon becomes apparent that as much as Wolf feels like they need Mrs Death to help them with their writing Mrs Death needs Wolf too, she needs someone to talk to, to make her feel more human. But this also makes the book hard to read at times, because it's not an easy topic to experience. We follow two characters who are struggling, with life, with death, and we get into their heads and see how much their existences have had a toll on them, and whilst the book is about death it's also heavily centred on mental health.

Mental health is such a strong component of Wolf's story, and there are times where the narrative will have you questioning if what you're reading is even real. There's a part of the book where Wolf admits that they're Bipolar, and there are a handful of moments where you begin to question if Mrs Death is even there or if it's all part of Wolf's mind, their worsening mental health; and this is even before their Bipolar is even brought up. Even by the end of the book it's unclear if we've actually experienced a story of a troubled young person meeting the personification of Death, of if it's simply the story of a troubled young person trying to find some sense of stability and happiness in their life.

But I'm actually glad that we don't get given a strong answer to this, that Godden allows the reader to look at the book and make up their own mind instead. Maybe we were hearing stories of people across time and their brushes with death, or maybe we just got to hear Wolf making up tales for their writing. In the end, it'll mean whatever you want it to, and whatever conclusion you come to will be your own interpretation of this wonderfully dark, yet uplifting book that does its own thing in its own way.

***TRIGGER WARNINGS*** ThereOs stories of massacre, racial attacks, suicide, terrorism, child death, animal death, car crash, in fact, anything you can die from.

Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhaused from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well aquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shaoe-shifts and doe her work unseen. Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe, and begins to write her memoirs.

he story is written in part prose and the other part poetry. There is some similarities to the Grenfall Tower fire as Wolf's family died in a tower block fire. The entire book tells us stories and conversations about death. It also covers many topics including: sexual abuse, domestic abuse and police brutality. There's also a fair amount of foul language. This is a thought provoking read but it won'''''''''''t be for everyone due to some of it's content.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #Canongate and the author #SalenaGodden for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This may be a book about death, but it is one of the most joyously life-affirming novels I've read in a long time. Such a gorgeous mix of prose and poetry. I've highlighted so many passages to go back to again. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the company of Mrs Death and Wolf.

Remember, it's later than you think.

This book is unique. Highly original story.
I find it hard to describe this book. Mrs Death and Wolf strike up a relationship that spans many years and many deaths. The writing is wonderful, describing in very atmospheric terms the locations they visit. It's poetic and lyrical and takes you on a really intriguing journey.
I didn't know what to expect from this book and I found it an absolute delight. So pleased I received an ARC form NetGalley. This might not be your usual genre but you'll seriously be missing out if you don't read it

This book was brutal. It was a painfully honest and raw exploration of mental health and what it means to fully live your life, and its interweaving of both prose and verse made it an incredibly poetic and poignant read. As someone who has struggled with my mental health, this book really resonated with me. It put experiences I’ve had into words, and told me things I needed to hear. It tackled many important topics, such as domestic abuse, poverty, sexual violence and police brutality, and I appreciated that it highlighted a number of cases which I was previously unaware of, such as those of Sarah Reed and Inga Maria Hauser. While there were some elements I didn’t like, such as the frequent use of swearing, this is entirely down to personal taste, and didn’t affect my rating.

After finishing this book, I felt hollow, but I also felt hopeful. I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy to re-read and annotate, and to refer back to again and again. I would advise caution to those who are struggling, as this book does face a number of potentially triggering topics head on, but I definitely think it could help people through some hard times. Overall, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Mrs Death Misses Death is quite unlike anything I have read before. It is thought-provoking, philosophical, full of tragedy, and will make the reader think about life, and indeed, death, differently.

Wolf Willeford has seen tragedy. Living in a tower block, one night there is a fire, and Wolf's mother is killed in the blaze. Reflecting on life since this night, Wolf thinks about death, why they were one of the ones to live, and why it is that humans are becoming more selfish and less kind. Wolf walks alongside Mrs Death, the all-powerful female, the one who is there to witness and clean up all the death and destruction this world brings. There is no way to escape death, but sometimes Mrs Death misses. She advises Wolf to live:- 'live free, live wild, live true and live love alive'.

Death is on the increase - poverty, austerity, suicide, war, terrorism. Wolf contemplates the madness of the world we are living in. Wolf may be treading a line between madness and sanity, but aren't we all? As Wolf takes refuge in a writer's retreat, the book ends with a series of contemplative poems that are moving and poignant.

A book that is of its time, Mrs Death is one to be savoured and thought about long after it is finished.

I am sorry to report that I just couldn't get on with this book. and gave up at 13%. Probably my fault and not the author's so I will rate it three stars. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this title.

I think perhaps one of the strangest books I have ever read. A mixture of poetry of various forms , magical realism . I spent much of the book wondering if Wolfie was approaching a psychotic break.

Achingly beautiful whilst bitingly honest, this is a book I will never forget, but not quite entirely understand !

A very readable enigma.

I, sadly, couldn't warm to Mrs Death Misses Death. The story is stilted with large chunks of repetitive text, lists, descriptive language, poetry even, that kept me from feeling any attraction or desire to read on. Without the disruptive sections the story of Wolf and Mrs. Death would have had space to grow deeper roots and become something I would have embraced.

Mrs Death Misses Death beautifully blends poetry, prose and script to tell the story of two main characters: Wolf and Mrs Death. This book is unlike any I have ever read, it begins with a disclaimer that is both bizarre and eye opening and sets the reader up for what they are about to experience.

The writing is fast paced and engaging, a short books that packs a real punch in terms of grief and loss and what matters in life. Framing Death as a woman allowed for the story to carry topics with a level of honesty and grace, topics such as racism, sexism and modern day politics - all of which were handled with care and were woven seamlessly in to the plot.

It is hard to do this book justice with a review and there are elements of this book I will be thinking about for a long time. It should be noted that there are a number of trigger warnings with this book.

Death wants to set the record straight and challenge the assumptions made about her - not least the assumption that she is a man.

The opening pages of Mrs Death Misses Death were promising and I enjoyed reading them but I found the writing style very difficult. The novel is written as a stream of consciousness and I wasn't in the right frame of mind for that kind of book. I didn't manage to finish the book because of the format rather than the content.

I like the idea for this book and I may have different opinions if I read it at the another time but at this time I feel it wasn't the book for me.

This is a story about Wolf, orphaned at age nine in a terrible tragedy.  This was the first time Wolf became aware of Mrs Death.  Now aged 20 Wolf begins writing down the stories and songs and poems of Mrs Death, with the assistance of 'The Desk', a magical piece of furniture that wishes it had been a piano. But is this all real or the product of Wolf's slightly delicate mind?

A surreal, poignant and thought provoking book about time and death and life.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this book, but I think that’s what the author was aiming for. It leaves you feeling empty, but purposeful. It is essentially like having a conversation with death herself.

By combining poetry with description and dialogue, Godden manages to make a distinction between the two main characters, whilst also making you believe they are the one and the same. Isn’t that true? Isn’t death always a part of us?

You would think this book is about death, but it’s about living. It’s about using the fact that one day we will not be here, to make every breath purposeful.

“To die is to have been alive, that is why you must live: live free, live wild, live true and live love alive.”

This book is worth a read, but I wanted more from it. There were times when I just didn’t connect with Mrs Death. I didn’t understand. I didn’t ‘get’ what the author was trying to say.

If Godden wants you to come away from reading this book with questions, and thoughts, and feeling kind of unsure; then she has succeeded.

Mrs. Death Misses Death by Salena Godden is prose and poetry mixed with narration style writing, and is more of a literary style of fiction than a straight-up fantasy, in my opinion. I requested this book after reading the fascinating synopsis. The story is about Death, and how tired Death is of taking people's lives, and the insight we get into the psyche of Death itself. The book features death as a black woman who goes after people's lives when it is their time to die. After living the life and doing her job endlessly, she is tired and wishes to unburden her thoughts to a young, troubled writer Wolf. The book is written in part narration style and other parts in prose. The alternating perspectives help us understand Mrs. Death and Wolf and how their experiences shaped them.

The themes and concepts were interesting to read, but at the same time, the writing style and the repetitions did trigger my anxiety. I finished 70 % of the book, and I needed to put it down several times. Initially, I started the book in November and had to stop reading it, because of the hike in my anxiety. Now after, picking it up again in hopes of finishing it, I find myself not wanting to continue on the path to destroying my mental state. I am sad to say, I had high hopes for this book, and if it wasn't for my mental health, I would have finished it by now.

The stream of thoughts flowing without any rule kind of took out the appreciation for me. I guess, the format is not very well suited for me. I can only say that if you love combos of different styles clubbed together bringing the readers a unique book, with essential questions, one needs to reflect upon, then this might be the book for you. Overall, the book is different and unconventional in every sense. I am giving the book, 2 stars for the 70% I read. I DNFed it, and unfortunately, I won't be picking it up again. I would recommend trying it out and see for yourself if it is something you would like to read. This book comes out on 28th January 2021, if you are interested in this title, do keep an eye out.

This book is challenging without feeling confrontational. No, that’s not right. It is beautiful. I found myself highlighting phrases all the time which I almost never do. It left me with a jumble of emotions - and is not for the faint of heart, it is not a sanitised Death. It’s almost like... language experiments made manifest. It is beautiful and strange and carries guilt and grief and I’m so very glad I read it. I don’t know if you will be. I think I recognise parts of this book. I think you will too. There is a story in amongst the business of living going on. Mrs Death will be heard. She is worth hearing.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Plot - no spoilers
Mrs Death is exhausted from doing her job, death. She is seeking someone she can confide in, to relay her stories to, to clear her conscience. Either lucky or not, Wolf is the person whom Mrs Death chooses to become her scribe. Wolf is tasked to note down stories and poetry, depicting the life Mrs Death has led.


Pros
I liked the personification of Death; specifically, the use of a black woman. Godden challenges the typical stereotype of death as we know it, or him, by referring to figures such as the grim reaper and mythical gods and ensures this is embedded in the dialogue between Mrs Death and Wolf. Godden highlights that whilst there are many women and goddesses who have committed murders and serial killings over time, never has death been thought of as a woman, the force behind such acts of cruelty and violence. I thought this was an interesting take on the idea of death and welcomed the author's perspective.

Secondly, I liked the structure of the book in two ways; chapter layout and a blend of prose and poetry. From previous reviews, you will recall that I am a fan of shorter chapters as I feel this helps to keep the pace of a book and the reader's attention. Of course, this is a personal preference and can't be said for all readers, however this was something that I enjoyed. Next, the use of both a classical writing style and lyrical verses. Godden uses the two cleverly, as I felt the poetry within the text was used as a way to symbolise the stories that Mrs Death was telling. It made the two narratives very clear and it was easy to differentiate between when Mrs Death was reciting a story and when both Wolf and Mrs Death were conversing with each other.


Cons
The plot of this book simply didn't exist. There was no goal, no end point, just a very long, ongoing conversation. As I was reading this book, I was hoping that the story would pick up and there would be an objective such as a murder to solve or bringing Mrs Death back to her job, but nothing at all happened. As there was no clear plot, I found the narrative very confusing at times and found myself asking "what is going on here?" As I said above, the combination of prose and poetry enabled me to see when Mrs Death was telling a story and when the two characters were talking between themselves, without this I honestly feel the narrative would be far more confusing than it already is. There were times when I didn't know who was talking, Wolf or Mrs Death? Are these conversations happening or is it just Wolf talking to herself? Is Wolf Mrs Death? Perhaps this was intentional but when you are in the midst of a sentence, and the speaker would change, and I found it extremely hard to follow.


Final thoughts
As with all reviews I try to keep a positive spin on things as much as I am able. Nobody wants to read a review that is full of negativity, however, it is important to be truthful and there aren't many positives I can discuss here. Whilst the personification of death and the stories Mrs Death relays are good, without a true plot I felt the book well and truly flat lined.