Mrs Death Misses Death

This is an astounding book that will stay with me for years to come. Salena Godden writes about death with such beauty and delicacy yet at the same time her words are raw and brutal. I raced through this book and could not put it down. Such a unique book and narrative and I can't wait to see what Salena Godden writes next.

This is a truly one of a kind book; a mixture of prose, poetry and a meditation on life and death.
The book evolves around a young writer Wolf Willeford who is visited and accompanied by Mrs Death as she tries to unburden herself to Wolf of all of her deeds and in doing so takes the reader on journey through the ‘life and times ‘ of death. Some of the book is challenging ; confronting the death of individuals through history and the brutality of their deaths- shining a light of carriages of misjustice .- is tough reading
The poetry is hypnotic and adds another layer to the readers dive into death’s hold on all of us.
I cannot personally say I’ve read a book like this before- thought provoking and at times disturbing yet within there are moments of light - the dialogue between Will and Mrs Death is somehow enchanting
If you want a read that is totally unique and leaves you wondering what you’ve experienced then this is for you

This book is so unique and interesting I was left speechless whilst reading it and after. The writing is beautiful and has a real rawness to it that is so special that I dont think I have read anything like this before and I dont know if I will again.

Mrs Death Misses Death

I couldn’t put this thing down—what a ride. There was such a lot to relate to in these pages— so many emotions & feelings I’ve experienced, so many things I’ve thought— all written here. All documented and explored and laid bare like little electric wires, ready to jolt the minute you touch them or, in this case, lay eyes on them.

I do like a novel that bends the genre: one that melds prose, verse, and stream of consciousness together. That sings to me. I love the idea that the author has chosen the form they believe best fits what they want to put across.

Perhaps I found some passages a bit didactic in a carpe diem rammed down your throat sort of way, but this didn’t detract from my overall impression. I liked the honest and, sometimes, comedic handling of death. I’m always a sucker for personifications of Death, and this was no exception.

The unreliability of the narrator, along with the big themes of mental illness, grief, and trauma throughout the novel really create a sense of uncertainty and imbalance whilst reading. It had me questioning what I was reading... but what’s Truth got to do with Life & Death anyway?

A few, though certainly not all, the passages I enjoyed:

“Because once you have known Mrs Death there is no unknowing her. You have a mourning that sits inside you. It’s like having a stone in your centre; time smooths the edges like a pebble in a river, but it’s always there - a stone is a stone. If you’ve known loss, you’ll know this stone, you will carry a stone of your own - this pain and weight - and you’ll know what I mean. It is a tattoo under the inside of you that cannot fade or be removed.”

“A hangover is such a strange sensation, it is that of being haunted by yourself, your shame walks by your side.”

“When someone has been a bad person, or a cruel person, the grieving is strange.”

“I spot two unopened tins of cider there in the sink, linked like this with a plastic umbilical cord, there under the empties and melted ice. I am lucky. I stash this booty into my deep coat pockets, like two guns, and I start off on my adventure home, feeling like I’m walking like a lone Christmas cowboy.”

Thank you to Netgalley and to Canongate for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an extraordinary and original work from Salena Godden, a blend of fact and fiction, raw, fragmentary in form, incorporating poetry, diary entries, psychiatric transcripts and more. Contrary to common expectations, Mrs Death, the Grim Reaper if you will, is not the man she has been misrepresented as, but an old, black, working class woman, exhausted by all the deaths through eternity, the sorrows and the grief overwhelming. She is everywoman, the invisible, the marginalised, the betrayed, the homeless, the exploited, the silenced, humans and animals, and is seeking to unburden herself to the writer Wolf Willeford, a man with his own trauma and issues. Wolf finds himself immersed in her stories, harrowing losses that he documents in the form of a memoir, a process that brings both of them closer together.

The universal and the personal is encapsulated through the centuries, slavery, war, massacres, famine, fires that echo London's Grenfell tragedy, our poisoned and toxic world, and so much more. The personal is relayed through the likes of individual cases of Jack the Ripper, through the poem Say Her Name for Sarah Reed and the horrors that she endured at the hands of a brutal police officer, society's travails in the past and present, the violence to be found behind the closed doors of the home, the sexual abuse and how it all could have been. For all the bleak darkness to be found here, it is woven with hope and resilience for the future, the need to incorporate death into our lives rather than fearing it and shutting it out, life is nothing without death, it can inform our lives to become far more meaningful and inspiring, letting us make life changing decisions for the better.

This is a brilliant, profoundly moving and imaginative literary novel that resonates, the subject matter may not appeal to some, whilst the style and format may not be to the taste of others, but I was impressed by the sheer scope, vibrancy and ambition of it. It is beautifully crafted and written, I particularly loved the poetry, it draws attention to our human connections, identifying heroes such as activists, protestors, and how we too can become 'heroes' in our damaged world. Godden provides a much needed and illuminating social commentary to the many problems that ail the world we live in. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

In a time when we've fixated and been consumed by it, death is still a topic we glaze over; something we attempt to simplify without processing. Salena Godden is one of the first artists and authors I’ve encountered whose art stares death in the eye and helps us to think and talk about it – in such a beautiful way.

Godden portrays Death as a Black, working class woman who conducts her work in the shadows. In Mrs Death Misses Death, Godden questions the deaths that should have been avoided – from Grenfell-like tragedies to the fates of refugees who never reached a safe shore – to the deaths that could have been, as the title goes.

And for a book all about death, at the very heart of Mrs Death Misses Death is a celebration of life. Godden’s genius utterly moved me. At times I wept, at others I was spellbound. This is a magical blend of poetry and prose that tackles violence against women, racism and much more, in a carefully considered way.

We’ve all had some sort of brush with death over the pandemic – so much so that we’re numbed by it, but also more hyperaware than ever how precious life is. Being surrounded by devastation and despair has made it hard to come to terms with loss and critically think about Mrs Death indeed striking again. But Godden urges us to accept our fate and embrace the physical finality of our lives, which is not the end, as our lives will be enshrined in the stories others will tell.

Upon finishing this book I recognised my own mortality and that of others, the fact that we have one single life so why should we make it one where we inflict pain and suffering on others? That really struck me, and has vowed me to see life and death through Godden’s gaze.

Despite the discomfort you might feel reading this, I implore you to buy a copy and let Godden’s lyricism take you through space and time.

A well written and extremely thoughtful treatise on grief and death. It did make me confront some thoughts and feelings that I may not have done otherwise, and overall reading it was a cathartic experience. The narrative itself is creative and does not overly romanticise or glamourise death. Wolf’s story will be something many people can relate to, a seemingly close yet just out of reach relationship with death.