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ggcd1981's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Alcohol and Death
Minor: Animal cruelty, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship
ampharos906's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, and Misogyny
sueog's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Violence and Alcohol
Minor: Fatphobia
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Also, the book itself didn't make me cry, but the introduction did.
Graphic: Death and Animal death
Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, Fatphobia, and Racism
Minor: Torture, Excrement, and Xenophobia
brogancha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Death
Minor: Animal death and Violence
alllowercase's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death and Violence
josiee's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder
blymanor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Moderate: Death
Minor: Confinement, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
vigil's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
all this aside, i really enjoyed death as a character, the atmosphere of discworld, and pratchett's writing style that even though i was ambivalent to most of the plot, kept me entertained.
Graphic: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Fatphobia
crufts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Although this is Book 4 of the Discworld series, there's very little connection to the preceding novels and you can read it as a standalone.
Through unusual circumstances, teenager Mort (Mortimer) becomes an apprentice to Death. Yep, that Death. Stricken by a crush when he's sent to collect the soul of the assassinated Princess Keli, Mort averts her death and inadvertently sets the universe off-kilter. With the help of Death's teenage daughter Ysabell, butler Albert, and the wizard Cutwell, can he fix it all up before Death finds out?
It's a very funny novel. Having Death as an anthropomorphic character allows for wry observations about how people deal with death! In fact, no one can see Death or ghosts unless (like the wizard Cutwell) they've been specially trained.
But not everyone is sorry to see Death. Paraphrased: "The kings and queens always hang on as long as they can when I come knocking, but the peasants? They can't wait!"
Many other interesting ideas are also passed around in the form of jokes. After his endless years of service, Death has learned helplessness about the inevitability of fate: "There's no justice. There's just us." But once fresh-faced Mort is on the scene, he remarks (paraphrased): "I've gotten so caught up in how things are, that I've forgotten what they could become." This character development is satisfying to see.
Another strong point of the novel is unity of plot. The main theme is death and the inevitability (or not) of fate, and the plot sticks to that pretty strictly. There are hardly any extraneous plot threads, making for a focused, "clean" story. This is in contrast to the previous Discworld novels such as The Colour of Magic (#1) and The Light Fantastic (#2), which twist and bend all over the place in order to accommodate the jokes.
Finally, the pacing was good as well. Too many times, I've written Storygraph reviews that say "It was good, but they rushed the ending!" Not so here. The climactic showdown scene stretches out the tension of the final moments, just as it should. Time slows dramatically at all the right points and we get exactly the explosive ending we're hoping for.
I would absolutely recommend this book.
Minor: Death, Murder, and Violence
Despite having Death as a literal character, death and violence in the novel is not graphically described.