A review by vigil
Mort by Terry Pratchett

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • 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

this is a tough one for me to puzzle out enough for a proper rating. once the main plot with princess keli kicked off, i realized almost immediately i didn't care about it or her. i actually wanted the "no one escapes death" ending rather than the  plucky hero changes reality out of pluckiness that i got. the hero himself, mort, was only enjoyable as a protagonist up to a point, and after just got bullheaded, unreasonable, and overall grating. he was right, he definitely wasn't cut out for this kind of job. i found his romance with ysabell to be both abrupt and bland, and clearly set up for the plot following the later books with susan (from the knowledge i gathered when i looked up the death series) who is hopefully more engaging. i felt apathetic towards the death vs mort scene towards the end, and the way death acted didn't quite seem to be in line with the character in the rest of the book. the book is over three decades old, so the subtle fatphobia annoyed, but didn't shock me. the hints of attraction between cutwell and keli who are 20 and 15 respectively was disgusting and didn't need to be included at all. 

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. 
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