Keturah and Lord Death
I have a half-finished post waxing lyrical about the joys of Margaret Mahy’s Catalogue of the universe, which I re-read recently, but have become stuck trying to do justice to what on paper seems like a simple story. So instead, I will write about another book I just finished, Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. It was sent to me by lady_schrapnell, who didn’t like it at all. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it enough to gobble it down last night, even though I had mentally thought of it as my weekend book (Friday night is the start of the weekend, though, right?).
Keturah is a 16 year old girl who gets lost in the woods near her village, and bargains with Death for her life. The story reads like a fairy tale. It’s set in an old world sort of small town. The characters have their set place in the village (some even are referred to as “tailor” etc) and the story has the main character following what seems to be an impossible quest: to find her true love in one day or die. Even Keturah’s beauty fits into the fairy tale type of set-up. What is different is that Keturah learns to see death (and Death) in a new way. Readers who enjoy fairy tale re-tellings should like this book. And I bet fans of Twilight will like the beautiful, brooding and dangerous Lord Death.
Despite including death and plague the story still felt a bit unsubstantial to me. And this is my main, perhaps unfair, problem with the book. I was extremely impressed by Leavitt’s The Dollmage, which I think is an extraordinary and unusual book. Really, you should go read it if you haven’t already. So even though I enjoyed Keturah, I was disappointed as I didn’t think it was powerful or different in the way that Dollmage was. Which I guess is the problem with reading a book with pre-conceived expectations, isn't it?
Keturah is a 16 year old girl who gets lost in the woods near her village, and bargains with Death for her life. The story reads like a fairy tale. It’s set in an old world sort of small town. The characters have their set place in the village (some even are referred to as “tailor” etc) and the story has the main character following what seems to be an impossible quest: to find her true love in one day or die. Even Keturah’s beauty fits into the fairy tale type of set-up. What is different is that Keturah learns to see death (and Death) in a new way. Readers who enjoy fairy tale re-tellings should like this book. And I bet fans of Twilight will like the beautiful, brooding and dangerous Lord Death.
Despite including death and plague the story still felt a bit unsubstantial to me. And this is my main, perhaps unfair, problem with the book. I was extremely impressed by Leavitt’s The Dollmage, which I think is an extraordinary and unusual book. Really, you should go read it if you haven’t already. So even though I enjoyed Keturah, I was disappointed as I didn’t think it was powerful or different in the way that Dollmage was. Which I guess is the problem with reading a book with pre-conceived expectations, isn't it?