Review of Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Masters of Death Review

My Rating: 3.75 stars

CW: some violence, mentions of sex/sexual content, language, mentions of mental illness, mentions of murder, implications of suicide, several different references to religious idolatry (angels, demons Death personified).

Am I mentally ill? Yes! Does this book do a good job of distracting me from that? Also yes!

One of the things I really think stood out about this book was the writing and the narrative. Olivie Blake is an amazing writer, but the way she’s constructed the narrative is incredibly readable. I really like how it’s a lot more interactive than the typical third person or first person POV, and the writing incorporates both lyricism and readability. It’s not purple prose by a long shot, but it manages to be just close enough and just far enough away that it’s engaging and quotable but it doesn’t feel like Blake is trying too hard.

The mythology is fairly standard, not super inventive but not super duper bland either. It’s not an overdone mythology and it isn’t too run-of-the-mill, but it’s not totally unique. I don’t think it needs that, but it might have been nice to see somewhat of a unique spin. Death plays bets, gambles, and makes deals, fairly standard for the micro-genre. Though I think making his godson the MMC was a brilliant and inventive move. Blake isn’t making the MMC Death himself, or aa Reaper, or his son. Godson is a pretty fun twist.

Viola and Fox are flawed and realistic, and multi-layered, I think the strength in terms of characterization definitely is heavier in Viola. The secondary characters are great too, and Blake did a really good job in writing their interactions.

The story is definitely character driven, there is a plot, for sure, but it’s slower, it takes nearly half the book to really get going. That’s not something I personally mind, but I think it’s important to note that. The plot is initially pretty slow going, and I would say the back of the book only really applies in the second half, maybe. There aren’t even any actionable scenes until the last 30% of the book. A lot of this book is set up.

Given that, I think the author does a good job with the two main relationships, Olivie Blake paces them out really well and realistically. The relationships don’t feel like they come out of nowhere, they don’t feel forced or insta-love like, and they don’t feel like any of them are especially awful for each other. Blake does the enemies-to-lovers (or enemies-to-lovers adjacent) trope well, they truly do feel like they dislike each other initially, and their movement through that trope feels organic and well thought out. Some of her side relationships just felt underdeveloped though, or like there wasn’t enough there to go off of.

Blake’s world building also feels well done, she has the existence of characters, like Vi Marek, not in the loop (Vi is a vampire, so she’s not a human looped into it, which I appreciated) and it’s done in bits throughout the novel. Blake, in this way, avoids unnecessary info dumping.

Vi is mixed, I believe, part Fillapina, as a white woman, I can’t really speak to that part of her character and how accurately it’s done. However, almost everyone is queer in some sense of the word, or ambiguously labeled, which I did think Blake did a good job with, as a queer woman. So when it comes to representing certain identities, I do think Blake made an effort to make authentic and diverse voices a part of her main cast.

I think it’s important to note that there were some moments it felt like the book was trying too hard to be funny and relatable. There were some moments that did feel a bit eye-roll inducing, and a lot of parts that just felt boring or too mundane, honestly.