Masters of Death

March 1, 2023

Vampire Viola Marek is an out-of-luck real estate agent desperate to sell a house that's haunted by the ghost of a murder victim who won't budge until his murder is solved. For help, she summons Fox D'Mora, who's not much of a medium but is nevertheless the godson of Death. With a 150,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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June 12, 2023
BookTok sensation Blake (The Atlas Six) uses a motley supernatural cast to explore themes of love and sacrifice in this irreverent but occasionally tedious tale narrated by Death itself. (Death, it turns out, is “fantastically verbose, and transcendently literate.”) Viola Marek is a realtor (and a vampire) trying to sell a haunted mansion. The only one able to see the specter in question, Viola discovers an unsolved murder and a family curse tying said ghost to the house. To solve the mystery, she’ll need help from angels, a grim reaper, demons, a demigod, a siren, and a vampire. Meanwhile, Death mocks them all. The large cast proves an impediment to the plot, with the whodunit taking a while to find its footing as all are introduced. Death’s attempts at snarky humor also slow the pace, making the narration clunky and often redundant. Still, the surprisingly somber ending will have readers contemplating the costs of love and the power of facing one’s demons. It’s not perfect, but Blake’s fans and readers looking for a sassy paranormal mystery will find plenty to enjoy.

July 14, 2023
Blake's newest book to be rereleased by Tor features an aswang (a Filipino shape-shifting creature), Viola, who is trying to sell a house that's haunted by a persistent ghost who doesn't know what his unfinished business is. She enlists the help of Death's godson, a mortal rake named Fox D'Mora, who works as a half-useless medium in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. They both get swept into a high-stakes quest that neither of them signed up for, accompanied by a literally demonic personal trainer who happens to be Vi's best friend, an angel who only signed up for this job to get the power to grant miracles, and a reaper who is smitten with that angel to the point of distraction. This novel is full of interesting characters and ridiculous situations, a classic Blake romp of dry humor and urban fantasy that plays around with our world and tells relationship-driven stories in a swirl of fantastical world building. Fans of One for My Enemy (2003) will likely enjoy her newest novel.

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September 1, 2023
The latest in a series of rereleases from a prolific fantasist's previously self-published works is a contemporary spin on the fairytale "Godfather Death." Viola Marek is an aswang, a shapeshifting vampire from Filipino folklore. She's also a Chicago real estate agent trying to sell a mansion even while the ghost of its last owner, Thomas Edward Parker IV, is doing his supernatural best to block the sale. In a desperate attempt to earn her commission, she hires Fox D'Mora, Death's mortal godson, to use his connection to get the ghost to leave. Unfortunately, Death is unavailable: He's been kidnapped, and to get him back and prevent a worlds-spanning catastrophe, Fox, Vi, the ghost, and assorted other supernatural creatures will have to enter a high-stakes gambling game that usually only immortals can play...but rarely win. The story begins with an unusual blend of myth, fairy tale, and cosmology and inevitably descends to an almost unbearable level of sentimentality, which is simultaneously a refreshing change from Blake's usual tableau of self-involved, selfish characters who seem driven toward tragedies of their own making. Blake could definitely do a better job at showing the love between characters rather than merely telling the reader that they're in love. She also has an unfortunate tendency to skip potentially intriguing bits of backstory if they don't immediately drive the plot along, which is why readers never learn anything about Fox's childhood and what it was actually like having Death as a parent. Nor does she explain why only two of the four archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, play outsize roles in determining the order of the cosmos, while Uriel and Michael are nowhere to be seen. Bits of anachronism--like the use of a rubber band as aversion therapy 200 years ago or the presence of a magical wristwatch from a time long before watches were common--might be intended to be Pratchett-style humor or chalked up to magic? It's hard to tell what's intentional and what is simply careless. Now that Blake has a traditional publisher, perhaps the editors of her future novels will guide the author to address these issues when they arise. A reasonably charming urban fantasy that could have used a more rigorous edit before primetime.

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