From only the first page, I felt like this book was gonna be special.

<i> “Spoiler Alert: We all die in the end.

This book contains dead people.

This book cannot see the future. This book is dabbling in the past. This book is not about funerals although funerals are mentioned. You do not have to wear black to read this work. You do not have to bring flowers.
</i>

And wow. I was right about that. What a surreal, emotional and poetic experience it was. It was tough to read at times because of the subject matter, but so worth it.

<i> " When hate is rising then love can only rise higher." </i>
It made me think about death, but also about life. It gave me a massive punch in the stomach, but left me hopeful in the end. In the middle of the book I kinda lost track of what was going on, but I ploughed on. The ending made it allright for me again.

<i> “So take today and blow its mind; take this today and suck it dry. Take today and fill it with the best of you. Take today and down it in one, take today like a shot of petrol and set your day alight."</i>

I recommend this book to everyone who thinks about death, who may feel lost and want to find themselves in a book. It's a tough read, but worth it in the end. This book is so relevant in these times.

Mrs Death Misses Death is the first novel by British poet and author, Salena Godden. Young poet Wolf Willeford‘s first encounter with Death was when he was just nine, their block of flats burned down and Death took his mum. Ten years later, on a hung-over walk home from a party on Christmas Eve, he spots a desk in a junk shop about to close down. He immediately knows he has to have it.

And then he feels a cool presence nearby. Soon: “I am walking with Mrs Death and she shows me a London of layered worlds, the many worlds of before, and I hear the cries of far away and long ago. It is all here; I am both in the present and in the past. Mrs Death is vivid and by my side, narrating my world.”

Death, it turns out, is not the hooded male figure with scythe, but an old, homeless black woman who frequents train stations and other places of arrival and departure, places of transit.

The desk, when he has it in his attic room above the Forest Tavern in East London, turns out to be Mrs Death’s own, and it shares her many tales with him, the circumstances of some, the reader may recognise. Amongst other tales, there’s an interesting take on the story of a certain notorious nineteenth-century serial killer.

“Oh, I have been travelling. I time travel. I am a death tourist. I am witness. I am permitted. I can see every end, I go everywhere that Mrs Death goes and the places only Mrs Death can go when I am here and when I listen to The Desk.”

Godden utilises multiple formats: straight narratives from the perspective of Mrs Death, Wolf and The Desk, transcripts of interviews and counselling sessions with Mrs Death, poetry and free verse, flashbacks into Wolf’s unloved years with a cruel grandfather and a careless grandmother. It is filled with observations on human behaviour, philosophy, and anecdotes about death.

The title is, of course, quirky; the premise is imaginative; and it all starts off witty and dark and quite clever. While Godden’s writing is often beautiful, if repetitive, the whole soon degenerates into a sort of stream of consciousness rant/lament about the state of the world.

By the time Wolf reveals “But what if this passion and fury and all this writing were always just the ramblings of an imbalanced mind? What if everything I ever wrote and created was just my mania talking? What is real and what are just feelings? And which are real feelings or just hormones or chemicals in your body?” readers might well be skimming…

Rather than a novel, this seems to be a showcase for the author’s writing skills, lots of poetic but somewhat disjointed prose and occasional bits of wordplay, but what passes for a plot peters out and lacks resolution. Disappointing.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Canongate

Read through netgalley but had been on my to read pile for a little while. I don’t give 5 star reviews often (you can check) but this book deserves it. The book reads like a poem: disjointed and nonlinear and beautiful.
It is perfect in its depiction of grief and trauma and I loved reading every moment.
Recommend for anyone who is grieving because this book just seemed to understand.

Going into this book I had no idea what to expect, the other reviews said a mish mash of genres and written in prose. And I was a little bit worried, excited yes, but worried.

I really shouldn't have been, because this was amazing!

An introspective and Beautiful look at the messy chaos and pain that is life. Written from the perspective of a desk, Mrs Death, and Wolf. Pulling together fiction and nonfiction to tell one hell of a story.

This was a short and easy read, but it didn't take a backwards step. No punches were pulled as it examined misogyny and racism and anxiety and every day heroes and the potential we all have to change. To do better, to be better and become friends with our mortality.

This book had it all and now I have no choice but to go and buy a copy.

An easy 5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers Canongate. All opinions are my own.

Hummmmm. A very interesting and, dare I say it, playful way of approaching a novel about death. But, ultimately, the interplay with prose and poetry just didn’t really hit for me.

I’m not usually a fan of the quirky and innovative in my reading but this original and thought-provoking work by poet Selena Godden won me over completely. It’s a book about death in all its various manifestations and thus has its tragic element, but as so many reviewers have pointed out it’s also remarkably life-affirming. It tells of Mrs Death, not the Grim Reaper we are used to seeing, but a black woman who is exhausted form her eternal task. She decides to compose her memoirs and recruits troubled writer Wolf Willeford to take them down for her. And what stories she has to tell, many of them of real-life deaths, and many of which haunt all of our imaginations to this day, including those who lost their lives in the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Mrs Death is a strangely sympathetic character and draws the reader into her world. We all have to face death at some point; no one escapes it, so why not talk about it. The book is meditation on death itself and also a tribute to and elegy for all those who have died. I really loved the idea of leaving 6 blank pages at the end for the reader to write down the names of their own dead, and then if the book moves on other readers can remember them too.

This is one of the best books I have read this year.

Mrs Death Misses Death is a complex narrative of Death's story told through the young writer Wolf Willeford in a compilation of Mrs. Death's personal essays, tales and poems. I find it quite difficult to explain the premise of this book because it is nothing like anything I have read before. I would urge all readers to pick this one up and go into it with an open mind, because you are in safe hands with Salena Godden's writing style and narration. It has a good dose of wit, sadness, and some exceptional parts that makes you relook at the ways you look at life and death. Without giving away too much, I would say that it is also a fantastic and mesmerising account of what artists go through in their pursuit of expressing the deep complexities of life through art.

MUST READ!

This book was extremely original and fresh, and had a lot of unique twists on our perceived notions of Death. I do feel as the writing fell off as the book continued, but it had a very strong start. It tugged at my heartstrings and made me think about life and death...but it was also sort of pretentious? I'm honestly not sure how to feel about this Mrs Death Misses Death (though, I will say, that might be the most clever title I've ever heard.) This novel certainly isn't for everyone, but I appreciated it's unique approach.

Thank you to the publishers Canongate Books US for giving me access to this book as an E-ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Godden has written a very lyrical novel where perspective and times float together and create something that is quite pleasant… perhaps in a morbid way? I really liked the language and the flow but felt myself drifting and sometimes jumping sentences and words – so maybe this was a bit too experimental for me personally.

I might have to give this a re-read (it is fairly short after all), and see if I can get myself not to drift as much and maybe enjoying the story also more so than just the words and language.

I’ll be honest when I say I went into this not knowing much and only seeing a few booktubers and such giving it high praise and ratings. I’m happy to say I can join in that excitement about it!
Now what is this book about? Wolf Willeford is writing a book about the dead, about Mrs Death and her journey so far. It’s all written in poems, diary entries, interviews, etc.
It’s hard to describe more than that however. Your best bet is that if even the synopsis or the cover interest you, give the first pages a try, give the first few chapters a try. You’ll either fall in love or be confused and overwhelmed. In the end it all reads as a love story to death (not Mrs Death but death as a concept).
It was hard hitting and emotional and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I received a copy of this for free from Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you so much!!
#MrsDeathmissesdeath #Netgalley

This is a really challenging book for me to review. I really enjoyed it but it's hard to but into words why without trauma dumping. Salena Godden uses a variety of writing styles to develop this narrative (i.e. stream of consciousness, poetry, journal entries, etc.) We follow Mrs. Death and her conversations with Wolf processing life, time, and death. I think the introduction for this book really sets you up well, informing the reader that this won't be an easy book and death, of course, is the primary topic; So tread carefully. I already am eager to purchase a finished copy of this book to reread and annotate to my hearts content.

I enjoyed the book. It is a different way of looking at death and our response to death. Even so i think this book is likely going to appeal to a small crowd of folks.

Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden is a book that both hits and misses the mark. On the plus side, it offers a fascinating premise and presents some thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas within its pages. However the book as a whole didn't quite come together for me. The fragmentary style of the storytelling, swapping back and forth from snippets of prose to poetry, didn't fully engage me, so while I lingered over some sections, I skimmed through others. It had several brilliant moments, but lacked cohesion. I am sure some people are going to love this, while others stumble over the form, like I did. It does also discuss some dark topics, which may not be suited to all readers. Overall, I am giving it three stars. It was certainly an interesting read and I am glad I had the opportunity to give it a try.

Mrs Death Misses Death is an unusual story about Death, who is a woman, and her scribe who recounts her experiences via poems, songs, and stories.

I did not enjoy reading this book because I did not like the writing style. It read like spoken word as opposed to a traditional fiction narrative which convoluted the potential story. The synopsis sounded really interesting and I was eager to read this, however, the poetic writing and weird dialogue were off-putting for me.

The author's background as an activist shone through as there were important social messages that she was trying to project. At the same time, I feel that a traditional fictional story would have conveyed her messages in a more powerful way. I finished this book feeling bewildered.

2/5 stars because I liked the pacing and the idea of Death being personified.