4.5/5-Lucy Booth dabbled in various occupations-freelance production, blogging, and advertising, just to name a few, until her untimely demise at the age of 37 in 2016. Those who knew her well stated that despite success in her chosen field of studies, she always felt compelled to write a novel. Unfortunately, her only novel. ‘The Life of Death.’

Its 1567 and Scottish beauty Lizzy (or ‘Little D’ as she will later be known) has just been accused of witchcraft. She has two choices: suffer the consequences and burn at the steak or make a pact with the devil for a neglected and immortal life. She chooses the latter and becomes his cypher, or reaper if you will. Hundreds of years pass by and Lizzy is still feels abandoned for relinquishing her soul to the devil; she has never tested her true potential or found true love. She wants out, but there’s a deadly catch...

As I stated before, Booth is no longer present in the world of literature, succumbing to a fearless fight with breast cancer. I often wondered while reading if some of these passages were a reflection of her pain. I’m sure that she would’ve been a marvelous writer, specializing in romance and horror.

‘Deaths surround me, support me, distract me, subsume me. They are now, more so than ever before, a job. A way of life, a daily grind that must be endured.’-LIFE OF DEATH

Special thanks to NetGalley for honest review.

Whit a unique premise like this, I knew instantly I had to read it. This is a wonderful story I loved reading and I’d highly recommend it. Amazing.

400 years ago Lizzie made a deal with the Devil. She was spared the pain of being burned at the stake for her remarkable connection with the Devil in exchange for becoming Death itself. She spends 400 years guiding souls through death without a hitch. Then she falls in love. She wants out of her deal and He agrees if she delivers 5 souls. She must take the lives of 5 people of the Devil's choosing. Lizzie is faced with the question of what is a life worth?

The premise for The Life of Death was so unique that it was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed following Lizzie's thought process of wanting a normal life verses having to kill 5 people in order to attain that. Her inner monologue is relatable as she works through getting out of her deal with the Devil. Highly recommend.

A heart wrenching, desperate story of love and loss.

To escape an immortal life as Death itself, Lizzy enters a pact with the Devil. She must take the lives of five people chosen by him- but as we all know, a deal with the devil is never straight shooting.
There's enough back story on each victim and their loved ones to make you really care for them.
It's hard to hate lizzy for her selfishness even though throughout the book you know that's what it really is. Even so, in my opinion the main character was more a villain than the Devil himself.
I found the love story between Lizzy and Tom weightless, the lengths she was prepared to go to for a man she'd never conversed with were ridiculous. I felt more for the chosen ones than I did for her at any time in this story.
The Life Of Death is a bleak tale about the realities of mortality.

I really, really liked the concept. What Death does every day, their life, their own hopes and dreams, and the origin of Death itself.
However, I felt that this gs were just falling short for me in this book. I liked the beginning. The devil chose the girl to become Death. Fine, good. I want to know why she was marked by the devil in the first case - what was it that her ancestors did to bargain with the devil? Never explained.
I also found a few jarrs in the scenes in which one or another of a conversationalist has no ability to speak (burnt to death, face clamped shut) and this is made a note of, that they couldn't speak, and then, without explaining its either magic or telepathy or whatever, they have a conversation. All it needed was one sentence to say, the devil snapped his fingers and she found she could speak despite the blah blah blah.
I enjoyed the majority of the book - forcing death on people, the mental toll it would take, but unfortunately I found the protag to be selfish. Yeah it's the devil you're dealing with and all, but murdering people that you're not supposed to for her own benefit just didn't make me empathise with her.
It's ultimately a tragedy, but I think the author ought to have made that more obvious as a genre choice.
Recommended if you want an interesting read.

5 lives for 1 life. Liz sold her soul to the devil in 1590 when she was facing burning at the stake for witchcraft. Thing is, she really was the daughter of the devil, but she'd done nothing evil to deserve that title, she'd just dabbled in herbs to help villagers heal from small ailments. When the inquisition comes calling though, the villagers start pointing fingers, because of course they did. And for roughly 400+ years, Liz did her duty by the devil as his harbinger of death, and helped usher souls at their time peacefully in their final moments. He called her his "little D." That's all she had to do, provide solace in the form of whatever woman that departing soul most fondly remembered in their life, she would appear to them as that person. But she longed for a life of her own. In the passing of one of those souls, she sees Tom. And everything changes. She wants life, and love, and to stub her toes, and taste wine, and experience everything that she's been missing. And the devil will happily oblige her, at the cost of 5 lives that she has to actively participate in taking. Such begins her moral conundrum. These 5 lives will have countless ripples outward should she choose to accept his bargain and so begins her journey to try to regain a chance at life. I will say that this was a devastatingly sad, sometimes funny, and heartbreaking story and one that ultimately left me shaking my fist at the author. Now that I know that she was fighting cancer during the writing of this, and that she ultimately lost her fight to it, it makes so much more sense, and made me want to cry at the unfairness of life. I'll just say that this was a wonderful story, that truly does show the craftiness of the devil in her story.

This book has been posthumously published, the author having lost her battle with cancer in 2016, diagnosed in 2011. I believe it was her last wish to have the book she wrote during these five years published. But don't let that put you off. It really is a cracking read. Although death is a somewhat strange topic to write about when you are facing it yourself. But I appreciate the irony in that!
So, let's go back several hundred years to when witchcraft was unknown, scary stuff and witches were sought out and burned. Meet Elizabeth, one accused of that crime and facing that sentence. But then, a possible reprieve when the devil visits her and offers her a deal. Immortality in return for becoming Death, the Grim reaper, assisting the passing of those who are on death's door. Faced with the fate she has in store for her, she agrees. Fast forward several years and she's been ticking over in her role quite nicely. Until that fateful day, when the impossible happens, the one thing that could put the kibosh on everything. She falls in love. But that doesn't fit in with who she is now. She has to go cap in hand, back to her boss, back to the Devil, the one who owns her soul and ask for it back. He agrees, he just has conditions. Five of them to be precise, Five people she needs to kill, five souls in return for hers, then she can be free... She then understands what it really means to deal with the Devil.
I blooming loved this book. All the way through we are given examples of people that Lizzie has helped and the ways she helped them pass over. An eclectic mix indeed. We also follow her in the present as she starts to fall in love and how that changes her. And then when we find out what she has to do to gain back her soul, well. Oh my goodness. What a Devilish thing to do. At this point, I thought that I knew where we were going; had it all pretty much mapped out. How I kicked myself as I read on and saw the directions we were actually taking were nothing like what I assumed. More fool me... Clever stuff indeed, very well plotted. And a bit brutal to be honest. But then, we are talking about the Devil after all!
I felt for Lizzie all the way through. How, at the start, she was faced with, well, Hobson's choice pretty much. I enjoyed reading about all the people she helped, even though most of them were a little sad. And then when she had to do what she did, the book really did start to get going and, from that point on, it never really slowed down, racing to its ultimate conclusion with an ending that was perfect for what had gone before.
And then, after I finished, I got a bit sad as I knew that there would be no more books from this author. I hate to say the obvious but, what a talent lost. But then I also thought that it was a wonderful thing that her family had done in achieving her wish for it to be published. Just a shame she didn't see it happen in her own lifetime.
My thanks go to the Publisher for the chance to read this book, And to Lucy's family for making this book happen in the first place.