I recently picked up Masters of Death by Olivie Blake as some light reading over Thanksgiving break. I’d been meaning to read something just for my own enjoyment recently, and I wanted something that was at least a little unfamiliar to me. I ultimately chose this novel because I had really enjoyed Blake’s Atlas Six trilogy. In the aforementioned title, Blake’s style of witty narration fits perfectly into a setting involving young adults in a collegiate setting, and the setting of the world is a masterful blend between reality and the fantastical. But that same narrative style that I adored in Atlas Six, made my reading of Master of Death far less enjoyable.
Masters of Death is an urban fantasy that follows a menagerie of fantastical creatures who go on a quest to find Death, who is also a character in this story. It is an intriguing concept, that is why I wanted to read it, and there are a lot of different folktales and mythologies blended together here. It’s kind of similar to American Gods in that way; there are as many angels as there are Norse gods and Filipino Vampires. And all of them are walking among normal humans every day. It is clearly well researched and each character I do genuinely find interesting, which is a strength that Blake has as an author.
What grinds my gears about this book then is that so much of it feels manufactured to appeal to a social media audience. A lot of what the book sells itself as, especially in the beginning, is a classic enemies to lovers urban fantasy YA novel with happy endings abound. The book then betrays that expectation in a way I cannot summarize but does increase my favor for it. But what ultimately gets me is the narrative voice. It feels identical to prior works of Blakes that I’ve read, but for whatever reason in this novel it does not work as well. Sometimes the characters come through strongly, and other times they become drowned out in a sea of magical pretension. And I adore pretentious narrators that have scathing witty comments, they are perhaps my favorite kind of narrator, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the characters or the story. That is a hard balance to strike, and it varies significantly across different novels. But for myself, who is telling the story and how they are telling it are the most important things about a book.
Despite my gripes with some of the narrative style, I really did enjoy Masters of Death. It is a perfect “turn your brain off” kind of book. There are times where the pacing messes up a little, or when the narration might make you lose your mind, but it is overall a great book. If you want to read an urban fantasy with romance, drama, and a classic quest narrative, then I highly recommend Masters of Death by Olivie Blake.
