Living The Good Death

By: Scott Baron
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

( I voluntarily received a ARC of this book )

Living the Good Death by Scott Baron was an okay read, that for me could have been more exciting if the pacing was faster and the filler cut short.

Not my favourite-est read of the year, in truth I was disappoint. The opening was spot on, it was solid and it really draws you in. It was going good until Death found herself in the psych ward. Things slowed down, and it for me, dragged on. There was too many mundane things going on, to many day-to-day filler scenes that clogged the flow of the story. It was made apparent at the first of the story when death lost her powers that, is was a hug crisis. Okay, I got that, so when you have a plot set-up like that, you need it to move at a certain pace, to keep that sense of urgency up. So when the story started to slow, so did that urgency and well, for me, the middle of the book was boring. It wasn't until towards the end that things starting to pick up again, and really sucked me back in.

I did like the back and forth, the unsureness if the Death was in fact that; the reaper of souls, or a mentally disturbed girl named Dorothy. The inns and outs of that really made this story unique and kept you on your toes. Unfortunately, because of the pacing, and filler, I wasn't as shock with the ending as I should have been. Drawing it out, put to many clues and well, you could say this story shots it's self in the foot.

Now overall this is a very good story. The writing was professional, clean and the tone did match the plot. There are some really good things going on here, and it's just a shame that it got pushed aside for, I'll say it again, filler. Filler will kill a good book, this applies for TV shows, and Movies as well. If you ever watch anime, then you know about filler and how it can destroy something amazing.

I believe another round of editing will make this okay story, into something magical.

Now just because I didn't quite get into this book, doesn't mean I don't want you to check it out. Like I said the writing is beautiful, and there are no plots holes, then ending is tied up nicely and you are left with some good feels. So yes I do recommend you give this book a read. This review is strictly my person opinion, so what I don't like you might love.

Happy Reading

-E.A. Walsh