Jesse is a Necronite – one of those few people capable of
returning from the dead. And, as a Death Replacement Agent, her job is to die
often so others do not – all for a hefty fee.
But not everyone is happy with the revelation of the Necronites, especially not the military who used to control them or the united church that condemns them. Both of which have considerable power
So when she is murdered by someone who is trying to kill
her for real – and it’s clear that there’s some severe problems with the agency
she works for (and who is doing the investigating) – Jesse has to find the
truth behind the attempted murder herself. Or her next death could be her last.
The concept of this book is excellently original and drew
me right in; we have people who, if their heads are intact, come back from the
dead. More, they can prevent other people from dying, working with predictions,
if they’re on hand at the time of death they can save that person – at the cost
of dying (and returning) themselves. That’s already a fascinating concept but
it’s also built into the world building in some really interesting ways – like the
idea that having a death replacement appointment can reduce your health insurance.
Or that Necronites have become Death
Replacement Agents - a whole profession but with added concerns from the
military that studied them and controlled them to the church that hates them.
The church is a major element in this society - and it is
“the church” because the various Christian sects have united, preserving their
unique elements while at the same time being unified in purpose and leadership.
This has a lot of great world building elements of part of it – with Christians
often praising the unified church as proof of co-operation, love and hope as
these long warring factions have come together. On the flip side we have
non-Christians and minorities who have been frequently persecuted by Christians
duly wary of a now much more powerful and influential church flexing its
muscles and expanding its influence. The church also came together, apparently,
in opposition to the Necronites which has some interesting parallels with the
real world where we’ve seen disparate, and often antagonistic, religious groups
unite in opposition to, for example, LGBT rights.
The oppression, persecution and fear of the Necronites is
well maintained and presented in many parts of the story and Jesse’s life as
well as the wider world building. Unlike a lot of supernatural prejudice
tropes, this one works better because (at this stage in the series – I suspect
it will change) Jesse and her fellow Necronites don’t have a great deal of
power. They have no super powers beyond their ability to come back from the
dead – it’s not a typical story of predatory, hyper-able monsters filling in
for marginalised people. It’s generally well done but there are someunfortunate comparisons and appropriation of actual marginalised groups
The world building has a lot of nice touches in fitting
the Necronites into greater society – including expanded roles for coroners,
new government agents and even the description of coming back from the dead –
which is really unpleasant with such horrible things to deal with like rigor
mortis.
Jesse’s character is an interesting one – in some ways
she’s a very frustrating rebel-without-a-clue. She wisecracks all the time, she
has no patience, she’s scathing without cause, harsh without provocation and
generally makes me want to smack her with some social skills. But as the book
progresses there’s some more reasons provided behind her character for her
behaviour – including attitudes from her boss, her clients and the sheer
enormity of what she does – dying for other people. It also works really well with
the way this book explores oppression: with more and more legal and public opposition
to the Necronites, including physical attack and murder, her boss wants her to
play nice for good PR. This also involves going to educational seminars to
explain Necronites to an often hostile and prejudiced crowd. In other words,
Jesse has a whole lot to be pissed off about and is being fed the line of “you
have to play nice if you don’t want to be brutally murdered” which is not a
game anyone wants to play. It doesn’t make her more likeable, but it does make
her behaviour more understandable.
The plot line is decent but it’s also full of mysteries
and introductions. We have a whole new rich world to introduce which takes a
lot of time. There’s someone killing off Necronites which turns into a grand
conspiracy with lots of questions and introduction to yet more world building
points. And there’s Necronites apparenmtly developing different woo-woo which raises
more mystery. And Jessee starts hallucinating an angel which she heard another
Necronite did before being committed into an asylum. And there’s some family
drama. And there’s relationship drama.
Each individual plot line and element is really well done
but when you put them all together, combined with the world building and
combined with the huge amounts of mystery that is a plot hook for the rest of
the series (there’s very little resolve to ANY of these issues in this book)
and I’m both swamped and left hanging.
So the overstuffed and over-mysterious plot did let it down – less is more and that definitely needed to apply here.
I’m torn on the depiction of mental illness. On the one
hand, it is there looming as a terrible fate which is something we’ve seen a
lot. The flip side is that it isn’t depicted as violent or dangerous – but as a
natural consequence of facing so much severe, repeated trauma which is very
realistic and understandable. I also like that the mental hospital was actually
presented as a hospital rather than a prison – and even while Jesse is panicky
and grossly horrible in her assumptions of people with mental illnesses this is
challenged and debunked over and over again
Jesse is bisexual and is generally a great character. She
is caught between a male and female love interests which could be a trope – but
it is explained more by her worry that she cannot possibly have a long term
relationship because she assumes she’s going to implode very soon. Her best
friend Ally is a lesbian and provides order and sensibility to Jesse’s confused
and disordered life and Jesse makes it clear how much she cares and values her;
including risking everything for her. I want to see more from her and see how she
goes from here in the series (and her being more active in the actual mystical side
of the story since that’s clearly going to take over).
Gloria is a Black woman and an AMP (which is a psychic in
this series – but with more complexity) who is pretty heavily involved in the
plot being one of Jesse’s friends and guides with her powers. I want to see her
more involved beyond providing woo-woo assistance. If she and Ally could get a
balance right (Ally less of a victim to protect, less of a resource to be
tapped) it would be perfect. We have some minor characters – Kirk her mortician
and Umbri one of her wider circle of friends who are both POC – they don’t play
major roles but I suspect they will be a recurring presence in Jesse’s life.
There’s also a number of background POC characters, ensuring the named
characters aren’t the only
There's also a completely awful depiction of slurs in this book - I mean we go full on for appropriation of marginalised groups, slurs, prejudice and bigotry. We have direct comparisons of supernatural and actual real life slurs. To the point of openly equating the n-word with words for the undead. There's just... no excuse for this. No justification fr this and really really needs to stop. I look at the actual diverse characters but it all sits awfully on the eyes when put along side this really gross useble of bigotry and real world prejudices as a short cut for actual development
I love a lot about this book. I love the world building,
I love the concept, I love the mysteries that intrigue me. I am pretty
impressed with how it managed to step carefully with the depiction of mental
illness and we definitely have some strong diversity here as well. The plot,
however, is swamped – but I hope after this initial book we have got past the
introduction phase the whole series can now be more focused and less bloated. We also seriously seriously seriously need to back off the way marginalised people are used and exploited. Include marginalised people without using them to make equations of racial slurs
