STARRED Book Review: In Death’s Company

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

A war against Death herself threatens mortal life, and everything after, in this epic urban fantasy.

May Haines has lived her whole life on the precipice between life and death, never knowing whether today will be the day her faulty heart gives out or the day she is offered a new one. Now, after nearly dying for the umpteenth time, she has a brand-new heart and the chance to live her life without the shadow of death hanging over her.

Actually, she has met Death: an eternal, coffee-swilling being with a terrible temper and a worse problem that needs solving. For countless lifetimes, Death has ferried souls from the world to her realm. A lonely, monotonous experience. But since taking the half-angel/half-demon outcasts known as the Nephilim on as Reapers, it has become marginally less so.

Someone or something is trespassing on her territory, though. In the mortal world, souls are being cleaved from their bodies before their time. Something that has happened only once before, when the Nephilim staged a rebellion against her. If the same situation is playing out again, it will lead to a war that may shatter the world forever.

Death has never needed to rely on anyone else. As an incredibly unskilled Green Witch with a heart on the verge of giving out, May seems like the worst candidate to provide assistance. But the dead are communicating with May, and she might be the only one who can find out what they are trying to say.

In Death’s Company melds multiple mythologies together to create a unique and fascinating world. Told through dual perspectives from both May’s and Death’s points of view, the setting is divided equally between May’s hometown in Arizona and the underworld.

The complexity of the magic in In Death’s Company is fantastic. The world has layers of lore that feel like they have only been touched on in this first novel of an expected series. But even though it feels as though the worldbuilding could and will go far deeper, it is definitely deep enough from the first few pages.

In May’s world, most people don’t know that magic exists. She has been raised by Green Witches, though, and is well aware that the world is not as simple as it seems. Meeting Death is new to her. The entire world of the Reapers, Fates, and Death is beyond her experience. It’s a lovely dynamic, having a main character who understands magic but is being introduced to an entirely different branch of it throughout the story.

Things do get off to a bit of a slow start. Getting situated in the world and meeting all the main players takes a little time. This isn’t a warm-up novel, where all the action is left to subsequent books, but it also doesn’t dive straight in. Trust me: once the plot gets going, it’s a fantastic journey.

There is so much to love in this book. The characters, plot, and worldbuilding all intertwine perfectly to create a wonderfully intricate, immensely bingeable story. Along the way, there are so many hints as to how much subsequent books will ramp things up. There is so much space for characters to grow and for their relationships to develop.

The magic that May has tapped into is still new and has the potential for so much more. And there are indications of enemies waiting in the wings who will become a massive problem later. This is the kind of book that is a pleasure to read, but the anticipation of what’s to come makes it even better.

In Death’s Company is a phenomenal beginning to a promising new series. It teases some parts, leaving plenty of questions and surprises for future books. The mythology, the characters, the plot, the worldbuilding—this is a series you’ll want to get into.

Thank you for reading Joelene Pynnonen’s book review of In Death’s Company by Natalie Johanson! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post STARRED Book Review: In Death’s Company appeared first on Independent Book Review.