First line: “He should have gone
home. It was after eleven, so he’d have been home already.”
About: When Silas Umber’s father
Amos doesn’t come home one night, Silas refuses to accept that he’s gone. But
without money, he and his mother must abandon their home in Saltsbridge and
return to Lichport, the town where Silas was born and where Amos worked. As he
roams the town, he slowly uncovers the truth about his father’s work: his
father was an Undertaker, responsible for tending to the dead. Now the
townsfolk call on Silas to take up his father’s mantle and Silas must navigate
between his new duties, the dangers of Lichport, and his search for his father.
My Thoughts: Death Watch is heavily
invested in the folklore that surrounds death, but unlike most “gothic” novels,
the dead aren’t horrifying, nor are they sexy vampires. The pacing is slow and
the town itself is developed as a character. Because of the way that Berk
follows multiple different story threads, though, the book doesn’t drag and
Berk is a sufficiently deft storyteller that the different elements don’t
become confusing.
Highlights: Dark, rich, slow
Readalikes: Mistle Child, the second
book of the trilogy. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The internet recommends
Darkside by Tom Becker but you can’t have it because I now have it reserved. (I’ll
get back to you all on that one.)
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