Brian Rea

Death has never taken a day off. That is, until he gets a letter from HR insisting he start using them, starting that Friday. As Death takes his mandatory year-long sabbatical, readers get a peek into his diary and the activities he decides to fill his life with - including, winning a goldfish.

I picked this title up at work in the library when I saw it displayed on our shelves of the graphic novels that I pass by every morning on my way to my desk. I thought, “that sounds fun” and show more grabbed it. It then proceeded to sit on my desk for months as I continued to renew it as I read through a ton of award finalists. Welp, I finally finished reading for my awards, and this was one of the first books I sat down with to read.

The amount of photos I took on my phone of drawings from this little graphic novel are endless - Death doing an ollie over his goldfish in his fishbowl is my phone’s screensaver right now.

As much as this is cute, there’s also the look into not taking life so seriously and to make sure to have fun every once in a while as well. There were even some deep quotes, like this one:

“Saw the redwoods - even bigger than I thought! One of the trees had a giant hole right through the middle of it. The guide said it was “dying slowly” - so when everyone passed, I stepped inside. All the sounds went away. I felt small and warm. It wasn’t dying at all. It was just living slowly.”

Like I said, I borrowed this from my library, but I’m going to be on the hunt for my own copy of this book so I can read it again and again. show less

I was charmed by Rea's depiction of Death, who is no more morbid than any of us. And how smitten Death is by the titular goldfish! As a child, I had a goldfish I adored so much I walked with him in our small town's pet parade, clutching the tiny bowl, careful not to spill or jostle. Reading this graphic novel evoked the same feeling of delight, a rush of pleasure evoked by the simplest enjoyment.

During the two months of All Hallow's Reading each fall, and for a fair while ahead of that, anything to do with death/murder/horror/suspense etc. that happens to catch my eye goes in the stack. The idea of Death being made to take a sabbatical and use up all that vacation time amuses me. Had I looked to see who the creator was I might have anticipated that it would be rather less funny or morbid than I was hoping, and more quiet observations about modern life in corporate America. It's show more realistic in all ways except that Death is a job that lots of people have like Sales Rep. The bureaucracy makes sense in a world of 7 billion people; sure, you'd need middle management and HR and all. I wonder what the classified ads would look like.

It was very much a New Yorker Death, so: amusing, thoughtful, understated. I liked it, even though this was no Terry Pratchett Death. Or even Bill and Ted Death.

Library copy
For Magical Realism show less

Funny and charming, a wonderful quick read.