Death's Daughter

This fits firmly into the realm of chicklit meets paranormal, the main character is your average chicklit character and her twist is that while you meet her as a fashion obsessed, ditz, she's actually Death's Daughter, under a forgetting charm, and now she has to come home and save the day before someone else takes the job and her family loses their immortality. She didn't really feel as old as she's pitched, more teenage than anything but then again, with immortality how long would the teenage and early twenties mentality last?

It's not a bad read but somehow I didn't really care enough about the characters or what was happening to them. It was engaging without really catching my full attention.

Being a fan of Benson's acting, I was excited to try out her book....while I enjoyed the storyline overall (thus the 3.5 stars), I found it very hard to connect with the main character, Calliope. She's flippant, fairly shallow, and whiny, which didn't lessen as the story went on. I can't relate with females who are engrossed with shopping, name brands, etc. having never understood the attraction to those things in the first place and that was a bit of a turn-off for me personally. I hope if there are more books featuring Calliope Reaper-Jones, she'll have grown a bit from her experiences as Death.

That being said, her pop culture references were fun and made me laugh, the story line, while fluffy at times, was enjoyable to read and I show more will definitely read more of her books after this. Favorite characters included: Jarvis, Daniel, and Clio....hope to see more of them again! show less

Having read several other series along these lines I was preparing for a major case of boredom. I wasn't bored at all and even laughed. Did I think the lead character in need of some major therapy to deal with her issues? Yep. Was she annoying and useless at times? Yep.

So why on earth did I give it a 4?

Because she redeemed herself. Repeatedly. Like any human struggling with serious issues who is really working to get well, she made progress even if she would regress to her old comfortable behavior. She had awakings about her behavior that changed how she perceived herself. And she was fully aware that denial was not a river in Egypt.

That doesn't mean in places I didn't want to slap her silly and say either "Oh shut up and do it" or show more "Think you Twit" but the book was written well enough that is exactly how I felt. Why does that get praise? Because I have read other similar books where I have just thought "Oh who cares? Honestly, what a bunch of dribble and what a Whiner and Moaner"

The story line is interesting. The characters are interesting. And nicely, there is no stupid major cliff hanger that must be continued until the next book so you "must" buy it to finish the story. Is it a series? Yep. Does the story feed into the next book? Yep. But there is no pathetic attempt to carry you into buying the next book. The threads of the story tie up nicely in this one. The next one is just added enjoyment. Refreshing after some series I read.

The next book? Sure I'll read it. I want to see if the work she did in this one pays off and she grows up. show less

Three years ago Calliope Reaper-Jones put herself under a nice and comforting forgetting spell. Gone were the days of dealing with the craziness of the family business, Death, Inc. All Callie had to worry about now was finding the perfect man on Craig’s List and finding organic dim sum for her boss.

One bite of an organic cupcake later and Callie is right back in the middle of the family drama. Her father’s right hand man, Jarvis, has come to notify Callie that her father and older sister have been kidnapped. Callie being next in line must assume the role of Death or her family losses their immortality. But it’s not as simple as being the second oldest, Callie has to complete three tasks in order to take the reins and she has a show more competitor for the job… the devil’s incredibly “hot” and irresistible protégé.

I got a total kick out of this book. It’s very different from the usual fantasy/paranormal story lines and it was funny to boot. Among the characters Callie had to face off against where, a psychical detective, an evil sea monster, a bitter Goddess and the devil himself.

This was the first of a new series featuring Callie. It was a faced paced read and I look forward to many more books in this series. Highly recommended for urban fantasy or supernatural fiction lovers. show less

I read this book because my sister brought home an autographed copy from ComicCon 2009 for me. She said that Amber was not only really nice, but seemed to be a super-smart person I would have liked to meet myself. I've been fond of Amber since she played Tara on Buffy, and I've been pleased to see the interesting efforts she's added to her acting career. Comic books, movies, what a multi-talented woman, right on! Go you, Amber.

This book, alas, is not one of the crowning achievements of Amber's career in the arts. She presents me with one of the most annoying heroines I've had to sit through a paperback with since I got annoyed with Anita Blake and her nonstop sex thang. Calliope Reaper-Jones is a fine name, but Callie is whiny, show more immature, stupidly lustful and obsessed with brand name merchandise. There were so many product placement shout-outs in this book. It reminded me about how I threw Jackie Collins' "Lucky" across the room, having become annoyed by a sex scene in which Lucky was Doin' It on the seat of a motorcycle... and it seemed she was much more aroused by the designer sunglasses and jeans than the handsome man. Yech.

So Callie is shallow, and she never manages to say much about Dear Old Dad and his employment as Grim Reaper. You'd think something like that would have an effect on the family. Nooooo, all we ever learn about Dad is that he has a mansion called Sea Verge, wears a lion's mane of hair, is handsome, apparently plays tennis, loves his wife, snores. Not one tiny little detail where he complains about his job or how he gets it done. It seemed.... well, poorly visualized and incompletely imagined. I kept thinking that someone as dumb as Callie, stomping through Hell all alone and calling for Midori Sours from who-knows-where, was lucky not to have her head bitten off by a stronger character halfway through the book. All that complaining and whining, even I could have sneaked up on her and caught her unawares. Also, the experience of Being Death doesn't seem to have made an impression on this lil numskull. She points her finger at someone in her way, makes him die, feels bad for a moment, goes on. Sort of like she's Scarlett O'Hara, thinking about it all on another day.

I say that this book has an interesting premise, fair action, an annoying heroine and some enjoyable snarky dialogue that read as if she'd brought it back from the "Buffy" set. This book had a lot of me wondering about the interesting details of all the backstory Callie missed while obsessing about her weight, her clothes, her distaste for the family business, cute guys, going shopping, and avoiding her responsibilities. Perhaps the sequels have more to offer, but I am unlikely to spend either time or money finding out for myself.

Sorry Amber. I will check back in ten years or so to see if I like your writing any better. show less

The daughter of the Grim Reaper gets pulled back into the supernatural realm when her father is kidnapped.

This book is a passable way to spend a lazy afternoon; the emotional tone is a little scattered but it doesn't hinder the flow of the plot. There is a character who turns out to be two people — one who is assuming someone else's appearance — and the dual personality didn't strike me until it was pointed out in the narrative because the main character was cycling through witty repartee, fatal injury, self-doubt, bravado, and lust with enough frequency that I wasn't expecting consistency out of any other character, either.

I liked the nerdy references to various non-human characters from different mythologies. Kali ("black, dark show more coloured") calling the protagonist "white girl" is pretty clever. show less

"I didn't want to be Death. I never asked for this! The whole thing I just experienced was SO not as much fun as shopping at Saks or spending a day at the Golden Door!" (Death's Daughter, p. 284)

Death's Daughter would be a highly entertaining and original novel if it didn't read as if it were written by a spoiled high school cheerleader whose parents never told her that not every idea flowing from her pen was the epitome of cleverness. Author Amber Benson (better known as Tara from


Buffy the Vampire Slayer) tries to imitate the narration style of the spunky, smartass supernatural heroines popular nowadays, but her final product is more whiny than witty. The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that all of the characters have the same show more whiny, immature voice as Calliope's narration. If this was a Young Adult novel and they were all teenagers, it might be excusable, but for an alleged twenty-something professional it is both baffling and grating.

The story follows Calliope Reaper-Jones, who is living a reasonably satisfying life as an assistant at a Home and Garden company in New York City. She has cast a forgetting spell on herself so she can leave her family behind and finally be a normal person, but the spell is suddenly lifted when her father and sister are kidnapped and she learns that she must take over the family business.

Her position: Death. That is, once she passes the trials to prove that she can handle such power and responsibility.

The trials, however, are complete jokes. First of all, Calliope has mysteriously gained the power to wish herself anything and anywhere she wants, an ability which even the gods and goddesses on her advisory board find impossible and ridiculous. The problem with giving characters such overwhelming powers, of course, is that they can easily overcome any trial that comes their way without any conflict or need for character development. And so the author is forced to manufacture a nonsensical conflict: the challenge to overcoming the trials is not Calliope's lack of the right tools or skills, but the fact that she's too stupid to remember how much magic she controls.

Not that the challenges would be particularly difficult even without these powers. The first is to steal a pup from Cerberus, the three-headed dog guardian of Hell. The solution: ask him to borrow one. And so forth. That Calliope's first big problem in the story is not being able to read Greek, which drives her to tears, reveals much about both the character and the complete lack of anything resembling danger, at least before it's had its claws, teeth, and testicles removed.

The concept is actually quite interesting, with a lot of room for both religious commentary and political intrigue. The premise is that God/gods and the Devil needed a neutral arbiter to assign souls to Heaven or Hell, where they would hopefully be taught the error of their ways before being reborn. As Death is granted power and immortality, it is a coveted position, one that several people are trying to steal. But the mangled execution wrenches any possibility of fun from the universe, resulting in a wholly unsatisfying novel of an occasionally nonsensical universe populated with dull, forgettable characters.

http://www.helium.com/items/1503576-deaths-daughter-amber-benson-review show less