Becoming Death by Melissa Brown

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 321

Publisher: n/a

Released: 12th of June 2015 

Ever since her father's demise, Madison Clark knew Death had her number. After losing her first job, she is ushered into the cryptic family business. Little does the teenager know her family is hiding a dark secret; they are grim reapers, custodians of souls on their journey to the beyond. Even years of studying comics doesn't prepare Madison for the reality of having a so-called superpower, the ability to kill with just a touch. Madison expects her historic legacy to have benefits beyond immortality but what she doesn't expect is to still be struggling for cash while reaping souls on the side. 

As if being Death's minion wasn't strenuous enough, Madison finds herself back in school with her worst enemy studying the ancient rules, methods and paperwork of her vocation. In a cascade of life changes: her best friend admits he’s in love with her and she starts a new job as a professional mourner, but she can’t help thinking her family might have other secrets. 

Just when things are finally starting to feel normal again Death throws her a curveball: her next victim is someone close to her. Madison must find a way to overcome the strict guidelines of being a grim reaper in order to save their life. 

What I Have To Say 

This book was good as a simple New Adult book. It was good to see a sort of coming of age type story for going out into the adult world, as this is a stage of life that a lot of people are completely unprepared for. It dealt well with the issues surrounding finding work, getting money and generally looking after yourself. This created a lot of the story and it did it really well. 

The grim reaper side of things parallels well with this; New job; going out into a new world; new responsibilities. It works well as a story and I liked the technical side of the reaper business with the app that they use, but I felt it wasn't well built enough. I feel that the system that the grim reaper business had was a really good start but I wish we could have seen more of it. 

All in all, I think it should have been longer. It could have been improved a lot by taking more time to set up the details of the business more as well as the relationship. 

3.5 stars