Book Review: Masters Of Death by Olivie Blake

‘Masters Of Death’ by Olivie Blake was published in 2023. It is a contemporary fantasy novel, which follows the godson of Death, Fox D’Mora as he goes on to “best [Death]”.

I really enjoyed ‘Masters of Death’, and while I had a few issues with it, most derived from the fact I read it as an audiobook, and often misheard the cacophony of voices as belonging to someone else. For example, I found that Cal and Brandt had similar sounding voices, but Cal’s was deeper. But when you haven’t heard either speak for a while, it took a moment to work out who was actually speaking.

The idea of immortals playing games and making deals, gambling as an addiction and the concept of having everything, or nothing to lose, was incredibly interesting. I really enjoyed reading it, and understanding each character’s respective motives, from desperation to boredom to obligation to ambition. It was so interesting and immersive!

Blake seemed to have a great sense of scope and perspective when it came to exploring relationships among the characters. I loved that the world of immortals and creatures was queer normative, and that Fox’s choice to love Brandt wasn’t considered wrong because he was a man, but because he wasn’t a good person. It was refreshing, and really sold it for me. Especially, having grown up in a world where social media platforms like Tumblr which explored the idea of sexuality being fluid and how immortals being straight seems almost baffling and limiting, so seeing the fact that Fox and Brandt both took men and women as lovers was just very pleasing to read. I love when a queer normative plain of existence isn’t just queer normative in the form of a passing comment, but truly a deep and intrinsic part of the world and the story, even if just as a pillar to support the overarching plot like it is here.

This book contains a great ensemble cast of mortals, creatures and entities: a mortal man who has lived well beyond his years, the Demigod son of Odin, preserving his youth with golden apples from Eden, a vampire working in real estate, a ghost haunting his family home, a demon who indulges in Starbucks and pizza, despite working as a personal trainer, an angel and a reaper, agents of God and Lucifer respectively.

I absolutely loved Blake’s use of character voice. You are thrown straight into the world with Death’s narration at the start of the book, you get an incredible sense of his personality and his fondness for his Godson, Fox. The nuanced elements like how they both wear rubber bands and ping them when they curse, a New Year’s Resolution Fox encouraged them to do years ago. But, also the directness of how Death acknowledges that Fox is a “right little shit”. I loved it. Loved how Death was given a personality and a sense of humanity.

Each element of the story was fantastic, I loved seeing the pieces converge and come together, and trying to work out what was going on and why. Furthermore, the sense of dramatic irony, particularly with Fox and Brandt was so delightfully frustrating. As a fan of pining, I wanted to scream at them, and it was so worth it for the end result.

Furthermore, I loved how love was a primary theme in the story. From familial love between Fox and his Godfather, Death, to the love shared between Mayra and Cal and the love both of them have for Fox. Fox was truly so loved among the company he kept.

This was my first Olivie Blake book and I cannot wait to read more from her. This book really set the bar and I am excited to dive into her other standalone and series works in the future!