Synopsis: Calder is a Fetch, a death escort, the first
of his kind to step from Heaven back to Earth.The first to fall in love with a
mortal girl. But when he climbs backwards out of that Death Scene, into the
chaos of the Russian Revolution, he tears a wound in the ghost realm, where the
spirits begin a revolution of their own.
My Thoughts: this is my first book that talks about the
afterlife. When a person dies, a death escort appears and he or she has the
duty to accompany the dead through the Aisle of the Unearthing, divided in five
parts: the Theatre, the Feast, the Gallery, the Garden and the Cell. After all
this, you’ll reach the Great River, where a boat and its Captain will be waiting
to take you to Heaven. Calder is a death escort, someone responsible for the
dead, but he never felt like he belonged there. He thought he was extremely
lonely and craved for a friend, but he knew that he couldn’t break his Vows as
a Fetch nor disappoint his Captain. But when one of his duties gives him the
chance to go back to Earth, in the middle of the Russian Revolution, to the
woman that he thinks is the one supposed to be his Star Fetch – his apprentice,
a living person able to see and hear him – will he still be faithful to his
Vows?
As I said, this is my first
afterlife novel and I must say I really liked it! And for the first time in my
shelf, the protagonist is a male. Usually I get books that woman are the
leading figures, so it was different to see. What I liked about it is the
detailed description of the surroundings: the Selo Palace of the tsar’s family,
the late 10’s California, Russia and England, everything is so detailed that it
seems that the author actually lived there (though it’s impossible)! Another
thing that I really enjoyed is the way that death is shown: not as a morbid
thing – even though it’s sad – but as a passage to something much better. Each
death sees its Aisle and Fetch differently: it can be a blond angel with silver
wings in a corridor made of pure diamonds and rubies, or a warrior in a
corridor full of Japanese paintings. Time is different too: It can be 1024 for
years or 1570 in an hour.
When Calder realizes that maybe
the woman that he thought was meant to him actually wasn’t, how is he going to
return to his Aisle? He has to take care of Anastasia and Alexis, remaining
children of the tsar, and escort them to Heaven. Also, he has to stop the owner
of Calder’s current body – which is Rasputin – before he starts a revolution
inside the Land of Lost Soul – a place where all the souls that ran away from
their escorts are – and before all those souls attack the Land of the Living.
The scale is unbalanced and Calder has to put it back to its place.
The only thing that lacked for
me was the romance. It’s very subtle and you can almost miss it if you don’t
read it carefully. Ana and Calder have two year difference, but that doesn’t
really interfere in the scenes, but there is no kiss through the WHOLE book,
except in the last chapter. I kept hoping for a kiss scene, but none came, and
the only one was so quick that I couldn’t really see it!! It kind of reminds me
of a 1910’s novel that I read when I was a teenager: its romance is very
delicate and gentle, something that nowadays it’s hard to find, especially
after the release of Fifty Shades of Grey – not saying
that I don’t like the reading, I’m actually planning to read it, eventually.
Last is the cover, which I don’t
have a lot to talk about: the couple in the front is Calder and Ana, and the
key represents the Fetch Key, that is able to open the door to the Aisle of the
Unearthing. The Key is the thing that connects the whole book: when Calder
gives the Key to Alexis and he passes it to Ana, she gives it to a soldier that
was taking care of them in their prison, and to whom she had a crush. Now he is
in CA, and without the Key, no one can go back to the Aisle. So Calder and the
teens go on a journey around the globe in order to get it, but what if it wasn’t
with the soldier? What if he sold it or lost it?
That, my readers (if I have any),
are for you to figure it out.
Rate:
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