Keturah and Lord Death
I read a lot and thus come across books of every variety and a surprising amount of the books I read are not, what I call, “good enough.” They’re good, but not great. And only a few are so good that I have a hard time putting the book down. But Keturah and Lord Death was one of those few novels that I read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open and then fell asleep longing for morning when I could continue reading.
This strange story starts when sixteen year old Keturah Reeves sees the great hart not far from her cottage, the one that the men in her village has been hunting for quite some time without being able to get it. Keturah is spellbound by the beautiful creature and follows it in to the forest, deeper and deeper until the hart disappears and Keturah realizes that she is lost in the woods. After a while a man appears, a man she instantly knows is Lord Death, and he is there to claim her. But Keturah isn’t ready to die yet, she dreams of her one true love and a life with him and so she bargains with Death. As the gifted storyteller she is, Keturah tells Death a tale but says that he won’t hear the end until she’s been granted one more day, for which Death says that she can leave and come back the following day to tell the end of the story and then go with him, but if she manages to find her one true love in that lone day, he will let her go and she can still have that life she has always dreamed of. Keturah leaves the woods, return to her little village not knowing how to find her one true love in a single day but knowing that she has to do it, in order to keep living.
It is a very strange yet interesting story, were the main character, Keturah, is made out to be the most beautiful girl in the village, and also a wonderful storyteller who can spellbind any man, woman or child with her tales. The stories she tells Lord Death are intertwined with the actually story and only makes the book deeper and more intricate. The story and the world in Tide-by-Rood, where Keturah lives, are wonderful in a simple way. There are no phones or computers, it’s more the setting of a sixteenth century world and it fits great in with the wonder that is Lord Death.
As I said, Keturah is made out to be very beautiful and I really like that in the book, she takes a step away from that, often saying that she doesn’t want to be loved for what she looks like but for who she is. I think that is a very important moral point, especially for the potential younger readers of this book. Keturah in herself is very deep and interesting, she knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to go after it, whatever it is, and I love a strong main character like that. The plot in itself is very interesting, but it doesn’t come alive until Keturah speaks. Maybe a story of a girl, lost in the woods, bargaining with Death for another day to live and find her one true love can seem shallow or girlish or tedious, but this book is anything but. I think it could go very wrong if you don’t have a strong enough character to hold it all up, but this story has that; Keturah is perfect in every aspect.
The rest of the characters are interesting, Lord Death in particular, and all have their own life and hopes and dreams they pursue while Keturah searches for her one true love. It’s fun to see the village through her eyes as she’s looking for the man she’s meant to marry, seeing so much more than just a cottage here or a woman there. In villages, people know each other and that is greatly captured by the author, Martine Leavitt. Keturah has her friends, Gretta and Beatrice whom both have something they are good at and both have a man they love and hope to one day marry themselves. But they give it all up to help their friend, trying to save her from the horrible fate waiting for her in the woods if she doesn’t find her one true love.
This isn’t just a story about love and finding love, it’s a story about friendship and family and doing something good for other people. Saving someone else instead of sacrificing everything just to get what you want and what you need. But, possibly the best thing with the book wasn’t the story or the characters or that it wasn’t just about love but so much more. No, the best thing was the writing. Because it was truly amazing and breath-taking. I feel head over heels in love with this book after the first few sentences, just because of the writing. It was wonderful, poetic, almost magical. So soft, wavy like the ocean, full of beautiful sentences and meanings that made me think about my own life, not just Keturah. And I love, truly love, books like this. That have everything that makes a book fantastic. I usually have high hopes and expectations when I start reading books and I had that with Keturah and Lord Death as well. But it lived up to every one of my expectations and was, somehow, even better than I thought (and hoped) it would be. It was amazing and fantastic and wonderful and I hope you give this book a chance because it is worth it. I have read very few books like this one and I know you don’t come across them very often, but when you do, for a moment, everything seems right in the world.
This strange story starts when sixteen year old Keturah Reeves sees the great hart not far from her cottage, the one that the men in her village has been hunting for quite some time without being able to get it. Keturah is spellbound by the beautiful creature and follows it in to the forest, deeper and deeper until the hart disappears and Keturah realizes that she is lost in the woods. After a while a man appears, a man she instantly knows is Lord Death, and he is there to claim her. But Keturah isn’t ready to die yet, she dreams of her one true love and a life with him and so she bargains with Death. As the gifted storyteller she is, Keturah tells Death a tale but says that he won’t hear the end until she’s been granted one more day, for which Death says that she can leave and come back the following day to tell the end of the story and then go with him, but if she manages to find her one true love in that lone day, he will let her go and she can still have that life she has always dreamed of. Keturah leaves the woods, return to her little village not knowing how to find her one true love in a single day but knowing that she has to do it, in order to keep living.
It is a very strange yet interesting story, were the main character, Keturah, is made out to be the most beautiful girl in the village, and also a wonderful storyteller who can spellbind any man, woman or child with her tales. The stories she tells Lord Death are intertwined with the actually story and only makes the book deeper and more intricate. The story and the world in Tide-by-Rood, where Keturah lives, are wonderful in a simple way. There are no phones or computers, it’s more the setting of a sixteenth century world and it fits great in with the wonder that is Lord Death.
As I said, Keturah is made out to be very beautiful and I really like that in the book, she takes a step away from that, often saying that she doesn’t want to be loved for what she looks like but for who she is. I think that is a very important moral point, especially for the potential younger readers of this book. Keturah in herself is very deep and interesting, she knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to go after it, whatever it is, and I love a strong main character like that. The plot in itself is very interesting, but it doesn’t come alive until Keturah speaks. Maybe a story of a girl, lost in the woods, bargaining with Death for another day to live and find her one true love can seem shallow or girlish or tedious, but this book is anything but. I think it could go very wrong if you don’t have a strong enough character to hold it all up, but this story has that; Keturah is perfect in every aspect.
The rest of the characters are interesting, Lord Death in particular, and all have their own life and hopes and dreams they pursue while Keturah searches for her one true love. It’s fun to see the village through her eyes as she’s looking for the man she’s meant to marry, seeing so much more than just a cottage here or a woman there. In villages, people know each other and that is greatly captured by the author, Martine Leavitt. Keturah has her friends, Gretta and Beatrice whom both have something they are good at and both have a man they love and hope to one day marry themselves. But they give it all up to help their friend, trying to save her from the horrible fate waiting for her in the woods if she doesn’t find her one true love.
This isn’t just a story about love and finding love, it’s a story about friendship and family and doing something good for other people. Saving someone else instead of sacrificing everything just to get what you want and what you need. But, possibly the best thing with the book wasn’t the story or the characters or that it wasn’t just about love but so much more. No, the best thing was the writing. Because it was truly amazing and breath-taking. I feel head over heels in love with this book after the first few sentences, just because of the writing. It was wonderful, poetic, almost magical. So soft, wavy like the ocean, full of beautiful sentences and meanings that made me think about my own life, not just Keturah. And I love, truly love, books like this. That have everything that makes a book fantastic. I usually have high hopes and expectations when I start reading books and I had that with Keturah and Lord Death as well. But it lived up to every one of my expectations and was, somehow, even better than I thought (and hoped) it would be. It was amazing and fantastic and wonderful and I hope you give this book a chance because it is worth it. I have read very few books like this one and I know you don’t come across them very often, but when you do, for a moment, everything seems right in the world.