Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

Release Date | November 28, 2006

Where to Buy | amazon, barnes and noble, book depository

Premise | "I will tell you . . . a story of magic and love, of daring and death, and one to comfort your heart. It will be the truest story I have ever told. Now listen, and tell me if it is not so." 

After following a hart into the woods bordering her town, Keturah is faced with Death. Lost and hun-gry after following a stately hart through the forest, Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. Thus begins Keturah's search for her one true love and the salvation of her beloved town. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself. 

Review | Romance novels always get the tough end of the stick in the business and are usually dismissed in the hierarchy of literature. The critiques constantly point out the abundantly flowery language, severe adherence to plot conventions, and stock characters. Well, let me tell you this book uses the tropes of the romance genre to absolute perfection.

One of the most prevalent formulas used in romance books is the idea of the pure, virtuous female who tames the dark, devil-like male character and reforms him into a person of respectability. This is a very prominent theme in this book but in the sense that it’s done almost literally. Instead of having the main female “tame” the male with her upright morals and fiery personality. No, instead, Keturah manages to do this through stories and tales, moving her from a position of submission to one of knowledge. The Lord of Death has to rely on her as not only a connection to the outside but as sustenance that she supplies to him with the tales she tells   every night to prolong her own life and save others. 

I think it’s an excellent retelling and metaphor for One Thousand and One Nights. The Lord of Death falls in love with her for her intellectual beauty and resilience, not just for her looks and advantageous status in society. I actually sort of wanted her to end up with the other guy but then I realized that if she didn’t it wouldn’t bring the story around full circle so I was able to appreciate the subtlety and light hand that she did it with. 

I loved how the author took cliché and predictable elements of the genre and made it into something so much deeper. It’s such a shame this book is out of print because it’s a wonderful novel; one that should be read by a lot more people.

Grade | A-