Does It Bother You If The Author Brings A Dead Character Back To Life?

Say the protagonist watches the love of their life fall off a cliff.

(Lewis Clark, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic)

Or, perhaps you read along as the antagonist stabbed one of the main characters through the heart with a sword. Maybe someone got poisoned or bitten. Maybe they disappeared under terrible circumstances.

Whatever happens, there seems to be a trend where the character will (surprise!) re-emerge later on in the book as not only alive, but thriving. I can see why authors would use this as a plot twist. There's nothing like finding out someone you thought was dead is actually alive and has been for a while.

However, I find that I begin to lose faith in the author after that. Particularly if a character's death was described--s/he stopped breathing or was wounded--and the living character(s) witnessed it, I can't help but feel like nothing that happens afterwords can be trusted. And while uncertainty is great for suspense and tension, if there's too much of it, then the story turns into a jumbled mess.

There are exceptions to being "alive", of course--vampires are dead to begin with and a lot of other Paranormal/Fantasy creatures are similar in that regard--but even those characters are usually subject to being killed permanently, and in many cases it sure sounds like the treatment they got was fatal.

Basically, after a certain point, it gets ridiculous. If you killed your character, they should stay dead. Unless there is a really, really good reason that goes beyond plot twists and emotional punches, you shouldn't bring someone back. (Some would argue that this is impossible in any context, furthermore, which is another issue--the characters' perceptions and beliefs on death and dying cannot suddenly change to accommodate another character's reappearance.)

What do you think? For you, how far can an author go in resurrecting characters before you lose faith in the story?


-----The Golden Eagle

Terry Pratchett Month: Book Review: Mort

Title: Mort
Author: Terry Pratchett
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 1987
Page Count (paperback): 243
Cover Rating: 3 out of 5. Again, compared to the original UK covers, this one is kind of boring, though it does match the story. (See the other one HERE.)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Summary (from Goodreads):

In this Discworld installment, Death comes to Mort with an offer he can't refuse — especially since being, well, dead isn't compulsory.As Death's apprentice, he'll have free board and lodging, use of the company horse, and he won't need time off for family funerals. The position is everything Mort thought he'd ever wanted, until he discovers that this perfect job can be a killer on his love life.

My Thoughts: I'd really been looking forward to this book, since I knew it was the first that featured DEATH as a main character. It certainly put a new face (beyond the grinning-skull one) onto this anthropomorphic personification, and I loved Mort, the boy who becomes his apprentice. Through him, you get an inside look at the world of DEATH, from his house to his cook to the hourglasses, or life-timers. The other characters were quirky and funny, ranging from the princess who everyone acts as if is dead to the magician who has the job of making sure people remember she's alive. The plot jumped all over the place, crossing realities and moving fast.


Other: According to some sites I found after noticing a reference on Wikipedia, Disney is making an animated movie out of Mort, with John Musker and Ron Clements directing (I've never heard of them before, or at least the names don't ring a bell, but apparently they did The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, and The Princess and the Frog).

They had better get it right, or this will be one irritated Terry Pratchett fan.

(What do you think? Do you look forward to a movie of Mort, or dread it?)


Verdict: Yet another humorous take on death from Terry Pratchett, Mort is an excellent story of a boy who becomes the apprentice of the ultimate reality. Recommended.


Other Terry Pratchett Month Posts:
Book Review: The Color of Magic
Book Review: The Light Fantastic
Discussion Post: On Humorous and Parodic Stories
Book Review: Nation
Discussion Post: Anthropomorphism
Book Review: Good Omens
Movie Review: The Color of Magic


-----The Golden Eagle

Terry Pratchett Month: Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism definition (from The Free Dictionary):

Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

The most famous representation of natural phenomena from Terry Pratchett's  Discworld being, naturally, DEATH. Who speaks in SMALL CAPS (they are so exclusive that Blogger even refuses to let me use them), carries a scythe, and according to some sounds like the slamming lids of coffins, despite having no vocal cords.


DEATH is not the only character made out of something abstract. There are many gods and goddesses, such as the goddess of Things That Stick in Drawers, the god Fate, the god of Avalanches, and The Goddess Who Must Not Be Named (also known as Lady Luck), to name a few of the many that exist in Discworld.

(SOURCE)

Many other authors have made characters out of the abstract. For example, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief was told through the perspective of death. Tamora Pierce's novels, set in the Tortall universe, often have the characters dealing directly with gods and goddesses who represent different aspects of life.


Have you ever created a character out of something like death or another natural (or unnatural) phenomenon in your own stories? Do you think it has an important effect on the culture or feelings of the characters in a story if they believe in such gods/goddesses?


What is your favorite personification, from Discworld or another series/novel?


Other Terry Pratchett Month Posts:

Book Review: The Color of Magic

Book Review: The Light Fantastic

Discussion Post: On Humorous and Parodic Stories
Book Review: Nation




-----The Golden Eagle

On The Death Of Important Characters: How Do You Feel About It?

You pick up a book.

You read for a while.

A major character dies.

(SOURCE)

It always bothers me when a character (particularly when it's the main character) dies in the end. And not only when the character's someone I'm fond of. Most of the time, I have to wonder: what is so great about their death? What spurred the author to kill off an influential person in the story?

Even if they do succeed in their goal, it often just seems too abrupt, violent, and saddening. Unless the death is handled well--when it comes to the main character--it's even come off as annoying, when it's there just for the sake of itself. There are many instances where I thought the book/story would've been improved without that plot twist.

What do you think? Can you think of any books where you thought the MC's death was a good thing for the story? Does it matter if it's one of the main supporting characters, rather than the main character who dies? Have you ever written the death of your MC in one of your novels? If not, would you ever consider it?


-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: Hunger

Title: Hunger

Author: Jakie Morse Kessler

Publisher: Graphia

Genre: Paranormal/Contemporary/YA

Page Count: 174 (paperback)

Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Cover Rating: 4.7 out of 5. I really like this cover--the scales, the font, and the swirly black/blue.

Back Cover:

"Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world."

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she's been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

   Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home--her constant battle with hunger and the struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life and to face the horrifying effects of her awesome new power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power--and the courage to fight her own inner demons?

My expectations: High. I loved the idea, and I'd read a lot of positive review about the book.


It was better than I expected.

About the book: This is a very interesting take on eating disorders. Imagine--a teenage girl becoming one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence) while at the same time battling her own inner voices that tell her she's fat and ugly and will never be successful.


I really like Kessler's writing style. It's to the point, and Hunger being a short book, there really wasn't anything that got more attention that it should. I sped through the book--which kind of disappointed me because I wanted more of it! And despite the fact that it deals with such a heavy subject, this book was actually rather funny at times.

• Plot:

It's a strong plot, with little twists that keep things moving (it's only 174 pages long, remember!) and I love the ending--it's excellent.

• Characters:

Lisa is mess at the beginning. She's anorexic--which you don't find often in books--and desperate to find people who understand what she's going through. She's dealing with strained relationships between people she used to be really close to, such as her best friend, her father, and her boyfriend, who all believe that she needs help--only she doesn't think so, and concludes that they're jealous about her skin-and-bones body. But I had to like her determination and spunk, and I grew fond her as time went on.

I hadn't really pictured Death as Kurt Cobain, but that's the way he appears to Lisa in the book; he's surprisingly funny for someone who has the job of taking lives, and I had to laugh at the exchanges.


War was just as you'd picture War: angry, powerful, and easy to provoke. Only female, too. Pestilence was interesting--I found what he had to say intriguing, although he doesn't make much of an appearance next to the other Horsemen.

• Setting/Elements:

I love the idea in Hunger. It's not your average Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy, and I enjoyed the freshness of it all.

Other: Some language, references, and some violence.

Do I recommend this book? Yes! If you're looking for something unique, interesting, and funny, and don't mind a novel with a darker side.

-----The Golden Eagle

Herculaneum Was There, Too!

You've heard of Pompeii, I bet. You also probably know what happened that day, August 24th 79 AD. But did you know about Herculaneum?

I've noticed that in a lot of history books there's practically nothing about Herculaneum. The most I've found is a mention that it was buried under 65 feet of ash. You would think that there would be more about a city buried under 65 feet of ash, but unfortunately, no.

That's why I was thrilled when Secrets of the Dead: Herculaneum Uncovered was aired last night:

Watch the full episode. See more Secrets of the Dead.

Because someone had decided this Roman city was finally worth looking into!

I didn't know about much of what they said. Like, that the Bourbons looted the place through a maze of tunnel leading underground. Or that the citizens of Herculaneum hid in the boat sheds as the pyroclastic flows enveloped their city. Or that 2000 year-old-bread is in existence, and even has its owner's name on it. There's ancient, carbonized furniture, and some pieces of wood that were not carbonized.

But even Pompeii and Herculaneum weren't the only cities--Stabiae and Oplontis were also wiped out.

I always find less-discovered places and people fascinating. There's so much more to learn that way. :)


-----The Golden Eagle