Death’s Daughter by A. Benson

I’ll be honest, I totally wanted to pick up Death’s Daughter because of who it was written by – Amber Benson.  I’m a huge Buffy fan, so it was kind of cool to see something written by one of the cast members.

Calliope Reaper-Jones so just wanted a normal life: buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from Craig’s List, web-surfing for organic dim-sum for her boss…

But when her father-who happens to be Death himself-is kidnapped, and the Devil’s Protege embarks on a hostile takeover of the family business, Death, Inc., Callie returns home to assume the CEO mantle- only to discover she must complete three nearly impossible tasks in the realm of the afterlife first.

Did anyone else get a Buffy vibe when reading Death’s Daughter?  I’m not saying that this is Buffy with a new twist, because it so totally isn’t.  However, I felt like there were a few too many similarities between Buffy and the main heroine, Calliope.  Both are more interested in shopping and fashion, both want to be left alone to live a normal life and both really have no concept of magic or the basic knowledge of anything magical even though they are both kind of powerhouses in the “culture”.  Maybe it’s just me and my reasoning is really broad, but I saw a lot of overlay between the two.  The one thing I will say, Calliope whines a lot more.  That is the one lasting impression Calliope has for me – a lot of whining on how she doesn’t want to do what she’s doing.  Quite honestly, after one or two different instances, I would have been good.  As for the other characters, I really don’t have much to say.  There are definitely some interesting characters, but either we’ll get more of them in future novels or we weren’t suppose to connect with them too much.  That’s especially true for the Devil’s Protege; I felt he was going to have a larger role in the novel, according to the blurb, but he really doesn’t.

As for the overall plot, I do have to say I loved it.  In a time when we’re getting a lot of demons, angels, vampires, shapeshifters, etc, it was nice to read about the one aspect all of those have in common, yet hasn’t been addressed yet – Death.  The Grim Reaper is the ultimate supernatural in my opinion.  He’s as old as the devil and has been around far longer than any vampire has.  Everyone has a fear of death and when he’ll arrive and to find a story where he’s the focus, it’s awesome.  In Death’s Daughter, the grim reaper is in charge of Death, Inc., the corporation that oversees the escorting of souls to their final resting place; however, the head honcho has been kidnapped and now Calliope is brought home to deal with it.  What Calliope has to go through is kind of amusing to watch, but there really isn’t all that much action.  She actually tends to stay away from it, and while that doesn’t make for some great action scenes, it does allow for some humor to merge through by watching her reaction.

Overall, Death’s Daughter was pretty good.  The atmosphere of the story did remind me of the atmosphere in Buffy, so any fans will definitely enjoy this novel.  I’m taking a pretty good guess that this is the start of a new series (especially since the cover says “a Calliope Reaper-Jones novel”), but I’m not sure how the series is going to go.  With that in mind, I’m definitely intrigued about what’s coming next and I can’t wait to see what that is.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

4 Comments

  1. I haven’t read it yet, though I did buy it for the same reason. :)

    I think it’s interesting you mentioned it’s nice to get a change….Amber Benson’s on a panel at Comic-Con talking about that subject. unfortunately, i don’t think I can make it to that one.

    I’m glad you liked it…a bit of a relief. ;)

  2. Death’s Daughter was just not the read for me. I couldn’t stand the heroine and only read to page 60 before I put it away.

    I miss Buffy :(

  3. Unfortunatly I haven’t gotten to read this one yet…. but the Buffy like-ness doesn’t bother me so much with Amber since she was actually on Buffy lol. Although I do kinda hate the cover, I really like being able to picture people for my self and I really don’t like how the model looks. Thanks for the review. :)

  4. Ha ha, yeah Buffy does whine a lot. I’ve never read a book by Benson…well I’ve read a Buffy comic written by her and I remember watching something called Ghosts of Albion on the internet.

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