4.5/5

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, you’re doing the same thing, trying to reconcile all the moms that Mom ever was - The one you wanted, the one she was when you needed her and she was there, the one she was when she didn’t understand. Most of us don’t live our lives with one, integrated self that meets the world, we’re a whole bunch of selves. When someone dies, they all integrate into the soul - the essence of who we are, beyond the different faces we wear throughout our lives. You’re just hating the selves you’ve always hated, and loving the ones you’ve always loved. It’s bound to mess you up.”
- Charlie Asher

Charlie Asher is your average "Beta Male" paranoiac who lives a very regular life with his wife Rachel who just had their daughter, Sophie. Everything seems fine and dandy until Mr. Asher is suddenly tasked with the insurmountable burden of becoming a Death Dealer , someone who is tasked with the unenviable position of retrieving the souls of dead people which are found in objects (that can be VERY bizarre -cough- like breast implants -cough-) and if he fails to do his job as required, demons from the underworld will rise up and take over the world.

This is my first absurdist fiction book and I had a feeling I would love this genre. There seem to be no limits to the level of creativity that is allowed. The boundaries between logic and absurdity are allowed to be thin and you can expect any bizarre thing to happen, even if it means living in a perfectly normal city that is one day invaded by "sewer harpies" who are goddesses of death who happen to live in the sewers and meet a woman who takes the souls of humans and puts them in bodies she created out of dead animal parts, the result of which being creating little cute creatures with squirrel bodies and lizard arms and duck legs.

Some of the humour in this book might seem a bit crass and offensive, but I enjoyed it because it makes use of stereotypes in a very entertaining way. I do however think the whole beta male jokes were a bit overdone and it got boring having to read them in almost every chapter at the beginning, but the funny moments were generally well written.

Throughout the book, I had a pleasant time but wasn't thinking about giving it more than a 3 star rating, because it seemed good but nothing amazing. By the second half of it and towards the end, my rating went up to 4 stars since I realized how I grew attached to the characters and the world the author built. When I read the last 2 chapters, I was pleasantly surprised by a very unexpected turn of events and a strong ending to the story, which added another half-star since my subjective experience of the book was overwhelmingly positive. I wish this book gets adapted into a movie, TV series or even a video game one day.

One final thing to add; the hero's journey Charlie Asher went through throughout the book was executed really nicely.

If you're going to get into this story, relax your tolerance level for absurdity and bold and sometimes controversial humour and enjoy the ride!