Martine Leavitt

When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

Keturah and Lord Death

Aleena Korell

“Tell me what it is like to die," I answered.
He dismounted from his horse, looking at me strangely the whole while. "You experience something similar every day," he said softly. "It is as familiar to you as bread and butter."
"Yes," I said. "It is like every night when I fall asleep."
"No. It is like every morning when you wake up."

This is a perfect little fairy tale. A simple, short read, a little dark, with a depth and honesty to it. 

A young peasant girl gets lost in the forest and, when Lord Death finally comes for her, she weaves a story, bargaining for more time in exchange for the ending. He grants her one more day in which she must find her true love.

I'm reminded of Vasya and Morozko in The Bear and the Nightingale, or Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights. Keturah is very alive, full of hope for the future-- and she fully believes in true love. But she learns the value of life after nearly losing it, and everything seems far dearer and more lovely in the light of death.

I did the chores slowly. I scrubbed and polished the pots as if it were the only important work in the world. While making the beds, I stopped to smell the scent of Grandmother on the quilt. I dusted the dear rocker and swept the familiar floor. I touched the life I had known and, as I now understood it, the life I loved. This I felt in my heart: tomorrow I would not be what I was today.

It's really just a lovely story, full of friendships, sacrifice, community and love. And some incredibly beautiful prose.

In fall, she knew it was Death who sweetened the apples. He made her see the sun in a blue sky and hear the trees in a spring wind. He made her see how much she loved her friends, for all their trouble, and how much her grandmother loved her, and oh, he made her love the breath in her lungs.

Kristen

Such a lovely story. So many powerful, thought-provoking quotes and ideas. This story is about love and death. Mostly love, with a little death, and how the two are always related. It's beautifully and stunningly written. It reads like a fairytale, but it's so much more unique and interesting than that.

Yeah, it's a little cliche and predictable. But it also makes you think, so a little cliche is okay and even welcome. This is the type of story where you go into it thinking you know everything there is to know about love, and you come out learning something new anyway. In this book, we watch Keturah try to desperately find love, even trying to figure out what love is and what it feels like, all the while managing to save her entire village only because she loves so deeply and is so deeply loved. It was almost like love was a character in this book, just like Keturah and Death and John and Keturah's friends. 

I first read this almost 10 years ago, and I only remembered two scenes from the novel, but I remember absolutely loving it. Reading it now was like reading it for the first time, and I'm so glad of that. The writing is so pretty, but never confusing or overly flowery, and the characters are all very well crafted. They each play an important role. It does sort of drag in places, but never for too long, because it's not JUST a love story -- well, it's not just a romance story. Keturah's love is the main point, so it is all about love, because almost everything that happens can be traced back to love and the desperation and fear that it can bring. 

This is such a great book. I need to buy it so I can reread it every few years. It was just so beautiful.

I listened to the audiobook this time, and I liked the narrator's performance. I thought she did a great job.

Gabriela Roxana 

RE-READ September 2019 : This book still is one of the most magical things that has ever happened to me. 



This book is one of the most magical and incredible thing that has happeed to me in a very long while.I'm still having problems processing the great amount of love and appreciation I feel for this book. Like every other of my current favorite books,it's so hard for me to write a review that would reflect all of the happiness this book has given me within its pages.But I will try my best.

Keturah and Lord Death is a loosely retellng of "One thousand nights" that it can be easily seen from the early beginning of this book.It tells the story of Keturah , a smart and extremely kind girl ,that ventures into the woods and meets Lord Death. In order for him to give her another day to live,she starts telling her tale,promising to deliver him the ending on the day to come.

The writing style is so simple and yet so beautiful,wonderful where it should,holding a scent of melancholy as well as lots of joy and hope.It reads like an actual fairytale,one for the little girl that's sleeping in my heart,waiting to be reawaken by such tales.

He was air and cloud and bird.I was dust and worm 

Now,the love story.I am a sucker for love stories.All of my favorite books are romances,more or less.But it's so rare for me to find one that resonates so well with my soul. So I'm saying with every bit of sincerity on my hope,I have yet to see in any book , someone loving another more than Lord Death loved Keturah. His love was so deep and powerful it gave me chills.I was a totally fangirl after him.I'm not ashamed in the least.

I was always fascinated by Death as a character.I think there is so much of it to explore,and this book took it to a whole another level of magnificence.He was simply perfect.As a kid,I remember playing Sims and flirting with the Death Reaper.Unfortunately,it seemed like I was never really his type.*sighs* Lucky Keturah.

I'd love to hold this book so close to my heart and never let it go.

It made me ask myself so many questions about life and death althogether,I'm still shiversih.

"There is no hell.Each man,when he dies,sees a landscape of his own soul " 
"If ultimately death came only to those who deserved that fate,Keturah,where would choice be? No one would do good for its own sake,but only to avoid an early demise "

The story was complete,and the ending was just sublime.I'm so grateful I got the chance to read this book,and all of my thanks go to Emily May,whose review made me want to read this gem.And of course,to the amazing and magical author,Martin Leavitt,who wrote this. I'm truly blessed.

Keturah and Lord Death

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