Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.
When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?
Comment: I was gifted this book for my last birthday. I confess that, were it not a gift, I'd not have chosen this book since it's a genre I no longer gravitate towards and it has a YA main character. Still, it was a gift and I would always give it a chance... sadly, it didn't impress me.
Hazel is the 13th child her parents had, and life is hard for everyone which is why she was promised to one of the gods, Merrick, the Dreaded End. However, the years go by and she remains at home, knowing she is another mouth to be fed. After some terrible situations, the day finally arrives and she leaves with the god, now her godfather, to train to become a healer. In order for this to happen, she needs to study but her godfather also gives her a gift, the power to know when someone can be healed and what she needs to do. However, this has a price, and she also can see when death is the only outcome... but will Hazel be able to deal with the consequences of her new powers? What can she do when the king himself demands her help?
This book is labeled as fantasy and young adult and Gothic, but my days of being devoted to fantasy and PNR seem to be in the past. I mean, I still read these genres, but it's not something I look for on purpose nowadays... I probably read them if it's books which have been in the pile or something, which is why I was surprised to receive this one. I hoped the story would captivate me but wasn't fully on board...
Basically, the plot refers to a child, special because it's unusual for parents to have 13 kids, and in the gods deem her special. However, throughout her childhood years, Hazel sees the suffering of her family, they are poor and they struggle and her parents aren't always very supportive nor loving. In fact, Hazel is treated as the runt so to speak, always in the knowledge a god will come for her. I didn't dislike Hazel nor her sad way of seeing and living her days and I was hoping going with her godfather might mean something better for her, but this didn't go the way I imagined.
When she does leave, the story seemed to take a turn, and from studying to learning about her healing abilities and then going to the city to help the king was all very quickly done. I don't think I really had a chance to know Hazel besides the basic and I certainly could not find myself interested enough in the magical aspects and all the horror-like elements associated with it (Hazel has the ghost of those she doesn't save following her around for a while), and this means I could easily turn the pages, read things but I wasn't truly focused on what was happening.
This is the first book I try by this author, so I cannot compare, but it felt very perfunctory, always intending to deliver the information but without emotional aspects linked to it. At least, that is how I felt this story to be. I started thinking that the author had an idea, had a plan but the execution of the transitions between ideas wasn't well achieved. I was not fascinated by the writing style nor by the overall characterization of most characters. Everyone was a bit superficially developed and many of their actions made no sense. It made the story feel more juvenile than what it certainly merited.
I say this because Hazel is a teenager, and sometimes her evolution isn't as wise and thoughtful as it should, considering she is the heroine. If the point was to see her adapt and mature, I don't think this was done properly and she never got to be who she was. I suppose I have to agree with the readers who say the focus shouldn't be on healing the king and all the stuff that came after, which is irrelevant and formulaic to many other books. Nevertheless, it would have been achievable if Hazel had been a bit more aware of herself.
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