24 in ’24 Challenge – Book 1 “The End of the Day” by Claire North

I have decided to try and reduce the to-be-read pile this summer by reading 24 books in three months (see my introductory blog here about how I am going about this and what books are on my list). I am going to admit that I began reading The End of the Day by Claire North slightly before 1 June which was my official start date for the challenge but this worked out well because this was a book where I got a bit stuck after reading about a third of the story and I found it easier to put down than lift up so it took longer than it should have to finish it.

The book follows Charlie, who has found himself working as the harbinger of Death (with admin support from the office in Milton Keynes). He goes before Death to places where Death will eventually come, sometimes as a courtesy and sometimes as a warning, but always as a witness. All four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are personified in this story (and they aren’t all men) and they each have a harbinger. Sometimes Death comes for a person, sometimes he comes for the end of an era or the death of an idea and sometimes he passes by – Charlie doesn’t know which he will do in any given situation.

The book is series of episodes, moving around the world and telling the story of Charlie’s meeting with a variety of people, which makes it a bit disjointed. Occasionally the narrative will flash back to earlier events that Charlie has been part of and these are inserted into the current story. The author also includes overheard snippets from people in the places that Charlie visits which are dropped in but are not part of the story. It’s not as messy as this seems but at times I found it difficult to keep my engagement, especially as the book didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

In the end, however, it was worth persevering because the author shows us, through Charlie’s experiences, how we deal with death. How some welcome it, some ignore it, some challenge it and some bargain with it. Some of the episodes are harrowing, some are dispiriting and the author overall paints a picture of a world of brutality and hopelessness before giving us just a glimmer of optimism about human nature.

I thought that there was a lot in this book that didn’t really add to the story or the theme but it is possible that I didn’t properly understand what the author was trying to say. This is not a book that I will keep or reread but it was an interesting novel with some very clever ideas.