Mort

This is such an amazing book (my first Terry Pratchett book), would have given it a 5/5, but the last 20-30 pages just falls apart pacing wise and depends on some rushed exposition crammed into the last 2-3 pages that I had to open up the plot of the book on Wikipedia to understand it, the end also just feels out of place with the rest of the book. The first like 90% however has to be one of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had, every page (up to those last few) a pure joy.

Terry Pratchett is what I’ve been missing when reading Douglas Adams. Mort is not just witty, but actually quite touching and even frightening. The humour seems somehow profound, for example when Death explains that everyone gets what they think is coming for them, because “it’s so much neater that way”. This light-hearted fun actually opens up a philosophical can of worms: If I expect a heavenly afterlife together with my family, but my brother expects to be rotting in hell, is the brother in heaven actually my brother? He can’t be, but did I then actually get what I expected? This dilemma is even touched upon later. I much prefer this humour to cliché nihilism.

The characters and storyline in this book really didn't click with me. I felt like Mort was a complete jerk and that Kelli should have totally died. I mean, I'm glad everything worked out in the end but still.