Keturah And Lord Death (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up–At 16, Keturah is a poor peasant girl who constantly ponders her future. She has always been different from the other girls of the village and has unique but unrealized gifts. She has been raised by warm and loving grandparents, experiencing firsthand what a truly happy marriage is all about. The teen is committed to finding a suitable husband so she, too, can be happy but has not yet been successful. All this changes for her the day she follows the legendary hart deep into the forest and becomes lost. After three days of wandering aimlessly, she knows that she is about to die. Keturah is surprised to discover that Death is a strong, handsome lord to whom she immediately feels connected. Despite the fact that she is afraid, she challenges Lord Death, which is something he is not used to. She uses her storytelling skills to make him grant her a reprieve for one day. She spins a story of a love so pure that even Death cannot destroy it. He allows her to live another day on the condition that she come to him with an ending to the story and her true love. Keturah continues to delay the inevitable but in doing so learns much about herself and what she is truly capable of achieving. Along the way she also discovers that her true love was there beside her all along. This is a dark, but uplifting story combining elements of fantasy as well as romance. It has a gripping plot, strong characters, and a surprise ending that will intrigue readers.–Donna Rosenblum, Nassau Boces School Library System, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding--and it is as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village, Tide-by-Rood. But one day Keturah must use her storytelling skills with quite a different audience. Lost and hungry after following a stately hart through the forest, Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself. This novel gets so many things just right. Leavitt brings together a large cast of characters, but she personalizes them and weaves their stories into Keturah's, making it richer, denser, and more intricate. The plotting moves in and out of the everyday and the supernatural, but it's so finely tuned that the worlds seem one. Readers will be carried away on the wind of Leavitt's words, and few will be able to guess how she finally ends her story. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Front Street (November 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932425292
• ISBN-13: 978-1932425291
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #102,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #93 in

  Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Issues > Death & Dying > Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Title, Wonderful Story, May 17, 2007

By	Lisa Havens "Mother, Peacemaker, and Reader" (Planet Earth, the Solar System) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Keturah and Lord Death - - The title is intriguing enough. I picked up this book to read after my mom returned from the library with a bunch of library books that looked interesting to her. I read it, loved it, and entirely despised the ending. But it was such a wonderfully wrought work that I just had to learn to enjoy the ending. So, I read it about five times in the next few days. I finally learned to love it.
In this story, Keturah, the protagonist, follows a hart into the woods. She meets Lord Death after three days of being lost, and she pleads for her life. After telling Lord Death a story, without the ending, Keturah is granted one day to find true love. Turning into a Scheherezade of sorts, she leads you through an amazing story that makes you feel like it really happened, like you are actually there. It is amazing.
From the cover, I was expecting it to be a "kissing book" and that kinda made me not want to read it. I'm not a romance freak. But, surprisingly(*coughcoughluckilycough*) it had minimal kissing.
I really enjoyed this book, and think it deserves SIX stars (or more). It is definitely worth your time.
-The Daughter of Lisa Havens (who actually happens to be a very intelligent, ingenious musician with the most humble of attitudes... :D)
--Thank you.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lord Death Loves, January 28, 2007

By	B. L. Medford "phantom_fox" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Keturah and Lord Death is original, insightful and beautifully written. Leavitt has an unique perspective throughout the book that leads to a surprising and bittersweet ending. You'll remember Keturah for her storytelling ability, but you'll remember Lord Death for his unashamed, unconditional and tender love. Touching.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Because I Could Not Stop For Death, He Kindly Stopped For Me, January 11, 2008

By	B. Calhoun (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sixteen year old Keturah becomes lost after following a legendary hart (male deer) into the woods. After three days, she meets Death, who appears as a handsome and lordly young man. Keturah is a girl who has known Death all her life, as he has already taken her father, mother and grandfather from her. Like Shahrazad of One Thousand and One Nights, she spins a tale for Death that grants a reprieve for one day, in which time she has to find her True Love and complete her story. Unfortunately for her, she lives in a small and poor town that suffers from a lack of good candidates. Death has also let slip that the plague is coming, and so Keturah's secondary mission is to save her beloved village from this devastating disease. As Keturah seeks to complete her quest, she is helped by her two best friends, Beatrice and Gretta, who are in love with Choirmaster and Tailor, respectively. Beatrice and Gretta provide some humor, as they both insist that Keturah's quest for True Love must include considering Choirmaster and Tailor as candidates, protesting that they themselves have no interest in these men due to some small fault. As Gretta says about Tailor, how could she ever love a man who wears orange hose? Keturah manages to continue to ward off her own end one day at a time by spinning more stories for Death. Her quest isn't easy, but by the book's conclusion she has discovered her True Love in an unlikely place.

This is a quiet story, with no big action scenes or stunning revelations (Keturah's True Love is not a huge surprise, but it is nicely done). Reading this book, I didn't quite know what to make of it. For a book where Death is the main character, and there are so many last-minute reprieves from death for secondary characters, the book ends quite happily for all involved (not that I'm complaining, as I don't like tragic endings). Although I enjoyed the book and thought it had an interesting premise, it felt a bit hollow. I think that if I was still in middle school I would love this book and turn a blind eye to the lack of substance, as it is a rather sweet tale and can be charming in places (especially during Keturah and Lord Death's interactions). 3 1/2 stars