Bookreview: The End of the day

“The end of the day” by Claire North is a novel about the harbinger of death who is a common mortal called Charlie. Claire North has also written “The first fifteen lives of Harry August” among other books. I was completely sold when I read the blurp on the back;

“Charlie meets everyone – but only once. Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy; sometimes as a warning. Either way, it will be the most important meeting of your life.”

Here is my review of “The End of the day” by Claire North

This work of fiction about Charlie, a very common and down to earth kind of guy, explores the job of the harbinger of death with all it’s ups and downs, wonders and fears – just like another day at the office.

I really liked this book – it was so full of life, funnily enough, since the main character deals with death on different levels.

We find out what the harbinger of death actually does, we run into some of the other harbingers, we hear random chatter from around the world and where Charlie goes, we go. Nothing is spared and we follow Charlie is his learning curve from starting the new job and until he is more experienced, yet it never really gets boring at all.

We are introduced to several different walks of life, as seen through Charlie’s very human eyes and we witness fates being intertwined, deaths occur, we see the warnings and the courtesies but we also witness Charlie in situations where you aren’t exactly sure why he is there. We hear about the humane side of death and we learn to think and talk about death in a very matter-of-factly way.

It is a well written book with lots of interesting events and I had such a hard time putting it down when I read it. It was such a different and remarkable story that almost made me cry for the sake of humanity, being confronted with some of the themes in this book. The characters were all well rounded yet I felt like I was just sitting on Charlies shoulder throughout the book, like having a blurry filter between myself and the characters where I could see them but they didn’t know I was there.

One thing that didn’t really work for me, was all the weird bits of dialogue that was thrown in, as it was difficult getting used to but eventually it made sense to me – it’s just a different kind of reading experience.