THE DIE OF DEATH

Andersen’s hero is back in hell, this time helping Death himself, in the YA series that began with The Devil’s Apprentice (2018).

Philip Engel has just started eighth grade. Since recently returning from hell, he’s been indulging his devilish side with risky behavior. He can often hear the voice of Satina, a girl devil he befriended, egging him on in his head. One night, after seeing his mother suffer a crippling migraine, Philip wakes from a nightmare. Outside his window is a horrible storm—and an old man he recognizes as Mortimer, aka Death. Philip ventures into the courtyard, and lightning strikes a tree that hits his head. The boy wakes up on a landing between heaven and hell. Though he misses his deceased father, Victor, who he’s sure is in heaven, he also misses Satina. His decision is made when the devil girl appears and escorts him to Death’s house. There, Mortimer reveals that his hundred-sided die, used to determine the length of a mortal's life, has been stolen. When Philip sees the hourglass representing his mother’s life, almost empty of sand, he agrees to help Death on one condition: that he’s granted a roll of the die to try to keep his mother alive longer. In this sequel Andersen quickly reorients readers to Philip’s world and offers a fresh mystery. Hell and its outskirts are moodily detailed as a place where “stunted, leafless trees stretched like praying creatures reaching up with a thousand slender fingers.” Old companions like Lucifax the cat and the devil himself return, as do bits of philosophy that give the series weight, including the line, “Men and women value only that which they might lose….Without death, life is uninteresting and utterly meaningless.” Andersen also humorously deals with familiar parts of the Bible, such as “a flood to cleanse earth of all its scum and waywardness.” Philip’s growth as a character remains a priority, too, and the true whereabouts of his father are teased throughout the narrative. The finale resets the board for the next installment.

A clever series continues in a novel that despite its grim setting is often sweet.