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The Game of Love and Death | January 11, 2016

by Martha Brockenbrough (Arthur A. Levine, Scholastic, April 2015)

Though the helpfulness of author blurbs has been debated lately, the advance praise for Martha Brockenbrough’s whimsical, wonderful The Game of Love and Death does a great job letting the reader know just what’s inside. With reviews from Elizabeth Wein and Gabrielle Zevin, you know you’re getting a Code Named Verity meets Elsewhere saga.

Love and Death have been playing The Game for as long as they can remember. Every few years, they each select their human player at birth and pit them not against each other, but against the world. If the two fall in love and prove that they’ve chosen each other above all else, then Love wins; if they fail, then Death claims one of them as her reward. This round sees Henry, a white, wealthy boy with a newfound love for jazz, and Flora, an African American lounge singer who dreams of becoming a real pilot, struggle to find their way to each other despite the setbacks that myriad setbacks that Death creates.

Love and Death is a sweet, tenderhearted story that uses a healthy dose of magical realism to give meaning to the seemingly random elements that must fall into place for two people to make a real connection. Though the world could be more fully developed, the characters are acutely, frustratingly real, and the discussion of the racial divide in 1920s Seattle gives the story a strong sense of place. A great high-concept read for those who like their historical fiction a little dreamlike!

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