REVIEWED by Jay V.

TITLE: Sort of Dead

AUTHOR: Rob Rosen

PUBLISHER: JMS Books

LENGTH:  198 pages

RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2020

BLURB:

Nord wakes up to find himself sort of dead. Well, that is to say, he’s dead, alright — murdered, in fact — but not in heaven, at least not yet. In this limbo-like state, he meets Max and learns that everyone there is waiting for the final poof, hopefully to a better place. Only, with unfinished business back in the real world, like bringing his murderer to justice, Nord’s poof is nowhere in sight. So he and Max set out to find the killer and make things right again. Of course, that’s easier said than done when you’re nothing more than a couple of randy spirits.

With the help of Voltan, a diminutive mystic with a predilection for turbans, and Clark, a nerdy computer geek eager to shed his loner past, plus a ghost accountant Bruce, Bruce’s drag queen brother Eve O’Destruction, and Nord’s kick-ass mom, the newly enamored pair set out to hunt for the murderer, and are quick to discover how much they’d taken for granted when they were alive.

In this hysterically funny and often poignant mystery about fate and love and family, it ultimately takes dying for our heroes to have the times of their lives.

REVIEW:

Being dead is a bummer, especially when you haven’t really gotten to where you’re supposed to go.  Nord is trying to adjust himself to life after death, but it’s not quite what he expected. He’s not really at his final destination and it’s going to take an unusual crew on both sides of death to complete his unfinished business to move on – wherever that may be.

I hadn’t read the blurb to this book so I went in totally without prejudice – and I’m glad I did because it was a fun journey and has so much snark. Rosen is a new-to-me author and I’m entranced – his writing is clever without going over the top. When one is put in such an, well, awkward situation, one has to do things that are unexpected. With some naughty humor thrown in, this romp goes along trying to get things settled, with a nice mystery thrown in. Turns out the afterlife isn’t all is cracked up to be – it’s nice and all, but Rosen paints of picture of happiness almost being boring, which is a different perspective.

As the crew gets picked up to help Nord, things start to careen off in a most delicious way. The afterlife might be not be exactly what they were expecting but they’re trying to spice things up traveling to the real world to figure out how to fix lose ends and move on with less baggage. These characters could almost careen off to be cookie-cutter personalities, but you get a sense of heart, or heartlessness, from all of them. This isn’t so much a romance, but a queer book with some good sensibilities. There’s many themes that relate to queer life – found family, diversity, and something unexpected.

A joy to read – who knew that death could be so much fun.

RATING:  

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