Title: The Reaper's Quota
Author: Sarah McKnight
Publisher: Indie
Pages: 199
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐
Grim
Reaper #2497, or Steve as he likes to think of himself, is in big trouble. He
is summoned by the Big Boss because he has not been meeting his quota of 30
Random Deaths each month. The Big Boss threatens him with dire consequences,
complete annihilation, if he does not kill 30 random people over the next three
days.
The
premise seemed interesting at the beginning. People who have killed someone during
their lifetimes become Grim Reapers after their death. But the premise was
arbitrary; there was no explanation for why murderers were chosen to do this
task. Steve doesn’t have an answer to the question, and thinking about it too much
gives him a headache, he tells us. This lack of information causes us to lose
the sense of novelty soon enough. The plot wasn’t particularly well thought out
and the pace palled after a while.
There was
a slapstick quality to the humour and the author steered clear of talking about
deep philosophical questions or even themes like immortality, regret etc, which
are inextricably bound with death.
An
abysmal lack of diversity plagued the book. Considering that the Grim Reapers
are supposed to work throughout the world, #2497 spends all his time killing
people in America, mostly in Nevada, where he is based. Even the names of those
who are selected to die are mostly of Anglo origin and parentage.
Granted
the killings are supposed to be random, but the reasons should at least make
sense. #2497 kills an African man because ‘Green is so not his colour’. Rude
and racist.
Incidentally,
Reapers International is headquartered in the US and operates as per US Central
time.
Since
each Random Death must take place more than a mile away from the Reaper’s
previous killing, it gives #2497 space to hang around in Nevada. Very rarely
does he venture outside the US.
Each
random act of killing is preceded by a longish vignette on the basic nature and
character of the chosen victim and how #2497 puts them to death in order to
meet his quota. This is the only place where the author has put effort into
researching various ways in which people have died. The methods of execution
are not repeated, not once. #2497 is truly a death artist. He tells us that he
likes to express his creativity through the manner in which he executes each
Random Death.
Of
course, the individual vignettes are interesting. But on the flip side, the
exercise seems pointless because we are given details about people’s lives,
causing us to see them as human and to relate with them, only for #2497 to
sweep in and cut off their wicks.
Additionally,
after a point, the story began to seem tiresome, because of the repetition
involved. There were no real challenges that the protagonist faced, other than
the threat of disappearance if he failed to meet his target. All he had to do,
and even in the afterlife, despite being a skeleton, he was unmistakably a
‘he’, was kill people.
I
found the whole deal about Heather, the only person to have had an encounter
with a Grim Reaper and to have survived, a non-issue. There was a hint of
romance that wasn’t called for. #2497’s final act was unconvincing. The twist
at the end of the tale was totally unimpressive.
The
author seems to have taken the idea of the Grim Reaper and run with it. There
was no attempt to build an original world around it. The setting lacked lustre.
Spoiler:
The scythe is supposed to cut off human wicks. How would it work on #2497, who
is already a skeleton, and therefore has no human wick?
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