The Game of Love and Death

Starred review from February 16, 2015
The odds against Henry and Flora becoming a couple are significant: Henry is white, Flora is black, and this is Depression-era Seattle. But their similarities outweigh their differences; at 17, they’re both orphans, musicians, and—unbeknownst to them—the current players in the centuries-old contest between Love and Death. Death’s player, Flora, is a singer and aspiring aviatrix; Henry, chosen by Love, plays bass and baseball. Airplanes and music bring Henry and Flora together, and though they feel something immediately, Flora, with a pessimism born of experience, is sure it can’t work. Love and Death are on the scene in human guises, manipulating people and events, and the book is really a tale of two couples: Henry and Flora, as well as the ultimate opposites-attract pair, Love and Death. Brockenbrough (Devine Intervention) never sugarcoats the obstacles facing Henry and Flora’s love—whether human prejudices or supernatural manipulations—in this inventive and affecting novel, and the ending in which Flora, who has seen too many people die, realizes how love and death intertwine, is beautiful. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Narrator Susan Hanfield embodies the characters Love and Death, who wager on the love between Henry and Flora, a pair of teenagers in Seattle in the 1920s. Hanfield uses a stoic voice when Death points out that because Flora is African-American and Henry is white, there is no way their love will endure. From Love, one hears notes of wistfulness and desperation--as he is tired of losing his wagers with Death and wants this forward-thinking pair to thrive. Hanfield believably portrays both Flora and Henry from childhood to the story's present as well as creating vivid voices for secondary characters, ably handling accents and foreign languages, and even occasionally breaking into song. Historical fiction, romance, and magical realism make for a compelling listen. A.F. 2017 Audies Finalist � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine