The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
The Thirteenth Child
by Erin A. Craig
Fantasy | YA | Fiction
512 Pages
Released September 2024
Rating: ★★★
Goodreads
Content Warnings
This book follows —, the thirteenth child of two irresponsible parents. After being visited by three different deities seeking to adopt the child as their own, they finally accept an offer from the “Dreaded End”, or Death. One day, Death comes to claim —, and whisks her away. He bestows upon her the gift of healing and promises that she will be well known and respected for her abilities. As — adjusts to her new life, she is suddenly thrust into yet a new environment, taken from her home to the palace in order to save the ailing King.
This book felt like a massive bait and switch. The beginning started off so promising and I was initially really excited by the story. The atmosphere was enchanting and I really enjoyed MC and her interactions with Death. It felt folklorish, and I was enjoying the world building with the “Between” and later her home in the forest. I was happy with the way things were going, until she ends up at the palace.
After that, things shift pretty quickly. Death all but disappears for the remainder of the story, in lieu of other Gods (seriously, why does she interact more with other Gods than the one that adopted her?). I wasn’t a fan of the newly introduced characters and the mood shifted from something magical to more of a mystery story. It really felt like two separate stories that were mashed together to make one disjoined novel. The MC also seemed to be making the same mistakes over and over and I found that to be really frustrating. I felt like the MCs naiveté (or perhaps stupidity) was what was guiding the story and I really don’t enjoy that kind of plot device in stories.
Finally, I had some serious issues with the pace of this book. It started off smooth enough but the ending was rushed-to-finish. As I was nearing the end, I honestly thought we were getting ready to be set up for a cliff-hanger ending and setting up for a sequel. Instead the book wraps up really fast which bugged me a lot.
If you enjoy fantasy in general, I think you might like this - as long as you go in with clear expectations that this book is more about the main character making mistakes and digging her way out of them than about her relationship with death.