Keturah And Lord Death

I am currently reading Thomas Cahill's "Mysteries of the Middle Ages," and I wanted a medieval sort of novel to read; Martine Leavitt's "Keturah and Lord Death" fit the bill exactly precisely. Keturah, the 16-year-old storyteller of her village, wanders into the forest and meets Death, who asks her

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to be his bride. But when Keturah learns that her whole village is doomed from the coming plague, she turns Scheherazade and bargains with Death: she will tell him a story, and save the ending for the next day - or the next - as she struggles to save her family and friends.

Keturah is a resourceful and endearing heroine, and Leavitt truly understands the grand and ancient art of storytelling. She is brilliant at concocting seemingly disconnected subplots and gathering them up into an elegant bouquet at the end - a bittersweet ending that felt both completely unforced and completely satisfying. And personally, I loved how Leavitt wrote Keturah's female friends with generosity and goodness - so many authors succumb to the tedious presumption that teenage girls are selfish and catty, when my experience has been of their amazing goodness and generous goodwill. (I bet she has teenage daughters.)

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The praise and accolades bestowed on this book were lost on me.

Set in an unspecified medieval age, Keturah is a simple village girl who meets Death in the woods. He plans to take her that night, but she bargains with him that if he will let her live one more day, she will tell him a story.

In the

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days she lives on, she keeps rearranging her bargain with Death each time she sees him, bargaining again and again for one more day. Keturah has the village wise woman give her a charm to let her know when she meets her one true love. Also, the king is coming soon to the village, and the local lord decrees a fair to be held for the king, for which the whole town must prepare. And there is also the black plague running rampant over the country, from which Keturah plans to save her village by further bargaining with death.

The greatest problem was the voice of the narrator. The tale is told in first person, from Keturah, but her language is highly stilted and formal at all times. Everything she relays as being said by anyone in the village is spoken in this same dry, emotionless voice. Not only the secondary characters, but even the narrator herself comes across as an impersonal and inhuman being, completely void of personality. As such, I didn't have any emotional involvement in the book. I didn't care what happened to Keturah or anyone else.

No doubt the book is filled with themes and symbolism by the bucket-load, but without caring about the characters, it was a wasted effort.

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"I will tell you a story of magic and love, of
daring and death, and one to comfort your
heart. It will be the truest story I have ever
told. Now listen, and tell me if it is not so."

Beautiful, sixteen-year-old peasant girl Keturah is known for her ability to enthrall the residents of her village with

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her stories around the communal fire. One of her favorite subjects is the elusive, legendary hart that inhabits the forest, and when she sees him at the edge of her garden one morning, she follows him into the woods and becomes lost. After three days, Lord Death comes for her, but Keturah is not ready to die.

Lord Death knows Keturah. He's watched her, he's listened to her stories, and he's sympathetic toward her. What does she want to live for? he asks. Keturah believes she has one true love somewhere waiting for her and she wants only to find it. She dreams of a cottage of her own with a babe and a husband who loves her. She dreams of a love like her grandparents had, a love that is greater than Death. When Lord Death claims such a love does not exist, Keturah begins to tell him a tale.

She captivates him with her tale and Lord Death is angry when she demands one more day of life before she'll tell him how the story ends. But Lord Death wants to hear more, so he agrees and tells her if she can find a love greater than Death by the end of that day, he will let her live, but if she doesn't, Lord Death will make her his bride. The rest of the book centers around Keturah's desperate attempts to find her true love and stave off Lord Death a little longer with her tales.

I thought this was a charming story, smartly written and told in a fairy tale-like manner with an ending that was surprising, yet fitting and satisfying. I couldn't put it down and I highly recommend it.

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This book was really enjoyable and akin to reading one of the classic fables with a twist. It had a lesson to be learned and a moral that makes me think about life and death. The best part of the story was that as Keturah was telling her story, I was really enthralled and wanted to know what would

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happen next. The only flaw would be that some of the characters could have been better developed.

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I picked Keturah and Lord Death up at the library yesterday thinking it might be reminicent of Twilight. Actually, it wound up being much more comparable to Beauty by Robin McKinley, but I still enjoyed the novel.

The story starts when Keturah follows a hart into the woods and becomes lost. After

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days of exposure Lord Death comes for Keturah. In an attempt to save herself and her village Keturah tells a tale to death but refuses to reveal the ending. Intrigued, Death makes a deal with Keturah, she can have one last day of life in order to discover her true love.

This was an intriguing tale which kept me guessing right up until the end. If you have enjoyed Robin McKinley's work I think this one would be to your liking as well.

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Leavitt weaves a mystical folktale which includes romance, magic and heroism. Keturah is a sixteen-year-old girl living in the
close-knit village of Tide-by-Rood with her grandmother. Upon meeting up with Lord Death in the forest, Keturah is given one
more day of life to finish the enthralling story

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she begins telling him, as well as to find her one true love. She also goes on a
mission to save her village from the approaching plague which Lord Death foresees. Young, female readers who enjoy romantic
folklore will particularly appreciate this read and will be pleasantly surprised by the meaningful and unexpected ending.

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Teen novel, wonder if it is really something that would attract most teens. I liked it, but full of metaphors. Maybe I am selling teens short.

Awesome story of a young girl who realizes that death is not the enemy of life. Death allows us to hold life more dear.

Each year BBYA members have to remember that the list is a consensus driven process and not a personal reflection of individual tastes. Members share its successes and its place in history. It is books like Keturah and Lord Death that force us into this reminiscence, books that absolutely would be

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on our personal lists, no two ways about it. Keturah and Lord Death is on my list of the very best books of the year. Thankfully, its status as a National Book Award finalist assures us that it will find readers despite its absence from our BBYA list. Keturah chases a hart into the woods, gets lost, and Death has come to take her. Keturah, however, who has been thinking about who she will marry, finds Death strangely attractive. She challenges Death to listen to her story. Reminiscent of Middle Eastern storytelling, Keturah crafts an endless story. Death gives her extra time to finish and Keturah continues to leave off the ending. Gradually Keturah realizes that she has found the love she is seeking. While much of this story is predictable, the writing sizzles with sexual energy (very tastefully done). The ending will surprise many! Don’t miss this one! Highly recommended for high school libraries.

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After reading Tom Finder and The Dollmage - books will engaging plots and interesting character development - I was happy to see this on the Ontario Library Association's White Pine reading list.

But I was very disappointed.

I found that Keturah and Lord Death lacked everything that made the other

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books so enjoyable - basically, I found the characters flat, the story plodding, and the whole tone of the book stilted.

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Keturah follows a hart into the forest and gets lost. As she is sitting there a well-dressed handsome man, Lord Death. appears. Keturah relies on her talent to tell stories and makes a deal with Lord Death to give her an extra day of life in order to find her one true love. The story weaves

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Keturah's exploits to try to find love and her relationship with Lord Death. I thought of Shadow Spinner as I read. I really enjoyed this story.

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Keturah's storytelling skill convinces Lord Death to allow Keturah live an additional day or so while she tries to find her own true love with the help of a magical eyeball in her pocket. Meanwhile she does her best to save her village from plague and help her friends connect with their own true

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loves.

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A very interesting and dark book that I enjoyed immensely a while ago. I'd love to read it again sometime.

Keturah is a peasant girl who tells the story of when she was lost in the woods and Lord Death came for her. Using her superb storytelling skills, she bargains more time out of Lord Death by telling him a story but refusing to tell him the ending. It is a love story and he tells her that if she can

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find and wed her true love in one day, he won't take her...

It's a very strongly told tale of love, friendship, community, and fear. Although I don't think it's actually based on a fairy or folk tale, it reads like it is.

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This book was one of the most amazing, touching, lovable books I have ever read. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me care about the characters. I think EVERYONE should read it.

Keturah tells stories and it's a good thing also because Lord Death has come to take her away unless she can keep him entertained.

Fans of Twilight will find in this book another unlikely hero and the girl who falls in love with him. Lovely.

This book had me completely entranced from the first page! It’s the story of a poor, beautiful, 16 year old storyteller named Keturah. Keturah has known about death since her parents died and when she gets lost in the woods, he comes for her as well. With her gift for storytelling Keturah manages

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to strike a deal with the beautiful but severe Lord Death, and has one day to find her true love. The plot flows along very well and readers get to know many other characters in the village.

I found this “darkly gorgeous medieval fairy tale” to be really original and haunting. It’s very thought provoking as it really makes the reader think about themes like love and death. It’s also an award winner that has won the Booklist Editors' Choice - Books for Youth - Older Readers Category: 2006, and the YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults: Death and Dying (2009). Definitely a must-read for people who love paranormal romances.

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This was a pretty book, the writing and ideas flowed beautiful and the story was very touching.

Keturah becomes lost in an enchanted wood, and when Lord Death comes to claim her, she tells him a story and then barters one more day of freedom for the end of the tale. Each night he comes to her and

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each night she tells him a new story, as she continues to live out her remaining days, searching for the end of her own love story.

I recommend this lovely tale.

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Keturah's adventure begins with Death awaiting her final breaths and then tricked into a bargain. Keturah's talent of storytelling brings life to many of her town's inhabitants. Though, for her, her life is determined by her journey to find true love. Compassion finds those in need, but will

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Keturah find her true need? Will Lord Death show her compassion as she does to others?
An enlightening tale that brings life to the concept of death. A very good read!

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Beautiful, a folktale told with simple language and such a concrete setting that the tale seems grounded yet fantastic at the same time. I loved Keturah and I was very sorry when the story ended and i had to leave her and her village.
I'd especially give this to fans of Patricia McKillip.

Keturah is her village's best storyteller. One day when she wanders into the woods to follow the great hart, she meets with Lord Death and makes a bargain: she will tell him the end of her story if she gets one more day (and then another, and another) to find her true love. Death agrees, and

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Keturah is launched on a desperate mission to find the one man who will be her love.

Keturah and Lord Death is beautifully told. It also surprised me. I was sure until the end that her true love was one person - and it wasn't. I was sure until the end that one thing was going to happen - and it didn't. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of young adult books, especially young adult historical fiction (as it does take place in medieval England).

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Life, for Keturah, began with a death, the death of her mother as she brought her into the world. Raised by her grandparents and fostered with great love and affection, in a village she adored, Keturah evaded death until the passing of her grandfather. When she was old enough, it was her

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grandmother's wish that she join her in her work as a midwife. Their art made possible the welcoming of new life, while bringing Keturah ever closer to what bearing a child can mean- death.

The lord of the land has long hunted the elusive white hart, famed for his ability to always thwart the lord's attempts to catch him. When he appears before Keturah at the edge of the forest, she is compelled to follow the fabled creature deep into the woods, so deep that she becomes lost. After several days, when she can no longer summon the strength to keep going, Keturah sits down and waits for the death she knows is imminent. And death does come for Keturah. Lord Death himself comes to bear her away from her life to what lies beyond. Faced with the realization that she must leave her home and friends and an aged grandmother who needs her assistance, Keturah attempts to bargain with death, a ploy used by countless before her.

For him she weaves a story, just as she would were she telling it around the fire. She tells a story of true love that so intrigues Lord Death that he must know its ending. Keturah tempts him with the promise of the story's ending but vows she will not tell him until tomorrow. Lord Death is forced to grant her wish, and vows that if in that one day, she can find the true love she speaks of in her tale, he will spare her life.

In one day Keturah must find true love, or submit to that which has shadowed her life from the very first. With death so much a part of her past and present, could the very lord of death be her future?

This story was amazing and heartwrenchingly beautiful. I wasn't able to put it down. Leavitt might have written this book yesterday, a hundred years ago, or a hundred years from now and her mastery of the art of true fairy tale story telling would make this a classic anywhere or anytime. It could appear bound amidst all the famous fairy tales and you would never know it didn't start out there.

It wouldn't mean much if I said that this is the best book I've read this year, since it's only the second, but I can go ahead and predict that it'll be one of the best I read all year long. It's a beautiful little story that I promise you will never forget and I'm grateful to be able to consider it now one of my favorites.

If the book wasn't already haunting enough, when it was over I read the acknowledgments, only to learn that Ms. Leavitt had a sister that died from cystic fibrosis at the age of eleven. The concept of death being something to embrace rather than fear becomes even more poetic when you think about what she's been through and why she wrote it. Keturah's journey and the villagers acceptance of her bond with death must have been very similar to the trials of the author and her family. I hope writing this book was healing for her.

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Loved the idea of this story and numerous metaphors within.

Keturah is known for her storytelling abilities...