Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison: Review and analysis (contains spoilers)

Stars: 4.5

Teacups: N/A

Age rating: 18+ for spice 

Trigger warnings: corporate abuse, dog death (handled well but still hard to witness), premature car accident deaths, some of which are family members, death of the elderly

Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers, but if they don't make you want to read the book even more, I'm doing it wrong.

Buy at Viewpoint Books.

Darcy has been a reaper for a long time now, escorting souls to a particular metaphysical office on the way to their next life, and she's sick to death of death. Gabriel loves being a guardian angel, but he's tired of the nonstop pace, too.

This story is going to hold a special place in my heart. It’s going to be one I reread again and again. I’ve always loved angel/demon style stories; I had a huge Good Omens phase, and my defunct book The Pain Eater was something along those lines. I also got married at a lighthouse, and there’s a significant lighthouse scene.

Uplifting in the midst of dark imagery

This book takes the opposite approach of those cozy fantasies that invoke the imagery of pumpkins, tea, cats, and reading nooks but end up being manipulative and dark under the cozy facade.

Instead, this story invokes cigarette smoke, alcohol, cooked gray wings, and broken pumpkins. But it delivers a meaningful story that meditates on death and suffering without being overly manipulative; the characters heal; the ending uplifts more than it depresses.

Falling in love with ordinary life

Darcy has a list of ordinary human things she never got to do while she was alive. "It's not a bucket list if you've already kicked the bucket."

One of the items is "bumper cars" and I really wish we'd gotten that scene.

I've always loved stories from the perspective of otherworldly beings who fall in love with the human world and the slow nuances of everyday life. This is one of this story's true cozy elements.

"Lazy mornings in bed and cup s of coffee gone cold. Flowers in bloom and lipstick on the edge of a glass. A single candled wedged crooked in buttercream icing. Towels fresh from the dryer and junk mail shoved through a slot in the door."

"Out front, a group of kids run past the window. They're in their Halloween costumes for the fall festival, plastic masks strapped to the front of their faces. One is holding a broomstick and another a ninja sword. They're laughing and stumbling over one another, being loud in the way kids always seem to be, enthusiasm spilling wild and unchecked."

These moments that inspire enjoyment of everyday human experience help us not to take it for granted. In my opinion, it's one of the most beautiful things fantasy can do: help us fall in love with our own world.

Spoilers start here! You've been warned.

Pacing and romance

It also plays with pacing in the way that I think a cozy fantasy should. It slows down the narrative enough to give the characters time to grow, create realistic intimacy, and allow readers to catch their breath. (It could have been even longer; I certainly wouldn't have complained about 150k of this.)

Romance novels, at their most conventional, have their first sex scene about halfway through. This one does not. It waits a while, giving that characters that time to properly fall in love.

The expected climactic scene also occurs early, leaving the rest of the book adrift in possibilities. The stakes heighten, but this does justice to the themes at play.

The romance gains a lot from this slow and less predictable pacing. For one thing, deepens the characters' viewpoints of being on ever-shifting ground in their immortal servitude.

For another, it gives them time to deepen their bond. One scene in particular, a hurt/comfort moment, is a gorgeous illustration of how people can be there for each other even when they can do little else to help.

Redemption and authoritarianism

I've written within this kind of "dictatorship angel/demon afterlife" world before, and it's a challenge to keep it character-driven when the characters themselves are basically enslaved. Much of it is watching them overcome their given roles, reinterpret it and make it their own, and find ways to gain autonomy and relieve suffering. As they do, they might feel redeemed even though all of their actions were coerced to begin with, but it's not a necessarily redemption arc. It's a freedom arc.

Gabriel and Darcy's quests for freedom are successful, but only at the mercy of the ones they are serving. It turns out they didn't read the onboarding manual well enough, and their entire indentured servitude was a quest to find a soulmate. Unless this was setting up Gideon's character and part of his redemption (because I'm expecting him to be a main character in one of these now), it's giving corporate propaganda.

What really darkens this story isn't the death—it's the abuse Darcy and Gabriel have endured from the departments-that-be.

Yeah, it's also extremely hard to justifiably redeem the authoritarian or their followers in this type of magical world. Gideon seems to be more of a follower, also burdened by the system. I really hope the future books escalate the stakes because...

Some stories are inherently dark

Does this mean they can't be cozy? Maybe. It certainly doesn't disqualify them from having cozy elements. After all, how are you supposed to tell stories that heal without talking about coercion and damage?

Any story that involves enslavement, indentured servitude with no clear ending, which is tantamount to slavery), or even this type of long-term coercion, is a story about a system that needs to be overhauled. Even if it's background characters who do that (may I cheer for Aelia?), it does not need to be treated like it's redeemable or okay. This was one of strengths of The Hocus Pocus Handbook; Kerberos has his freedom arc, the darker elements of the book acknowledge the gravity of the coercion, and the system ultimately meets an end with minimal violence.

This is a space where tragedy or revolution are the only realistic outcomes. A tidy coup might work in a pinch, but it has to be set up well. Fingers crossed.

I really think B.K. Borison is up to the task. This ending just didn't sit well with me, and I don't want to pressure a story like this to be cozy. With these stakes from the outset, it just isn't.

Don't get me wrong; I adore it, and I'll be reading every B. K. Borison book I can get my hands on.