I tried to figure this story out, but it made no sense to me :( It jumped around in time a lot and I couldn't relate to Joseph. This didn't work for me.

A most unusual tale! I found it to be a bit on the dark side at times but it finishes on an uplifting note. Well written and well researched! ( )

What if Death, or rather one of his helpers, were a person, a man with feelings of his own? Someone who wakes up one day and starts acting on his own principles rather than those "programmed' into him? That is the central idea behind this poignant, tear-inducing and utterly heart wrenching story about love triumphing in the most unlikely of situations.

The Fetch is the narrator of the story, and we don’t find out a lot about him. His thoughts about Joseph and his actions define him, but since he is a paranormal being of some type, I never really understood his background. Not that it was necessary, the message is about so much more than a biography or being able to put someone in a neat little box with some labels on it.

This is a very short story but has enormous depth and many layers. Short scenes illustrate how the Fetch's thinking develops, how his emotions get entangled in human affairs, and how he comes to decision about Joseph and himself. The language is haunting and enabled me to picture what was happening with great accuracy and detail. Most surprisingly, after this huge dose of cruel reality, it left me with a smile on my face. It is a manifesto against the cruelty of death, more specifically of war. If you like stories that make you think, if you like a few twists, and if you don’t mind reading about the brutal reality of war, then you will probably like this book.
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I didn't quite understand the ending, but the characterization was nice. I would have liked it to be longer. More goodness! ( )

The War at the End of the World by Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane is a haunting short story that combines elements of dark fantasy with historical fiction. It may frustrate those readers who want a linear narrative in that it features flashbacks in non-consecutive order within its single first-person viewpoint. I’ll admit that I got confused from the June 1965 flashback through the ending as to who was who and what had happened.
However, the story itself made it all worthwhile with its intensely emotional tone of utter longing and its poetic writing. Also, how can I resist a story set mostly in Finland during the Winter War against the Soviets against the backdrop of the Second World War? Talk about a highly original (and very well researched) setting.
The story unfolds in the viewpoint of an unnamed narrator, a supernatural being who is one of numerous entities who serve Death in their small capacity. I pictured him as one soul’s personal guardian angel or Valkyrie: he watches over the course of Joseph’s lifetime, ready to escort Joseph from the battlefield of life into death when Joseph’s time is over.

However, the narrator has become smitten with Joseph ever since he failed to take him into death’s realm when Joseph suffered from polio as a child. Since then, the narrator has defied Death and followed Joseph through the Second World War to his eventual assignment as a journalist in Finland. The narrator thinks about Joseph: “When he dies, the world’s beauty will be so greatly diminished. I don’t want to outlast him. It’s a mercy that I won’t, and for the first time I’m thankful for our tied fates.” Don’t miss this haunting short story.

Val for AReCafe ( )