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Dying for a Living
by
Kory M. Shrum
It is part of the Dying for a Living #1, series and is a paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by Timberlane Press on March 2, 2014 and has 400 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
First in the Jesse Sullivan/Dying for a Living paranormal fantasy series set in Nashville and revolving around a burgeoning new field, death-replacement.
My Take
This is definitely a weird concept, and as much as I dislike Jesse, she is perfect in her character.
I started off loving Jesse for all her snark, but other aspects of her personality ticked me off as we got to learn more about her fears. She’s irresponsible — she’s worried about unemployment in a year or two, but isn’t doing anything to prepare for it. She’s employed by the agency as part of a deal to keep her out of jail, and she is as uncooperative as she can get with no concept of controlling her mouth.
Shrum uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Jesse’s perspective, so we learn first hand what an idiot she can be even though I get the impression she must be an intelligent woman, but none of her actions bear this out. Especially that confession she makes in her kitchen, knowing that her place has been bugged. WTF?? She’s leaving the hospital and answering reporters’ questions despite Ally’s pinches?
Then Jesse gets a call to get out of the house, that “company” is coming. Her response? I wanna finish my sandwich.
Yeah, so, then there’s the sensitivity seminar. FBRD actually expected Jesse to be a poster child here??
So, death-replacement. Shrum made good use of that seminar to insert the history about death-replacement. A psychic determines the day you’ll die, and if you want to put it off, you buy a death-replacement session. Someone like Jesse shows up on your “designated” day, shadows you until death starts to take you over. She jerks the death energy to herself and dies for you. Jesse provides a more visceral explanation about that sudden jerk of your body when you’re asleep, and it actually makes sense.
Naturally, there is a lot of controversy over these “zombies”! And the paperwork! Oy! Before-death surveys, after-death surveys, blood typing, and so much more.
Count on the government, lol, they love the Death-Management Industry and each step can be taxed! The Church isn’t keen on it, though.
Jesse reckons the Church hates them because “Jesus isn’t the only one coming back from the dead these days”.
There is so much contradiction going on here: the angels, the FBRD, Brinkley . . . it’s a complex combination of characters and action.
It does take a bit to finally get into the plot, and it does make sense. The military doesn’t like to lose out on a potential weapon. The Church wants to be the only one in the resurrection business. But there is so much else that is not making sense.
All the secrets people are keeping! I can understand why some are kept, but not all of them. It only hampers people and prevents their being able to protect themselves! Special agents are threatening Jesse up one side and down the other, and I don’t really understand why. This is NOT a supportive government agency.
What’s with the medical personnel? The police? They don’t think it’s normal that Jesse would want to know how her friends are? The investigation that FBRD launched had me confused. Shouldn’t they be supportive of their NRDs and their concerns? Nobody tells Jesse anything. Well, okay, based on past experience on her reactions and her mouth, I can understand that, but still. That Garrison is certainly shooting off at all angles. I’d be confused myself with his actions.
Jesse’s relationship with Land is all about the sex, only he wants more. Nor is he happy about Ally sleeping in Jesse’s bed although they’re not having sex. As for Jesse’s relationship with her mother, wow, is that twisted! Her mother essentially tells her she doesn’t exist to her, and then Jesse learns something completely different from her little brother. As for Jesse’s father . . .
The day Jesse spends with Eve on her death day was, um, informative, lol.
Shrum drove me nuts with all the secrets! She also, lol, explained all those stories about vampires and Christian resurrection. As for those angels. Hmmm. They definitely have personalities, and Shrum has me wondering about them. I wanna know if they’re real or hallucinations and what their agenda is. I need more, so as soon as I finish off this review, I’m starting Dying by the Hour, 2.
What’s with all this “Jesse is different” talk? I know Shrum means it as a tease, but it’s annoying.
I do like how Shrum describes Gloria’s ability. Yeah, it is slow, but it’s effective.
I gotta confess, those sensitivity seminars Jesse goes to are a crack-up. Why the agency insists she do them, I do not know.
There is a good bit of back history that keeps popping up. At least it’s not info dumping. Some of it makes sense, aaand some of it does not. And at last, at last, at last, Jesse figures out why she’s so detached. It’s a truth that hurts Lane.
I love the idea of The Amalgamation! We should do it for real!!
Ah, man. The idea of the government or the Church taking people into their idea of protective custody, really s*t*r*a*i*n*s my belief in Christians. As for how the military dealt with their “failures” . . . ah, geez. Then again, it’s no different from how they treat soldiers in real life.
The Story
Jesse hates her job but hates the idea of jail even more. So she’ll do this, grudgingly, dragging her heels. Then the secrets, the forgeries, the set-ups . . . the betrayals begin.
On the morning before her 67th death, it is business as usual for Jesse Sullivan: meet with the mortician, counsel soon-to-be-dead clients, and have coffee while reading the latest regeneration theory. Jesse dies for a living, literally. As a Necronite, she is one of the population’s rare 2% who can serve as a death replacement agent, dying so others don’t have to. Although each death is different, the result is the same: a life is saved, and Jesse resurrects days later with sore muscles, new scars, and another hole in her memory.
But when Jesse is murdered and becomes the sole suspect in a federal investigation, more than her freedom and sanity are at stake. She must catch the killer herself — or die trying.
The Characters
Jesse Sullivan has NRD, Necronitic Regenerative Disorder, and lives in a house in Greenbrook. Winston is her wheezy pug.
Alice “Ally” Gallagher, a lesbian, is Jesse’s personal assistant, making sure she gets Jesse to the hospital. Lane Handel wants to be Jesse’s boyfriend and owns a building that also houses his comic bookstore. Gabriel is an invisible angel. Umbri, a DJ, and Kyra Fenton, a trust fund baby, are friends of Ally’s.
Jesse’s father, Eric Sullivan, had died when she was eight. Her mother, Danica, remarried Eddie Phelps, a child molester. Danny Phelps is Jesse’s younger half-brother. Mr Reeves claims to have known Jesse’s parents. Uncle Paul and Aunt Jody will take Daniel in.
Federal Bureau of Regenerative Deaths (FBRD)
Special Agent James Brinkley is Jesse’s government-assigned handler. Boston and Swede are his allies. Rachel Wright, now an ex-agent in the St Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, had been Jesse’s mentor in St Louis. Special Agent Garrison investigates the charges against pretty much everyone. Special Agent Martin.
Cindy, a personal consultant like Jesse, and Cooper, a military consultant, are the other NRDs in Nashville. Raphael is Cindy’s negative invisible angel. Frank is Cindy’s handler. An A.M.P. is an Analyst of necro-Magnetic Phenomenon, the psychic, and they were created (by the army). Captain Gloria Jackson, an A.M.P., draws her visions, step-by-step.
Kirk is the mortician who stitches Jesse back up. Dr Stanley York does her check-ups. Herwin is the psychologist. Trevor is Herwin’s son. Stacy is a nurse with a policeman for a husband.
Nashville PD
Officers Jeffers and Gaul are assigned to protect Jesse. Yep, they can’t be bothered to tell Jesse anything. Detective Bobkins is dying to arrest Jesse.
Mr Reynolds works in advertising. Judy Ludlow is another potential. Eve Hildebrand is a hooker with a daughter, Nessa. Jacob Willis, a certified psychic, is Eve’s cousin. Charlie and Brad Cestrum are some of Eve’s clients.
The Unified Church
Caldwell is one of four leaders of the Church.
Necronite is the perferred term instead of zombie. The Amalgamation ended all religious warring. Jade Palace is a tiny Chinese restaurant. Andrew is one of the volunteers who visits Rachel. Felicia has a thing for toothbrushing her toes. Ms Beverly is an elementary school teacher. Chelsea Whitehead had been a fellow student.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a contrast between dark and light. Black is on the outermost edges gradating to a paler gray at the tunnel’s mouth, which is a promising mix of pastel blues and pink, a crow pecking near the entrance. It’s a silhouette of a tilting Jesse in a long top and pants, her left hand guiding her along the tunnel’s wall. At the top is the author’s name in a thin white. The title is a’slant in a two-color gradation of white to royal blue and white to green above Jesse’s head. Below Jesse is one-half of the series information in white. For some reason, the series has two titles, and Dying for a Living uses Jesse Sullivan.
The title is literal, as Jess keeps Dying for a Living.
