Masters of Death

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prelude-Chapter 10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-31

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Fox D’Mora

Fox is the novel’s protagonist. Fox’s godfather is Death, who adopted him after his parents died. Although Fox is a mortal, he gains eternal youth through Brandt’s gift of Time’s watch. Fox pretends to be a medium in Chicago because he wants to prove to himself that he is not a worthless mortal, even though he must use Death’s powers to gain access to the afterlife. Fox believes that being immortal is overrated because he is brokenhearted over losing Brandt. After Brandt abandons Fox, he becomes bitter and vindictive, which makes his ledger go down. Brandt refers to Fox as “the fool” because of his hopefulness, yet as the years go on, Fox slowly turns into “the thief,” like Brandt.

Fox’s main internal conflict stems from his lack of self-worth. Since Fox surrounds himself with immortals, he believes that he is inferior to them because they have magical powers. Fox tries to hide his insecurity in his decision to become a medium because the mortals who come to see him treat him like he is immortal. However, through his lessons in the immortals’ game, Fox’s character development shows a resurgence in self-confidence. Fox realizes that his mortality is the source of his strength. Since Fox feels love deeply as a mortal, his ability to choose the people he loves shows how important they are to him. Fox realizes that since he knows that his life will end one day, he does not take the people in his life for granted. Fox’s realization that his mortality is a gift causes him to win the game, defeating Volos and mastering Death. The newfound confidence that Fox gains propels him toward refusing his eternal youth in exchange for hearing Brandt tell him that he loves him.

Fox and Brandt’s relationship emphasizes the importance of Love and Loyalty Across the Boundaries of Life. Brandt’s betrayal hinders Fox’s joy over their reunion. Even though Fox eventually forgives Brandt, it takes Brandt’s confession about his inability to speak the truth to make Fox see things from Brandt’s perspective. Although Fox must hurt Brandt to win the game, Fox’s decision to buy back Brandt’s truth reveals the depth of his love for him. Fox and Brandt’s final decision to become mortal to experience their love together stems from their understanding that immortality almost pulled them apart forever.

Viola Marek

Viola is an aswang vampire real-estate agent. Viola turned into a vampire against her will, and she regrets the life that she lost. Viola’s wish is to feel emotions again as a human because she hates the numbness of being a creature. Although Viola murdered her professor when she first became a vampire, Viola chooses not to kill mortals because of her sense of morality, which complicates her character by suggesting the presence of emotion. Viola hates that her instincts cause her to crave unborn children, so she isolates herself to protect people. As an aswang, Viola can shapeshift, and she turns into a cat at night. Viola joins Creatures Anonymous because she is happy that there are creatures in the world like herself who do not want to cause harm.

Viola falls in love with Tom, the ghost who haunts the Parker mansion that Viola tries to sell. Through her love for Tom and her friendship with Isis, Viola regains a sense of community that she lost when she became a vampire. Viola’s relationship with Tom develops because they both experience loneliness. Since Viola is one of the only people who can see Tom, he talks to her every day and confesses his love for his ex-girlfriend Lainey. When Tom and Lainey face each other in the immortals’ game, Tom’s false admission that he does not love Viola hurts her deeply. However, Tom knows that if he confessed his love for Viola in front of those watching the game, Volos would find a way to hurt her.

Viola wants to feel emotions like she did as a mortal. At night, Viola wishes that she could feel anything again, and even though she cannot do anything to help her, Mayra hears her prayer. Viola teaches Fox that his mortality is powerful by explaining that she would love to feel emotions like his again. After the games are over, Fox advocates for his friends to have happy endings. For Viola, this means becoming mortal again with Tom. Viola and Tom’s love story concludes with them regaining their human forms, living together in the Parker mansion. Although Viola never believed that her happiness was possible, she experiences contentment by finding the love of her life and returning to mortality.

Brandt Solberg

Brandt is a demi-god and the son of Odin. He is a morally gray character, known for being a thief and a liar. Brandt has a compulsion for playing the immortals’ game. When he was younger, Brandt beat Death and asked for the secret to Iðunn’s immortal apples in exchange for his truth. When Brandt falls in love with Fox, he realizes how painful this curse is because he cannot tell Fox that he loves him.

Brandt’s relationship with Iðunn helps him understand his love for Fox. Iðunn gives Brandt apples to preserve his immortality in exchange for stories about his life. Brandt’s retelling of his life to Iðunn, along with her encouragement, shows him how much he loves Fox. Since Iðunn is trapped in a garden by the gods, she understands Brandt’s emotional entrapment of immortality. However, even though Iðunn knows how difficult it is to give up the promise of immortality, she releases Brandt from his pact with her so that he can spend as much time with Fox as possible.

Brandt’s obsession with immortality gets in the way of his love for Fox. Brandt’s arrogance makes him gamble his truth away to Death because he thinks that no one wants to hear it. This shows Brandt’s immaturity despite his immortality because he does not think that he will ever love someone enough to care that they know the truth. However, once Brandt falls in love with Fox, he regrets his actions and tries to regain his truth from Death in the game. This action emphasizes Brandt’s arrogance because he believes that even if he loses the game against Death, he will have all eternity to win his truth back. When Death bans Brandt from the game and tells him that he will never see Fox again, Brandt realizes that he has lost everything. This realization causes Brandt to become more morally ambiguous, making a deal with Volos to murder Tom if it means that he could return to the game to reunite with Fox. Brandt must face Fox and the way that he has hurt him in the game, as he finally admits that he should never have gambled Fox because he was too precious to lose. Despite Brandt’s actions, Fox’s forgiveness inspires Brandt to choose mortality with Fox over a lonely immortality.

Death

Death is Fox’s godfather. Death acts as a mentor toward Fox, even though he does not always treat Fox kindly. Death offers darkly comedic relief, placing him in opposition with common perception of him. Death’s levity and all-knowing, clever speech juxtaposes him against the standard imposing figure of Death. Death narrates two chapters in the novel, which reveal his background with Fox and his fear that mortals will not have an accurate picture of him because Fox exaggerates his title as master of Death. Instead, Death wants to set the record straight in his retelling of how Fox gained mastery over Death so that mortals will stop thinking that Fox controls Death.

Although Death does not appear often in the novel, his actions drive the narrative. While Death’s job revolves around transporting mortal souls to the afterlife, he engages in the illegal game that the archangels have set up. Fox realizes that Death has a gambling compulsion because, no matter how many times he promises Fox that he has finished with the games, he always returns to them. Fox experiences the trauma of both a godfather and a partner’s gambling obsession as Death and Brandt express similar tendencies. To help Death overcome his gambling compulsion, as well as his excessive cursing, Fox gives Death a rubber band to wear around his wrist to snap every time he makes a mistake, hoping that this aversion therapy will help him. Despite Fox’s attempts to help his godfather, Death returns to the game. This sequence reveals the difficult issues with compulsive behavior, as the person struggling can never fully stop until they decide that they want to receive help from their support system. Since Death does not want to stop his games, he makes minimal effort to do so until Volos takes over the tables. Once Volos binds Death to the tables, he must play out the game, finally facing his own godson. In their game, Death faces his weakness and biggest regret: that he made Fox feel inferior to him because he was a mortal. Death’s apology and admission of love for Fox heals the rift between them. Fox realizes that Death loves him and believes that he is as capable as any immortal. Death’s decision to lose the game so that Fox knows that he loves him signifies the importance of Love and Loyalty Across the Boundaries of Life because even Death’s immorality does not stop him from loving Fox.