First Impression Review: The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

 First Impression Reviews is a new feature here at Stories & Sweeties where I give my first thoughts at 50-100 pages into a book. For a details about this feature, go here!

where I'm at:  pg 105

first impressions: OH such gorgeous writing. The atmosphere of this story drew me in right away---there's something haunting and almost ethereal about Brockenbrough's storytelling.  It starts off with the characters of Love and Death carefully picking out their players in a game they've played against each other many times before.  Then we're introduced to Henry and Flora, get wrapped up in their story as their paths finally cross.  Everything stands in their way from family expectations to racial tensions, to Love and Death themselves stepping in in sneaky guises in an effort to sway the game.

 The late 1930s era is absolutely brought to life as these characters stories play out in a world of jazz clubs, zepplins, and Hoovervilles. I also love how Henry and Flora's personalities seem to each be shaped by their "sponsor's" influence: one is unfailingly kind and can see connection in all things, one is determined to escape and is all about a means to an end.  But more than anything, there's just such a unique tension to this story, I suspect that it's propelling toward something either beautifully triumphant or horribly tragic.  I'm absolutely captivated!