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Death Watch (The Undertaken #1)

by Ari Berk (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 267 ratings · 82 reviews

They say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead agree.One night, Silas Umber's father Amos doesn’t come home from work. Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere mortician but an Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace to the dead trapped in the Shadowlands, the states of limbo binding spirits to earth. With Amos gone, Silas and his mother have no c...more

Hardcover, 544 pages

Published November 15th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

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November 2011

31st out of 56 books — 62 voters

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Underrated Book Project

28th out of 145 books — 38 voters

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Community Reviews

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Nov 07, 2011 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the most elegantly terrifying book I have ever read. A beautifully crafted story that brings myths and legends of life and death into a very real place, "Death Watch" is certain to keep you up at night because you can't put it down and you don't want to close your eyes.

If you feel that the book is slow, do NOT give up on it! In our world of insta-tweeter-twit news, we have fallen out of the habit of allowing a story to unfolds, page by page. There is a difference between eating and dini...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2012 Kara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, made-my-head-go-kaboom, favorites, for-review, ghosts, paranormal, young-adult, gothic, galley-grab

I love going into reading a book with literally no expectations. I'm starting to learn that this is the best way to go about it. Unfortunately for me as a blogger, it is very difficult for me to stay out of the loop when it comes to a book that everyone is talking about. And I automatically know when a book is getting a ton of hype. The reviews say so. You'll find a post about it on every single blog you come across. Fortunately for me, this never happened with Death Watch. I'm not sure it would...more
I love going into reading a book with literally no expectations. I'm starting to learn that this is the best way to go about it. Unfortunately for me as a blogger, it is very difficult for me to stay out of the loop when it comes to a book that everyone is talking about. And I automatically know when a book is getting a ton of hype. The reviews say so. You'll find a post about it on every single blog you come across. Fortunately for me, this never happened with Death Watch. I'm not sure it would have changed anything if it had, but I'm glad it didn't. And I gotta say, I'm kind of shocked. If any book deserves crazy hype and buzz, it's this one.

Simply put, this was one of the most original and atmospheric reads I have come across this year. The writing is gorgeous. The descriptive passages are out of this world. And the characters? Oh. My. God. They were so lively and animated and each one had their own voice and it was an amazing thing to watch unfold. The town of Lichport was by itself a character. Most of the characters in this book weren't even living.

You all know how important world-building and setting depth is for me. I can't rate a book 5 stars if I can't picture it and believe I am there. Well let me just tell you that the setting in this story was clearly 5 star. I had a map in my mind of what the town looked like. It was fantastic. And the mythology? I don't know if any of it was factual or not and I really don't care. It blew me away. That's all you need to know. Some of the things you will find in this book? Ghosts, funerals, undead corpses (not zombies, you'll see when you read it), a ghost ship, and so much more.

Now before you go and read this book and then yell at me and tell me you didn't like it, there are a few things you should know. This book is not for everyone. It is I would say, paced fairly slowly. It's not boring, but if you are looking for Divergent pacing, look elsewhere. There are a lot of descriptive passages. Some people hate this. I would like to tell these people to stay far far away from the books that I love. Not because I don't respect your opinion, it's just that our tastes are going to be extremely different. I happen to think the descriptive passages only add to the story.

And there is a great story here. It's a coming of age story, but in a way that you have never seen presented before. It is about a teenage boy taking over his father's footsteps in a profession that is a bit...unconventional. His father is an undertaker, which is not what you think it is really. He's also missing. His uncle is psychotic. His mom is a drunk. And his great-great-great grandfather is still alive. Sort of. Does that pique your interest? If not, tell me so, and I will quit writing reviews. But first, you must read this book.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Nov 16, 2011 Elizabeth-Jane Baldry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Death Watch is the extraordinary first novel in the Undertaken Trilogy by Ari Berk.

A compelling tale, masterfully told!

It is a rare and intoxicating achievement by an author when his story-world leaps fully formed off the page, entirely congruent and believable. Gormenghast, Middle Earth and Narnia were just such creations, and Professor Berk's atmospheric Lichport is on a par with these classics.

Death Watch tells the story of young Silas Umber who returns with his mother to Lichport, the town o...more

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 18, 2011 ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, 2011-reads, 2011-reviews, galley-grab-arc, mystery, series-ongoing, supernatural-fiction, young-adult-fiction, arc, ssh-ssh-family-secrets, i-love-you-for-your-words, super-sized-story, gothic

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

Ari Berk's slowly plotted but excellently told tale of teenage Undertaker Silas Umber is a magical, enchanting, if occasionally macabre, tale - one I found hard to put down. The smooth, mellifluous flow of the writer's style eased me into an alternate world of revenants, lichs and ghosts in the necropolis of the book's setting, in the town of Lichport. I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed this quirky, individual young-adult novel with a supernat...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Allyson rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I'm going to wait a couple of days before I rate this book in terms of stars. For now, I just want to voice all of my thoughts and frustrations with this 428 page book. I will probably return in a few days to adjust this review, but here goes...

Setting: At first, I really wanted this story to take place at some time during the late 1800's. The way that the author described the town of Lichport, I really feel like it was a town forgotten by time and the rest of the world. I envisioned the...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 23, 2011 Elliot Schott rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, read-own

I got the chance to pick up an advance copy of this book and hear the author read bits of it aloud in an intimate setting at Schuler Books in Lansing, MI. Death Watch sets the stage for a brilliant series geared toward the young adult to adult reader. This is the story of Silas Umber, the teenage son of Amos, whom Silas thinks is a mortician but plays a role much more important to the dead. When Amos goes missing and is presumed dead, Silas and his alcoholic mother are invited by his Uncle Charl...more I got the chance to pick up an advance copy of this book and hear the author read bits of it aloud in an intimate setting at Schuler Books in Lansing, MI. Death Watch sets the stage for a brilliant series geared toward the young adult to adult reader. This is the story of Silas Umber, the teenage son of Amos, whom Silas thinks is a mortician but plays a role much more important to the dead. When Amos goes missing and is presumed dead, Silas and his alcoholic mother are invited by his Uncle Charles to move back to their ancestral hometown of Lichport, which, you can probably guess, is a hotbed of activity in which the worlds of the living and the dead are only vaguely separate and accessible by both.

Ari Berk is that rare form of prose author whose sense of language truly conveys the emotion needed by simply how the words are arranged. To be clearer, rather than describing events, emotions, and characters, he executes the imagery in the mind of the reader. Almost like casting an incantation, he takes a slow building of requisite background knowledge, lays the plans, and with a simple executable statement, suddenly the scene unfolds in the reader’s mind, events playing themselves, almost unbidden. He immerses the reader in what is almost a non-stop exploration of death mythology and folklore, and while there are truly dark, macabre, and terrifying things to behold in this book (the chapter he read at Schuler was at a level comparable to Lovecraft, and yes, the imagery was impossible to dismiss easily), a most welcoming dimension of the story is how an uncomfortable subject such as the death of family gets an in-depth and sensitive treatment. When confronted with death and the dead, I am struck, as the main character Silas is, by immediate pangs of revulsion and horror. As more is explained, and the importance of ritual, memory, and the preservation of the beloved dead is conveyed, I find myself reflecting more and more about the passage of loved ones and how so very less depressing a subject it is. Very little in the realm of death is unexamined here, including the notion that the stubborn living can choose to inhabit their corporeal forms well after they were meant to – a fitting allusion to those relatives who like to remind us to visit more than we have been.

Death and loss is a subject that we tend to avoid, but with a book like this it gets the appropriate attention and reverence that I believe helps us all come to terms with the inevitable. Whether you believe there is more beyond this veil, or that memory is the only ultimate preservation of those passed, Ari Berk lays a sober yet entertaining story of reflection appropriate for us all.

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Mar 11, 2012 BAYA Librarian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Silas Umber ‘s best friend is his father Amos. So when one night Amos fails to come home from work he is completely devastated. Left alone with a bitter alcoholic mother and no money they are forced to move in with his wealthy uncle to the place of his birth, the town of Litchport. Uncle lives in the Umber family mansion, a slightly creepy place filled with ancient tomes, manuscripts and artifacts that have to do with death and the dead. There is also a something else, something unsettling that...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 31, 2011 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, gothic

Beautifully foggy and grey and rainy, filled with tenderness and love and ghosts and lyrical, graceful writing. Death Watch is one of those books that you dream inside of until it's over and then you're bereft and a little sad that you've reached the end. The characters are deeply sympathetic and real (Silas and Mrs. Bowe, in particular, waltz into the reader's heart with little effort and make their home there) and the plot unravels mystery after mystery only to open the door to more questions...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Littlebearries rated it 5 of 5 stars

Story Title: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Ending: 5/5

Synopsis:
(from Goodreads): They say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead agree.
One night, Silas Umber's father Amos doesn’t come home from work. Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere mortician but an Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace to the dead trapped in the Shadowlands, the states of limbo binding spirits to earth. With Amos gone, Silas and his mother have no choice but to return to Lichport, the crumbling...more

4 likes · like · see review

Nov 15, 2011 Alan Ford rated it 5 of 5 stars

Love the book, but I would like to use this space to report on what my college students think of it. Death Watch is required reading in my Writing in the Humanities and Children’s Literature courses. Initial reactions were of the “500 pages! Are you kidding?” variety. The book arrived in our college bookstore yesterday, and I am exceedingly pleased to say that many of the most vocal skeptics are now quite enthusiastic. From today’s class: “I can’t wait to read the next chapter”; “I’m staying up...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 02, 2011 Brandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, myth-folklore-fairytale

Few novels truly touch on the depth of emotion that Death Watch did, and none have ever made me miss my passed family members more or remember them more fondly. One scene left me in sobbing tears for an entire evening. That said, the book is still miraculously hopeful and wistfuly optimistic. When I finished I was completely in love with the characters, the town and I cannot wait for the sequel. Haunting. Absolutely fantastic and one of the best books I've read this year.

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 08, 2013 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Death Watch is the first book of Ari Berk's series centered around Silas Umber and the town of Lichport. The book begins with the unexplained disappearance of Silas's father, Amos.

Let me begin by saying that I loved this book. It is dark, and gothic, and beautifully written. Silas is an endearing character - and there are far too few male protagonists in YA, which is an added bonus. Death Watch is refreshing in part because it is more or less romance free.

The writing is gorgeous. Ari Berk's des...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally posted at Beneath the Jacket

I'm kind of shocked that I haven't seen this book featured or reviewed on other blogs. Somehow it went under the radar and people seemed to have missed its release. Well, I think it's time to change that.

Death Watch is for fans of the horror genre. It's been a while since a book freaked me the heck out. Sure, Anna Dressed In Blood has its moments, but Death Watch takes it to a whole other level. This mainly comes from Berk's descriptions and prose. The whol...more Originally posted at Beneath the Jacket

I'm kind of shocked that I haven't seen this book featured or reviewed on other blogs. Somehow it went under the radar and people seemed to have missed its release. Well, I think it's time to change that.

Death Watch is for fans of the horror genre. It's been a while since a book freaked me the heck out. Sure, Anna Dressed In Blood has its moments, but Death Watch takes it to a whole other level. This mainly comes from Berk's descriptions and prose. The whole book played exactly like a movie in my head and I saw every scary and sometime horrific detail in my mind. And Berk's characters? AMAZING and so well fleshed out. I felt like they were all straight out of a Dicken's novel. The whole book has a very classic feel to it even though it's set in modern times. It might be because the town of Lichport hasn't really changed since its founding in the 1600s. All of its inhabitants seem to be happily stuck in the past, though the outside world has changed around them.

This isn't a book for people looking for a quick read. It's a little over 500 pages which is mainly unheard of in the young adult category. Even I, the *Queen of Patience, struggled with it sometimes. Berk goes into GREAT detail about the architecture of Lichport and sometimes I found myself skimming those passages. Though if you like architecture, more power to you, and pick this book up. If you're more a fan of fast-moving books like Legend, as a most recent example, you may not like this one. Death Watch takes its time to get started, but when it gets there, it's full of fabulousness.

I can assume from the first book that The Undertaken Trilogy is going to epic. Unless the next two books are going to be, like, 300 pages, then not so much. I can't wait to see how Silas develops in the rest of the series!

*I am not the Queen of Patience, I lied to you. I am not even the Duchess of Patience. I am a person with no patience and always in need of instant gratification. But yet, I still enjoyed the book.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2012 Emily Carding rated it 5 of 5 stars

I’m a bit in love with this book. If I were to come up with a catchy description to try and grab the attention of other readers, I might describe it as Hamlet meets Jamaica Inn. However, whilst references to the works of the Bard and other classic literary sources may be found lovingly woven throughout, ‘Death Watch’ is a truly original work. Befitting the theme of the tale, it stands proudly on the shoulders of its ancestors.

Death Watch is a thought-provoking and profoundly moving exploration o...more I’m a bit in love with this book. If I were to come up with a catchy description to try and grab the attention of other readers, I might describe it as Hamlet meets Jamaica Inn. However, whilst references to the works of the Bard and other classic literary sources may be found lovingly woven throughout, ‘Death Watch’ is a truly original work. Befitting the theme of the tale, it stands proudly on the shoulders of its ancestors.

Death Watch is a thought-provoking and profoundly moving exploration of loss and the grieving process from both sides of the coin, giving possibly even more insight into the experiences of the souls of the dead than the living. Ari Berk deftly paints his characters and setting in a twilight palette of sepia and grey, within which may be found tones more vivid than any rainbow. The characters, (and the setting of Lichport may well be counted among their number), are subtle, complex and quite fascinating, and as an ex-actor I find myself wishing for a stage or film adaptation, as there is so much in even the smallest parts to get one’s teeth into!

As the first part of a trilogy to be published, I read with some anxiety, afraid to reach the end and then have to wait another year for the next instalment. I was prepared to be patient, as after all I had already waited quite some time for the book itself after hearing the author read a short excerpt at a gathering a few years ago. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that, although I am looking forward greatly to the next book, I felt extremely satisfied when I reached the end of Death Watch. The lead character, Silas Umber, undergoes a true initiatory journey and takes the reader with him on every step, leap and stumble along the way.

There is still so much to explore in the extraordinary and immensely atmospheric Lichport, (such an inspired name for the town!), and until the next two volumes appear, I may have to dip back into Death Watch on a regular basis in order to walk the haunted pathways of this town once more.
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2 likes · like · see review

Nov 09, 2011 Wayne McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

When Silas' father disappears one night, he begins a journey to discover who his father really was and to take up in the family business as an undertaker. Undertaker in this case has quite a different definition. He returns to the town he was born in, Lichport, and discovers an entire town of interesting characters.

Left with only an unusual pocketwatch, Silas tries to find out what happened to his father in a town with a long tradition of caring for the dead. Along the way, he discovers the hist...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 13, 2012 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-multiple-times

Perhaps one of the best books I've ever read. While the narrative focuses on Silas Umber's growth into Undertaker, there is a central mystery at the heart of Death Watch surrounding the disappearance of Silas's father. Silas must learn from his father's old friends and the work he has left behind what it means to bring Peace to the departed while setting aside his own anxieties related to his missing father. The narrative is lush with rich and vivid stories about the townsfolk of Lichport, and t...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 15, 2012 Kim McGee rated it 4 of 5 stars

On a recommendation from author Tony Diterlizzi I started reading Death Watch by Ari Berk. This wonderful book reads as if you were Dr. Frankenstein and you put a bit of Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Neil Gaimen together. It is a gothic horror story with heart. Young Silas Umber comes with his mother back to his childhood home to search for his father who suddenly disappeared. They are taken in by Silas's strange uncle and live in a mansion full of New England haunts. Si...more

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Jan 12, 2012 R Maxwell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Death Watch is an amazing book filled with so many rich images and care worn treasures written into it that it is unlike any other book I have read. I feel that the world that Death Watch lets it's readers glimpse is clearly forged with a sliver of true soul embedded in it. I loved the way it wove itself together becoming not just a story about characters but an experience within this rather unique and forgotten land. There are truths written in these pages that speak deeply to me and I will re...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Rebecca Hunter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. This slow-burn story is a great read! This is a ghost story, but it is really a story about relationships. As each relationship unfolds you feel a richness of story that truly draws you in. This story is told with such wonderful grace as the author's words paint a picture and then invites you to join him. It is a wonderful coming-of-age story with just the right amount of mystery, romance and angst to keep you hanging. I just want to hug Silas and make it all right! I continue to think of t...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 22, 2011 Rebecca Hunter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 17, 2013 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have pretty mixed feelings about this book, but on the whole, I think it was worth what I paid for it. The problem is that this book took me forever to read, without giving much more story than a book half it's size. Berk takes his sweet time getting to the point, but he uses those extra words to talk philosophically. It really got me thinking about some things, but there were times when I wanted to beat my head on the wall too. I recommend this for someone with plenty of patience, but I do re...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Audrey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, ya, spooky, specfic-scifi-and-fantasy

It's got the trappings of all of the morbid, gloomy, funerary, curios-and-specimens-in-formaldehyde momento mori sort of stuff that I am a sucker for, but I couldn't get emotionally connected in it. I really didn't care. Nothing within the book ever came alive for me (har har) - not the story, nor the characters. I nearly quit reading the book several times and had to force myself to continue. The format of the novel, interspersed with poetry and excerpts from an antique "ledger" that came into...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Sami rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reminiscent of classic Poe-esque gothic horror, yet not beyond the scope of imagining this as a Stephen King brain-child; this book is one of the more weird and interesting reads that's fallen out of my bookshelf.
I was first thrown a little by the pace of this book. As promised, it is very slow going. Many times I was caught confused, not understanding a point; I felt I was being kept from pertinent information. Assuming things would unfold, I hung in and once I was familiar the pace quickened...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 18, 2012 Rae rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dont-want-to-read-again

Okay well for one, i did not even finish this book. I really thought when i picked this up at the bookstore that it was a good fantasy story with a son who's dad was lost in other land. Okay, that sounds interesting! I had never read from this author before and thought I'd give it a shot, also it was to be a trilogy. I got all the way to chapter 15 before starting to actually get the smaller picture, into the real details of the story. It was so slow! I know about pace and unfolding a story, but...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Elena Bozzi rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was one of those rare books where everything else had to go on hold so I could go on a journey with the story. The setting was so old and leaning and beautiful and the characters developed into such real people that this book definitely constitutes many rereads. Every idea proposed about the meaning of living and the blurry line of passing into the otherworld generated tangents of thought, but the power of the prose and plot brought me back and kept me going. The best part? This is only the...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

It feels to me that today’s YA market is supersaturated by a preponderance of speculative novels about werewolves, vampires, and faeries. Maybe that’s just my perception of the YA world post-Twilight, but it does mean that when I see a YA novel with supernatural elements that doesn’t include any of the aforementioned creatures I get rather excited. Originality is always something to be praised and the minute I set my eyes on the somber and minimalist cover of Ari Berk’s Death Watch I knew that I...more It feels to me that today’s YA market is supersaturated by a preponderance of speculative novels about werewolves, vampires, and faeries. Maybe that’s just my perception of the YA world post-Twilight, but it does mean that when I see a YA novel with supernatural elements that doesn’t include any of the aforementioned creatures I get rather excited. Originality is always something to be praised and the minute I set my eyes on the somber and minimalist cover of Ari Berk’s Death Watch I knew that I was in for something wholly different.

In this novel Silas Umber’s father is missing and believed dead. Amos Umber, Silas’ father, was an Undertaker whose job it was to help the restless dead and recently deceased find their way down whatever path they were meant to trod. Silas is a moody and somewhat fanciful figure who barely suspects the truth of his father’s profession. He is constantly butting heads with his mother whose rocky relationship with his father, and whose rapid acceptance of his death, causes no end of conflict between the two. With Amos gone Silas’ mother decided to move backer to her and Amos’ hometown of Lichport where she will live with Amos’ brother Charles. Silas embraces this change since it will offer him the opportunity to travel in his father’s footsteps. Of course, all is not as it seems in the house of Charles Umber and Silas soon find himself in conflict with his strange and menacing uncle.

The story of Death Watch unfurls slowly and somehow masterfully combines an air of gloom with the sense and comfort of home. The novel, particularly during its opening, does a wonderful job at moving Silas along the stages of grief and hanging up initially and quite understandably on “denial” but touching upon the various other stages of the Kubler-Ross model as it progresses. The word is in the title and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that death plays a major thematic role throughout the novel. Berk works in some small discussion of funerary rites and the importance of those for the living and, in his world, the dead. Indeed, Berk crafts a whole fantasy landscape out of death and the means through which it can trap both the living and the dead. It is a particularly mature theme and one that young adult targeted fantasy titles rarely seem willing to touch.

Along with Silas readers are take through a languid journey across the sometimes dilapidated and oftentime gloomy streets of Lichport. Berk infuses the world of Death Watch with a sense of history and life. It is a landscape full of wonder, mystery, magic, and myth. There is a sense of completeness to the world glimpse in the pages of Death Watch, a sensation the exists despite the fact that there questions left unanswered and shadows left unexplored. The tone of Death Watch is serious and less prone to whimsy than Gaiman’s Graveyard Book yet I was much reminded of that title as I read through Death Watch. Whereas Gaimain’s work seemed to focus on the last grasp of childhood before stepping into the adult world leaving magic and wonder behind Death Watch feels like the inverse of that theme where the abandonment of magic wonder would be an abdication of responsibility. Both novels would make interesting comparison reading.

Death Watch tells a complete story in and on its own. There are few novels I’ve read that have done as good a job at taking a character through a journey of growth and discovery and Death Watch’s examination of Silas, and particularly his relationship to his parents, goes a long way towards grounding the novel in reality. Where some YA tends towards melodrama Death Watch conveys emotion with seeming ease and readers will latch on to Silas right from the outset. Ari Berk is definitely a writer to watch and the Undertaken Trilogy (of which Death Watch is the first) is a series the definitely needs some more attention. Death Watch is thoughtful, beautiful, and absolutely mesmerizing prose that adults and teens should experience for themselves.(less)

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Apr 12, 2012 Leaf rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. One say when Silas Umber's father dissapears his world is thrown into chaos. His mother drinks most of the time and without the money that his father makes he and his mother will have to go and live with his Uncle Charles. It is in Lichport he finds out that his father was more than a mortician he is a undertaker, a person who settles the restless dead and ghosts. Now with his father gone Silas has to be the Undertaker in order to find his father and save him but his search keeps leading him clo...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Kayla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, books-with-characters-i-want-to-mar, covet-these-covers, fiction, kept-me-guessing, lovely-characters, paranormal, review-copy, read-in-2012, trilogy, young-adult

Death Watch was a long book and it felt like one, too. But the interesting characters, fantastic world building, and intricate setting all kept my interest. I wanted to find his dad as much as he did. Maybe not with the same motives. I wanted answers and lots of them. About the death watch, the history of the town as well as the family. I wanted to know what secrets everyone was holding and what danger he was in. And little by little a lot was revealed. Though there was still much left to be des...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Crini rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: released-2011, lang-english, a-ya, mine-books, s-series-1st, c-ghosts, genre-urban-fantasy, r-great, read-2012, t-afterlife, t-loss, pov-male, read-series-1st, genre-gothic, pace-slow

I planned on reading Death Watch in October because I wanted to read a lot of scary and creepy books due to Halloween. I wanted to read books that freak me out, cause goose bumps and get under my skin.
Death Watch definitely got under my skin but in a totally different way than I expected.

Death Watch is not a story that’s full of suspense, not a story whose protagonists’ lives are often at stake, whose protagonists experience some horrible and cruel things that get’s you frightened or some other...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Maggie Secara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The current reality is that any book in which the main character is under 21 must be YA-- for Young Adult--teenagers, essentially. Ari Berk’s main character, Silas Umber, has just left high school, so obviously, Death Watch must be for kids, and most reviewers have treated it as such. But I have to tell you that while the book isn’t inappropriate for the YA audience, it’s not especially directed at them. Berk has written the book he wanted to write not thinking about a target audience, and it ju...more

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About Ari Berk

Ari Berk is a writer, artist, and scholar of literature, folklore, and myth. Former student of and assistant to Pulitzer Prize winning writer N. Scott Momaday, Ari has written everything from academic works on ancient cultures to popular books about myths and legends for children and adults and, most recently, a trilogy of novels. He works in a library filled to the ceiling with thousands of arcan...more

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The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep

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Quotes from Death Watch

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world. They follow us, like shadows, until we come upon them again, waiting for us in the mist.” — 50 people liked it

“He passed his hands over some of the fine embossed bindings as he thought, I am a book also, words and thoughts and stories held together by flesh. We open and close ourselves to the world. We are read by others or put away by them. We wait to be seen, sitting quietly on shelves for someone to bother having a look inside us. ” — 6 people liked it

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Death Watch (The Undertaken #1)

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