When Life gives you Corpses by Lene D Buttner

Theory has a monstrous secret. He isn’t an ordinary search-and-recovery guide at Fiendworld, the world’s premier magical-sinkhole-turned-amusement-park; he’s a cursed, human-eating mantis. But not to worry—he has an excellent solution for his particular diet. Whenever he’s asked to retrieve the corpse of a lost adventurer, he simply snacks on a finger or two. No harm done.

That is, until he’s given his latest assignment: recover the body of park management’s missing son. Great. Yet another foolish wizard who got lost adventuring, and this time the direct descendant of the very person who cursed Theory in the first place. Worse, when Theory reluctantly sets off on the search, he’s shocked to find the wizard somehow still alive.

Nim—the wizard in question—has no desire to be rescued. He’s on a mission to the bottom of the sinkhole, and refuses to return to the surface before he gets there. He may be a subpar wizard, as his parents constantly remind him, but he’s got a positive attitude, an enchanted backpack, and now a mysterious rescue worker to recruit to his cause! Even though said worker is quite rude and seems to be getting Nim into more danger rather than out of it.

To survive, Theory and Nim must brave man-eating fish, walls of tentacles, and devastating both their own, and ones the park desperately tries to keep hidden. Along the way, they may just discover that they’re stronger together than apart.

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Sometimes the monster is only half the story.

✶ PRE-READING ✶

A magical sinkhole turned amusement park, a search-and-recovery guide who happens to be a cursed human-eating mantis, and a missing wizard who doesn't actually want to be rescued?

Yes, all right. I'm listening.

When Life Gives You Corpses sounds like horror on paper, but what I found underneath the monsters and peril was a much more interesting story about two people discovering that they've each been looking at the world from only one side.

✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... there are some really clever ideas here.

The worldbuilding around Fiendworld is particularly fun. Turning a magical sinkhole into an amusement park is already a wonderfully strange concept, and the deeper Theory and Nim go, the more the story has to reveal about both the place and the people connected to it.

I also enjoyed the pacing. There's always something happening, whether it's a creature trying to eat them, a new section of the sinkhole to explore, or another piece of information changing how we understand what came before.

And despite all the corpses, tentacles and man-eating fish, I wouldn't really call this a horror novel. There are certainly moments of peril, but the heart of the story is much more about perspective and discovery.

It surprised me by... how much of the story is about realising that neither character has had the complete picture.

Theory and Nim both begin with assumptions about the other person, and about the world they're moving through. As those assumptions are challenged, the story gradually becomes something much more interesting than a straightforward rescue mission.

There is, however, one thing that made this a more difficult read for me.

The book uses dual POV, and Nim never uses contractions - not in dialogue, not in narration, nowhere.

I am genuinely in awe of the technical skill involved in maintaining that consistently. It must be like fighting your own muscle memory sixty times a page. But as a reader, I found it difficult to process. Every sentence written that way makes my brain pause just slightly, and over an entire novel that adds up.

I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed the story and where it went. But I suspect some readers will find Nim's voice much easier to settle into than I did, while others may have the same difficulty.

For me, it was a fascinating technical choice that didn't quite work with the way I read.

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, for another fantasy adventure that looks like it might be something much darker than it ultimately is, with inventive worldbuilding and a great deal of heart underneath the danger.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The Mummy. There's peril, monsters, ancient secrets and people getting themselves into increasingly ridiculous situations, but the real pleasure is watching the characters discover that their assumptions about each other - and the situation they're in - aren't quite right.

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A colour palette: underground black, wet stone grey, deep blue-green water and the occasional flash of bioluminescence.

A soundtrack: dripping water, distant echoes and something moving somewhere just beyond the edge of the light.

A season: winter, when the sun disappears early and the outside world feels very far away.

A mood: curious, claustrophobic, strange and unexpectedly hopeful.

A scent: wet stone, cold water and the faintly earthy smell of somewhere that hasn't seen sunlight in a very long time.

A texture: rough cave walls under your fingertips, slick with condensation.

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

The Hanged Man.

The Hanged Man is about suspension, surrender and - most importantly here - seeing things from a different perspective.

Theory and Nim begin their journey carrying very different assumptions about themselves, each other and the world around them. As they move deeper into Fiendworld, those assumptions become increasingly difficult to maintain.

The Hanged Man asks us to stop looking at a situation in the way we've always looked at it and turn it around.

Sometimes the truth isn't hidden.

Sometimes we're simply looking at it from the wrong direction.

✦ THE TRUE QUESTION ✦

What happens when you finally see the other side of the story?

When Life Gives You Corpses begins with Theory and Nim believing they understand their own situations. But neither has all the information.

As they come to understand one another - and themselves - the story becomes less about escaping the sinkhole and more about recognising that the people around us may be carrying histories and truths we can't see.

Sometimes understanding someone doesn't mean discovering that you were right about them.

It means discovering that you were only ever seeing half the picture.

Final Thoughts

When Life Gives You Corpses publishes on the 23rd of March 2027. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.