Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194430 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Throw out any notion you have of the scary, scythe-bearing Grim Reaper and replace it with The Fetch.

A Fetch is a death escort, a comforting guide who waits while the soul chooses whether or not to leave its mortal body. Upon choosing death, and yes, it is often a choice, the soul is led by its Fetch through a door into the afterworld.

Calder was young for a Fetch, only three-hundred-and-thirty. Had he been doing death scenes a bit longer, say a couple hundred years longer, perhaps he would have recognized the warning signs. As it was, Calder was too preoccupied by the attractive woman he'd left behind on earth during a recent death scene to notice the dangerous path he was embarking upon.

When Calder can no longer stand to be apart from the woman he's named Glory, he sets in motion a series of events that upsets a delicate balance and the consequences are felt throughout Heaven and Earth.

Set in the time of the Russian Revolution, the author takes us on a journey literally around the world in search of the one key that can open the door to align the two worlds again. Part historical fiction, part paranormal/fantasy, and part love story, THE FETCH is a beautifully written tale of mistakes made and lessons learned, both in life and in death.

Reviewed by: Angie Fisher

Courtesy of Have A Hoot ~ Read A Book
Having read 'A Certain Slant of Light' also by Laura Whitcomb, one of my favourite books of last year, I looked forward to reading 'The Fetch' and I can honestly say, 'The Fetch' is another gem of a book by Laura Whitcomb.

'The Fetch' tells the story of Calder, a Fetch, a death escort for 330 years who goes through death doors to fetch souls and then takes them through the 'The Aisle of Unearthing' and then eventually 'The Great River', where heaven awaits on the other side.

Calder is not the most confident of Fetches, he does his job and does it well but he feels he is not good enough for the job, his memory as a human are somewhat vague but they still affect him on many levels. Calder is still trying to find his own way when he finds himself confronted by a potential Star Fetch, a person who have deep empathy and will eventually become Calder's Squire, who will be seated with him later in the afterlife, this changes, however, when Calder finds himself through a death door and confronted by the death of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (Alexei), youngest child of Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna, because of this Calder finds himself back on earth as a mortal and in the body of Grigori Rasputin (advisor to the Tsaritsa).

I really enjoyed 'The Fetch', Calder was an excellent character, a kind young man who is trying to the best he can, Ana (Anastasia) and Alexei were also memorable characters, I have a interest in the Russian Revolution and it was nice to see the Romanovs seen in a positive light as opposed to a family which was brutally murdered in July 1918, you feel the real loss of such young lives with Ana and Alexei, I found myself thinking about kind of individuals they would become had they lived, also Rasputin is shown (at certain points) in a positive way.

'The Fetch' has various themes, love, loss, faith, family are some of them, the author identifies them all in a straightforward but powerful way, I could not put 'The Fetch' down, I wanted to know what would happen next to Calder, Ana and Alexei.

All in all 'The Fetch' for me was a lovely, gorgeous story, Laura Whitcomb wonderfully described what happens after death in a nice and honest way.

Highly recommended.

Confused and tiresome
I liked 'A Certain Slant of Light', but there were problems with it that kept me from loving it - namely that the plot was in places overly complicated, and it never seemed quite clear in its purpose.

I thought that Whitcomb might iron out some of these issues in her second book, but in fact I found 'The Fetch' an entirely frustrating read, for many of the same reasons, but compounded. Nothing irritates me more than a book that begins with an interesting premise and then fails to develop it. That's what I found here: we have the Fetch, are introduced to his world and its possible shortcomings, but before really getting to grips with that he's left it. More than that he leaves it based on what seems, after 350 years' experience, fairly thin reasoning.

Then, when I realized we were dealing with the Romanovs, I almost stopped reading because frankly, that story has been done to death. more to the point, the 'mystery' of the missing bodies has long since been laid to rest. Even before the final skeletons were found it was fairly well established that Maria was the missing daughter, not Anastasia. Maybe the average YA audience doesn't know this; on the other hand, a quick Google will lay out the facts. Given that, it seemed both sloppy and hackneyed to me to use Anastasia; at times, given the detail that's now known about her horrific end, in bad taste.

What annoyed me most of all about this book, though, was the ending. Anastasia's story was resolved, sort of, but Calder's wasn't at all. There was no coherent arc joining his initial rash decision and his subsequent mistakes to his suddenly being revered as a hero in heaven. There's ponderous set-up throughout the book for some final show-down in the Land of Lost Souls, and then it never happens. Why not? What exactly has happened here? What's the message - break your vows and you get the girl and carte blanche from heaven? Who is going to clean up the mess he left? Argh! Tiresome stuff!