Death Watch

Death Watch
By: Ari Berk
Rating: ****(4 Stars)

I don't like the idea of hating a book because it's slow. I feel as if everyone has their own way of reading and some people enjoy slower books that are very descriptive. To Ari Berks defense for Death Watch, it is a trilogy so I excepted this book to be slow from the beginning. It's very difficult, however, to pick something up like this because of how slow Death Watch was in the long run.
Silas Umber, the son of a drunken mother and a missing father, Amos, who has been missing for a few months. Not only does Amos leave Silas a nervous wreck on where his father might be, but he leaves clues behind on what Amos' life really entailed. Dolores and Silas lose the house Amos' brother had given them as a marriage gift and they are forced to move back into "Uncles" house where they will live until their lives pick back up, or until Amos comes back and takes them away again. As Silas explores his new home of Lichport he discovers the home where Amos lived whenever he was in Lichport, and Silas takes a liking to it from the beginning. During a visitation to the house, Silas finds a watch that looks like a skull, and takes it as a curiosity case. He later finds out it's the "Death Watch" his father left behind for Silas to find and to take up Amos' job as Undertaker for Lichport. Silas then must make the sacrificing choice on whether to take up the family business or give into "Uncles" seduction and stay with him until Amos comes home to find them, if at all.
Not only do the dead speak to the living, but the dead live among the living in Lichport. Inside the houses on Fort Street corpses still breathe as they stare out the windows watching their kin walk by and pay their respect once or twice a year. The newest generation of kin call these living corpses as "zombies" even though they feel no need to attack the living who walk among them. Like Silas' great grand father, many of the walking dead sit at their houses and watch as people don't care about them anymore, not like they used too. These walking dead used to live among their kin in peace but then newer generations began to stray away from their dead kin and separated themselves from them by leaving their dead inside the homes they lived in and boarded up the houses to give themselves peace of mind. The people of the "Narrows", however, have not forgotten, and never will.
I will give Ari Berk this, I love his description. I could see Lichport in my head and see Silas walking down Fort Street as he goes to his great grand father's house to visit the corpse. This book did give me chills, including the Camera Obscrua that Uncle keeps hidden from the curious Silas who tries at his very best to get inside of the locked room Uncle has hidden away from the rest of the house. I recommend Death Watch to those readers who enjoy a slower paced novel that has a lot of description. Fast paced readers won't enjoy this novel as much unless they are willing to slow down their reading.

Find Death Watch at:
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Watch-Undertaken-Trilogy-Berk/dp/1416991166/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365013996&sr=1-1&keywords=Death+Watch+Ari+Berk
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-watch-ari-berk/1100400125?ean=9781416991168