Can't Die Without You

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 01:15:30 GMT

Genres: low/grounded fantasy, contemporary, suspense, psychological, small town rural

Short Description

A suicidal convenience store clerk can’t die. A fate-weaving curse causes every attempt to fail, or stops her with a trembling freeze. In a new approach, she searches for a reaper instead, an embodiment of death itself, and against the odds (and with the help of the internet) she finds one.

But the reclusive and reluctant young reaper sees his power as his own fate-weaving curse, and lives in hiding in a mountain forest. He refuses to kill her. And they agree instead that they each have until the start of autumn to change the other’s mind.

Perfect for fans of the Netflix series ‘BEEF’, and fans of ‘A Psalm for the Wild-Built’ that want something darker.

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Long Description

CAN’T DIE WITHOUT YOU is a 37,000-word new adult fantasy that could appeal to fans of the “opposites-in-discussion” and the “deliberation of what it means to be human” in A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, if they want something darker, argumentative, and tragic.

A suicidal young woman, Olive Four, learns that she’s unable to die, or rather, that she’s cursed to live. Any attempt at otherwise would result in her body freezing, a cold trembling refusal to continue, unless she stops. If she tries to find help instead, fate itself would weave a way for the attempt to fail.

Desperate and persistent, she starts reading about death itself towards finding an answer, and discovers the possibility of a grim reaper in human form who kills with his sight alone. After managing to find both his possible location and the money for getting there, Olive makes the costly trip to investigate a small mountain town in another province. She finds Winter Winrow, her opposite, living in a shack of a hut near a river in the forest close to that town. Winter is a kind young man cursed to be the reluctant reaper. But he refuses to take Olive’s life.

Desperate and persistent, she refuses to leave without his help, and instead, they agree that Winter has three months to convince her to live. In the time that follows, they fight, a lot, but they also discuss death, the value of life, and the ethics of assisted suicide while consulting a few of the town’s local elderly. In an obscure manner, as the old folks of the town can’t know that a grim reaper sells them fish and produce.

Olive learns more about Winter’s off-grid survivalist lifestyle and the lengths he goes to in inconveniencing himself for the safety of others, and together they find that their opposite curses might go hand in hand. But also, that compatibility might not be enough to save her.

Personal Note

This was my first attempt at self-publishing something. I’m not new to writing (see the about for specifics), but the marketing of it was very new to me. The added layer of complication—the choice of words in terms of what readers expect when they see certain things, finding the correct market position of the book considering what the story contains, and then the challenge of actually reaching a target audience with a small budget and a competitive space (a challenge I haven’t completed by the way)—was tricky and felt like a guessing game to me with conficting opinions and case-specific suggestions in online resources.

It definitely felt like a different skillset from writing fiction itself, and one where experience seems to matter even more than usual. In hindsight, I would’ve queried this for a traditional attempt first, but since I’m new to this kind of publishing, I didn’t think querying a novella was really an option. But all in all, this is a story I care about, and maybe someday I’ll find a way to give it some more life or a better chance at finding those who would enjoy it.

A Back Cover Poetic Blurb

Below is something I wrote for marketing back when I thought a rhyming blurb would be a good idea (I didn’t use it as a blurb, but I added it to the back cover of the print):

At what age are you most likely to face depression and thoughts of suicide?

Olive was 22 when she wanted to, but even that, she couldn’t do.
If she tried, she would freeze and tremble and shake and her body would scream brake!
Until she gave it a break.
If she asked someone else to do it, then fate would twist a way for them to suffer and fail,
while she could only wail and cry because her curse meant she couldn't die.
So Olive's best chance was to find death's fish!
And what luck, he's so handsome and smart!
But he's broken too, and won't grant her wish.
She wouldn't leave his side if he didn't abide,
so he asked for a summer window to convince her off of death row.
And with that deal, she had him in a reel.

O.P. but not OP

Can't Die Without You

Short Description

Buy / Listen Now

Long Description

Personal Note

A Back Cover Poetic Blurb