THE THIRTEENTH CHILD

“Godfather Death,” a lesser-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, gets a gothic update in Craig’s latest stand-alone fantasy.

Hazel Lafitte’s birth doesn’t feel like a gift to her parents, who already struggle to support their 12 other children. But to everyone else, a 13th child is a rare and intriguing thing, and Hazel is promised to the Dreaded End, the god of death, whom she will come to know as Merrick. Merrick plans for Hazel to become a gifted healer and bestows upon her the surname Trépas. For many lonely years, she studies medicine in isolation. She also learns that she’s as cursed as she is gifted. Hazel sees many cures in visions, but sometimes she instead perceives a skull—or deathshead—that commands her to kill her patient. When the king falls ill with a mysterious plaguelike illness, Hazel is summoned to find a cure. As she grows close to the king’s family, she questions her talents, sees deathsheads she can’t accept, and encounters other gods who are pulling strings. There are glimmers of a fascinating world here, though shallow characterization lessens the impact of Hazel’s dilemmas and decisions. The opening scene will appeal to fans of Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves, and while readers expecting similar depth may be disappointed, the haunting atmosphere and worldbuilding details have wide appeal. Most characters read white; Merrick has “deep obsidian skin.”

An intriguingly conceptualized story that struggles to create a compelling cast of characters.