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Cover of How the Dead Live

How the Dead Live

Will Self (2000)

SubgenreHigh Fantasy

Age groupAdult 18+

Content ratingR

Pages (Standard (250-400))

Setting

CSM age18+

Goodreads3.91

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Content levels

ViolenceMild

Sexual contentModerate

LanguageStrong

Trigger warnings

Cancer Death Terminal Illness Grief

Positive tags

Self-Discovery Heartwarming

Heroine archetypes

Coming-of-Age Heroine

Protagonist archetypes

Ghost / Undead Protagonist

Tropes

Fish out of Water Coming of Age Afterlife Journey

Themes

Death and Dying Memory Aging Life Review The Mundane Afterlife Identity Mortality

Synopsis

Lily Bloom, an elderly American dying of cancer in a British hospital, retraces her life and then enters a rather banal world of the dead.

Tags

Literary FictionMagical RealismContemporary FantasyPhilosophical Fiction