Anyone Can Die

by James LePore

[Kim Deister]

Anyone Can Die revisits characters from LePore's debut novel, A World I Never Made, in three short stories. I have not read A World I Never Made, but reading these stories definately have made me want to! Having read Anyone Can Die first, I would highly recommend reading the full-length novel first. While the stories in and of themselves are stand alone stories, I think knowing the backstories and the characters a little better would have made the short stories a fuller experience.

That being said, all three stories were vivid snapshots of characters that I want to know more about. The first, Til Death Do Us Part, was the easiest to fully understand without having read A World I Never Made. Lorrie and Pat were an interesting couple and there was a lot of action in the story. The second story, God's Warrior, was my favorite, although the most confusing without having read the first novel. Megan Nolan was intriguing, clearly making decisions that shaped her future. Although the story line was harder to follow without the backstory of A World I Never Made, the mystery of Megan and her life intrigued me. The third and final story, Max, was definately the most disturbing, and the most sad.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this and I am definately going to be buying A World I Never Made to learn more about the characters. LePore's writing pulls you right into the story, something you frequently don't experience in such a short work. It will be interesting to get the backstories of these characters and how they relate to one another in the full-length novel.