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Exhaled: A Novella
Caesar likes his job. Sure, ferrying people down to Hell might not be a dream come true, but it could be a lot worse. As a reaper, his routine is pretty consistent -- until he meets Clare Williams. Stubborn, fierce, and persuasive, Clare Williams convinces Caesar to give her just a few more days to complete some unfinished business. Four promises, she says, that she must keep, each one more involved than the last. The unlikely pair find themselves on a four-day journey, examining the worth of life, death, forgiveness, and the hope of a great Something Else.
72 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2014
155 people want to read
About the author
Isabella Rogge
9 books26 followersAuthor writes under the penname Bella Ryan as well.
Isabella Rogge began writing when she was eight years old, beginning with poetry and progressing to short stories and novels in her early teen years. She wrote and self-published her first novel, Sanguine Moon, in 2013.
Recent works include Charcoal Sun, a prequel to her debut novel, and her two poetry collections: sweet hearts: poetry for the anxious and in love and the reckless kind: poetry for the heartbroken and healing.
Born in California but raised in Colorado, Isabella graduated from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2021, majoring in Biology. She lives with her husband, who she coauthored Fire in the Stars with, her daughter Rosalyn, and her pup Athena. While not writing, she might be found baking, painting, or getting lost in the woods.
Isabella Rogge began writing when she was eight years old, beginning with poetry and progressing to short stories and novels in her early teen years. She wrote and self-published her first novel, Sanguine Moon, in 2013.
Recent works include Charcoal Sun, a prequel to her debut novel, and her two poetry collections: sweet hearts: poetry for the anxious and in love and the reckless kind: poetry for the heartbroken and healing.
Born in California but raised in Colorado, Isabella graduated from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2021, majoring in Biology. She lives with her husband, who she coauthored Fire in the Stars with, her daughter Rosalyn, and her pup Athena. While not writing, she might be found baking, painting, or getting lost in the woods.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 8, 2016
Full disclosure: I won this from GoodReads' First Reads.
In true novella form, this was short and sweet. I kept imagining it as a play. Interesting idea that sent me back to Chuck Palahniuk's "Damned" duo.
In true novella form, this was short and sweet. I kept imagining it as a play. Interesting idea that sent me back to Chuck Palahniuk's "Damned" duo.
December 16, 2023
I was given this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I have always been a fan of the various interpretations of death and the afterlife. Angels and demons are a favorite topic of mine, so when I realized this book dealt with one of my favorite subject matters, I was excited to read it.
At first, I thought it was a humorous take on death and the afterlife, and there is some humor at the beginning. The female lead, Clare, finds out she has died within the first few pages. It's unclear exactly what the circumstances are around her death, but her new status of being living impaired draws in the male lead.
Caesar. The reaper.
I think to some extent, the idiom 'everyone fears the reaper' is true. Either you're afraid of him, or you respect him. Death is something nobody has ever been able to escape. But Clare is just far too busy for a little thing like Death to intrude into her life, and so she makes a deal with Caesar.
Keep in mind, Caesar is a demon. He has no use for beauty or feelings or all the other things we take for granted as living beings. He has a job to do, and it's implied that if he breaks the rules, he's thrown into the pit with the other damned souls. Fair enough.
So I thought, erroneously, that Caesar would learn to love and care by watching Clare do a series of good deeds for the people in life that she cared about. I thought Clare would be a moral pinnacle, who would show Caesar how good humanity could be.
But Clare is not the perfect heroine. She's real, she's raw. She has faults and thoughts that stray toward the dark. Her promises encompass a wide range, from the benevolent to the sinister, and I love her — and the writer — even more for it. I like my heroes to be imperfect, because I like to delve into their psyche and see what they really are.
If I had to find a fault, I would have liked to have seen more of what made Clare who she was. I know that the novella was meant to be a short story and only a glimpse into someone's (after) life, but while the feeling of wanting more is usually a good thing, I got the feeling that there wasn't quite enough of Clare to really make me understand her. But this is just a slight nitpick—and hardly a bad thing at all. When you like the characters enough to want more of them, it cannot be considered a true fault.
Even the side characters were interesting. I don't want to say too much, because almost anything stated regarding such a short story could be considered a spoiler… But Caesar does have meaningful interactions with living people, and it's these interactions that make him understand and care about the world almost as much as his conversations with Clare herself.
Midway through the book, I started to truly empathize with everyone in the book, and realized that I'd been tricked—this wasn't a humor story at all. It was sad and intriguing. I began to cry sometime around the introduction of Clare's sister, Charity, and continued to do so on and off until I finished the story.
I won't spoil the end, but it leaves some things to the imagination. I wish I knew just a little bit more. Just a LITTLE. It doesn't need to be tied up with a ribbon, but just another sentence or two would have provided a little more closure. I understand that it allows the reader to make a decision, but it almost feels incomplete, as if, to use the title of the novella in appropriate form, the writer has taken a deep breath and is still waiting to exhale. Perhaps she knows exactly what happened and is keeping it close to her heart, but I was surprised when I turned the page and hit the acknowledgements, instead of another chapter.
Still, don't let that discourage you from reading the story. It is different and enjoyable, while not straying too far from familiar elements. It contains a few tropes that I enjoy, such as a light 'deal with the devil' that goes a little sideways.
I have always been a fan of the various interpretations of death and the afterlife. Angels and demons are a favorite topic of mine, so when I realized this book dealt with one of my favorite subject matters, I was excited to read it.
At first, I thought it was a humorous take on death and the afterlife, and there is some humor at the beginning. The female lead, Clare, finds out she has died within the first few pages. It's unclear exactly what the circumstances are around her death, but her new status of being living impaired draws in the male lead.
Caesar. The reaper.
I think to some extent, the idiom 'everyone fears the reaper' is true. Either you're afraid of him, or you respect him. Death is something nobody has ever been able to escape. But Clare is just far too busy for a little thing like Death to intrude into her life, and so she makes a deal with Caesar.
Keep in mind, Caesar is a demon. He has no use for beauty or feelings or all the other things we take for granted as living beings. He has a job to do, and it's implied that if he breaks the rules, he's thrown into the pit with the other damned souls. Fair enough.
So I thought, erroneously, that Caesar would learn to love and care by watching Clare do a series of good deeds for the people in life that she cared about. I thought Clare would be a moral pinnacle, who would show Caesar how good humanity could be.
But Clare is not the perfect heroine. She's real, she's raw. She has faults and thoughts that stray toward the dark. Her promises encompass a wide range, from the benevolent to the sinister, and I love her — and the writer — even more for it. I like my heroes to be imperfect, because I like to delve into their psyche and see what they really are.
If I had to find a fault, I would have liked to have seen more of what made Clare who she was. I know that the novella was meant to be a short story and only a glimpse into someone's (after) life, but while the feeling of wanting more is usually a good thing, I got the feeling that there wasn't quite enough of Clare to really make me understand her. But this is just a slight nitpick—and hardly a bad thing at all. When you like the characters enough to want more of them, it cannot be considered a true fault.
Even the side characters were interesting. I don't want to say too much, because almost anything stated regarding such a short story could be considered a spoiler… But Caesar does have meaningful interactions with living people, and it's these interactions that make him understand and care about the world almost as much as his conversations with Clare herself.
Midway through the book, I started to truly empathize with everyone in the book, and realized that I'd been tricked—this wasn't a humor story at all. It was sad and intriguing. I began to cry sometime around the introduction of Clare's sister, Charity, and continued to do so on and off until I finished the story.
I won't spoil the end, but it leaves some things to the imagination. I wish I knew just a little bit more. Just a LITTLE. It doesn't need to be tied up with a ribbon, but just another sentence or two would have provided a little more closure. I understand that it allows the reader to make a decision, but it almost feels incomplete, as if, to use the title of the novella in appropriate form, the writer has taken a deep breath and is still waiting to exhale. Perhaps she knows exactly what happened and is keeping it close to her heart, but I was surprised when I turned the page and hit the acknowledgements, instead of another chapter.
Still, don't let that discourage you from reading the story. It is different and enjoyable, while not straying too far from familiar elements. It contains a few tropes that I enjoy, such as a light 'deal with the devil' that goes a little sideways.
June 9, 2022
Beautiful story. Would love to read a full length novel of Ceaser and his encounters with humans
May 29, 2016
EXHALED: A NOVELLA - 5/5
"An amazing, thought-provoking topic & incredible characters...."
READ MORE: http://casualbookreview.blogspot.ca/2...
"An amazing, thought-provoking topic & incredible characters...."
READ MORE: http://casualbookreview.blogspot.ca/2...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews