Many books portray Death as a lead character, but none have done it as well as Gaiman with this, one of two books focusing on the ultimate goth-chick. As a sideline from his acclaimed Sandman series, and using characters from those books, Death: the High Cost of Living is a thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated graphic novel that shows us the power, and the weakness, of a force that none of us escape. The style of Death herself was established in the Sandman series, and this book does not detract from that, but this is a good thing; it's not often that you can say that you found yourself attracted to Death. In places the quality of the background colouring and linework appear to suffer in deference to Death herself, but as this is such a strong character, and the story so compelling, this is insignificant. A fine read.