Graveminder

by Melissa Marr
(2011 | 324 p)

Synopsis

Rebekkah Barrow has always been close to her grandmother Maylene. Bek's incurable wanderlust has kept them apart for years but time has only strengthened their shared connection. Maylene Barrow never leaves Claysville; Bek would rather be anywhere else. Despite her aversion to home, Bek respects her grandmother's reverence for the place and for its dead. Maylene attends every funeral, tends to every gravesite, keeping the town's strange traditions. Only the brutal murder of Maylene can finally bring Bek home. But even Bek's strong feelings for the son of Claysville's undertaker isn't enough to make her stay there very long. Until she learns that the town has a secret.

My Take

I was very excited to read this book and, unfortunately, was very disappointed. The first 100 pages or so are spent detailing Bek's confusing need for (and aversion to) Byron, the undertaker's son. It was enough come hither/no go away to make me dizzy. And while they're doing this odd dance that was supposed to be building romantic tension but wasn't there's a zombie on the loose eating people. Once the story got going after page 120ish it was more engaging. I wish those first 100 pages had been spent building up the characters of Alicia and Charlie, now THEY were interesting. But other than learning that Alicia was once a graveminder and was in some sort of eternal struggle with the charming face of death that was Charlie, not much more happened. And the sudden realization that Bek's step-aunt, Cissy, is a crazy murdering, dead torturing psychopath just came out of left field.

I really do hate to give bad reviews. Part of the issue may be that this novel has for some reason been branded as a fantasy. So a fantasy fan like myself is picking it up with a completely different set of expectations than would, say, a fan of horror. Someone else may read this book and think it's the best thing ever, but I've got to call it how I see it. This book let me down.