Graveminder by Melissa Marr
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| GraveminderBy: Melissa Marr Published by: William Morrow ISBN: 0061826871 Author’s Website: Author’s Social: Twitter | Facebook Format of Review Copy: hardback Recommendable for people who enjoy: |
Synopsis (from melissa-marr.com):
Three sips to mind the dead . . .
Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn’t a funeral that Maylene didn’t attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.”
Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker—in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past—can set things right once the dead begin to walk.
Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.
My Thoughts:
I was sent this lovely as a gift from a friend who knew I wanted it! Thank you, friend!
Graveminder by Melissa Marr was a quick over night read for me. You can see my Goodreads updateshere. I started crying around page 20 and cried off and on through the rest of the book. Something about the girl loosing her Gran really got me, and it connected me to the characters hard!
I’m not going to lie, there are some typos in this book. But even so, it wasn’t enough to make me dislike the story. I loved it, and hope there are more to come! I still say shame on her editors.
I was looking at some of the other reviews, (because everyone was shocked I was crying – so I wanted to see what others were saying about this book) and had to laugh because people are fierce in proclaiming this is not a zombie book. I wanted to touch on this, to just kind of get my opinion out there. This is not a “typical” zombie book, no. HOWEVER, in this book – dead people don’t stay dead. They come back and eat you. They are not vampires, so what would you call them? “The undead”? “Walkers”? “Creepy people who are no longer alive, been buried, and come back wanting to eat you”? Uhhhh –> zombies. Yep, that pretty much fits it.
For me, the “zombies” weren’t even the meat of the story the people were. (No pun intended. ha!) The “bigger picture” was. Life, death, the relationships formed in between. Fate, karma, and the choices we think we make for ourselves. Friendship, love, and the strength it takes to create and maintain it. For me this book was so much more than the zombies on the pages with in it.
About the crying… I cried. A lot. I guess I am a freaknut though because I saw no other mention of “sadness” in any of the other reviews I read. Seriously, I am starting to think I am crazy. ha.
I thought the writing was fantastic and flowed. I read it in an overnight, so I’d say if flowed fairly well!
The characters – I loved them. All. Even the “side” characters. I think I actually like Amity more than I liked the main character, Rebekkah. I was heartbroken with Maylene. I thought Mr D was sexy as *bleep*. Like Gary Oldman as young Dracula, sexy. You know. Eery, creepy, naughty, and still… STILL you wanted to touch. Just a little. A stroke of the hand or a brush of the hair. I could see Johnny Depp (if he’d go back dirty again) in role for Mr D. No kidding.
I thought the world building was fantastic. I hope there are more books in this story because there is so much room to expand on. Even though this is a “complete story”, and it could be DONE. I would love to see more. Especially more of Charles, aka Mr D – and the other “people” there, in his world. There were just enough hints and “openings” that more books in this series could be imagined!
In Conclusion:
I loved this book. For some reason, I didn’t find it scary. I found it sad. I cried. Would totally recommend to my “paranormal reads” loving friends!
Mom Notes:
Contains: death, drinking, “limbo”, etc. May not be suitable for children under say 13-14. I think I would let my oldest read it, but probably not my youngest. I could see it confusing younger ones with regards to their faith, death, etc. Then again, I got something out of this book different than apparently every other person on the planet who read it, so… who am I to judge? ha.