Graveminder. Read it!

I remember the day I picked up Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. I read the first chapter standing in the YA section of the bookstore, turning each page with breathless anticipation. The characters seemed to explode with life, and the descriptions blew my mind.

There are four books in that series - I have them all in hard cover, and last year, deemed Wicked Lovely one of my favourite books, and Melissa Marr at the top of my list of inspirational authors.

Despite my groaning TBR pile, I've been in a bit of a reading rut. I'm so glad Melissa Marr was there to pull me out of it and set me back on the reading path.

Graveminder is not a YA novel.

But it is a near-perfect book.

I admit, I have so much faith in Marr's mad storytelling skills, I barely skimmed the back cover blurb - and went into this novel virtually blind. I kind of want you to do the same, mostly because I'm fearful any plot reveal will result in spoilers. But that doesn't seem fair...

Graveminder is set in the small town of Claysville, where people pay special attention to the dead. Rebekkah Barrows would know, since she grew up watching her grandmother attend to each tombstone with the same unusual ritual - three sips from a silver flask, and the words, Sleep well, and stay where I put you.


But now Maylene is dead, and Rebekkah must return to confront "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."

*chills*

I loved every word.

Graveminder sucked me in from the first chapter and held me until the very end, where I resisted the urge (seriously) to start reading it again. (Confession: I have read Wicked Lovely twice...)

I wasn't sure how I felt about Marr deviating from the faeries of her YA series. Sometimes I like my authors compartmentalized. But I'm pretty sure Marr could rewrite the phone book and I'd be salivating.

To be blunt? Read it.  If the brilliance of the concept alone doesn't grab you, Marr's tight craft and amazing world-building skills certainly will.

- Dawn

The Book In My Bag: Forever, Maggie Stiefvater