What I'm Reading: "Graveminder" by Melissa Marr
Posted in What I'm Reading	by Helen Lowe
A few years back, I picked up a novel called Wicked Lovely by then new author, Melissa Marr—and was quickly drawn into the world the author created at the interface between our urban, everyday reality and the fairy realm. I'm not talking pretty little creatures with wings here (although some fairies in the story did present that way), but something far more primeval and dangerous …
Since then, Melissa Marr has returned to that same world with four further, highly successful YA novels—but Graveminder is her first adult novel.
Set in the small, rural American town of Claysville, this new setting feels just as real as the world created in Wicked Lovely—and the story was as quick to create tension as the world was to lure me in. The reader is introduced to the character of Maylene Barrow in the prologue, only to learn in the first chapter that she has died under violent and mysterious circumstances. The exact nature of those circumstances is something that Rebekkah Barrow, Maylene's granddaughter, and Byron Montgomery, the town undertaker, must then unravel.
The back cover promises that Graveminder is "a captivating story of the living, the dead, and the curse that binds them," a promise that the story proceeds to keep. But Graveminder is also a mystery, and a tale of the overlap between worlds, as well as a story about the relationships within family, and the relationship between Rebekkah and Byron—one that must find both a personal equilibrium and a balance that will sustain the wider community.
I think I've now given away that there is a lot to this story in terms of plot and that Melissa Marr has once again created two convincing, and compelling, overlapping worlds. I really enjoyed the alternate world that Rebekkah and Byron must discover and deal with, more even than I enjoyed the faerie realm of Wicked Lovely. This new realm is really interesting, with layers that gave me the sense of more to come, but without any sense that this book is incomplete. The alternate realm also contains Charlie and Alicia, who I found the two most intriguing characters in the book, both because of the part they play in the Graveminder story, but also because of the backstory that is revealed as the book progresses—and again with that sense, in a good way, that there is more yet to play out.
I also enjoyed the exploration of the relationship between Rebekkah and Byron, although I did feel it was their interactions with Charlie and Alicia, and the secondary plotline that evolved around the character of the "hungry ghost", Daisha, that gave the story much of its "oomph."
So what didn't I enjoy so much? One quibble—trying to avoid spoilers here—is that Maylene and Byron's father held information that it was vital for Rebekkah and Byron to know, both for their own safety and wellbeing, and that of the town. Yet it is an essential plot premise that Maylene has withheld this information. Consequently, Rebekkah and Byron are forced to find it out, in difficult and dangerous circumstances, after her death. Maylene does have a rationale for her decision, but given how absolutely vital the withheld knowledge is to both Rebekkah and the community's safety—well, I just wasn't sure that I fully "bought" the premise, as a reader.
My second concern is very subjective, but there was a retributive, 'eye for an eye' element to the resolution of the story that I did not feel comfortable with–the implication being, I suppose, that if people are bad and do bad things, it's by implication ok for bad things to be done to them in their turn. But I am not at all sure that it is, especially if the bad things are not inadvertent but allowed to happen by the central protagonists. So this particular aspect of the story did not work so well for me, for this reason.
Overall though, this is a strong story that not only seized my attention at the beginning, but kept me turning the pages throughout. I think it may even be the Melissa Marr novel that I have enjoyed most to date—and with its blend of everyday realism with the supernatural, murder and mystery and romance, I think it will appeal to a great many readers.
And don't forget—this month's " … on Anything, Really" feature is "Fun With Thornspell." You can find out more here and here.
Alicia Ponder :
Intriguing, overlapping worlds can be such fun!
Helen Lowe :
I think Melissa Marr is very clever with her world building and it is definitely one of the great strengths of this book, imho.