I'm going to be just plain honest & say that I kept comparing this to Marr's previous work. I couldn't really help it since Marr is so well known for her Wicked Lovely series & there's at least a few passing similarities between the two. (Both worlds are different in their own rights, but her characters are similar enough to where you can tell they're done by the same author.) The reason I mention this is for those who will be wondering if this will be just as good or better than her previous works. My answer to this is pretty simple: while this was a good story, many will be left feeling slightly disappointed. 
 The good in this story is that like her previous works, Marr has taken several old ideas & put a spun them around to where they're something fresh & completely different than the familiar stuff we've seen before. The traditions & mythology concerning the Graveminder & her Undertaker are what really makes this book shine. There's also romance in this book & while it's mentioned semi-heavy throughout the book, it really takes a backseat to the idea of who & what the Graveminder is & what she's supposed to be doing. 
 Unfortunately this tale is a little slow to start off with, which is a bit disappointing since I'm used to Marr's work flowing a little faster than this. I also didn't get as immediately hooked into these characters. Rebekka spends so much time fighting everything that it gets a little annoying after a while. Occasionally I just wanted to give her a good hard shake. The slowness I'm glad to say abates as the book goes on & about a little after midway through I finally got to the point where I hated to put the book down & anything that came inbetween me & it. The annoying factor? It stayed there, although the book's increased pace & interest level made up for it. 
 This is a good book & people who are new to Marr's work will enjoy it, but if you're looking for something incredibly fast paced then you'll probably be slightly disappointed here. Marr has a wonderful storytelling ability that will keep you interested but this will be just different enough from her previous work that it'll throw a lot of people off kilter. This will be a very good thing for some, but possibly not for others. I wish I could give this an extra star, but this just wasn't entirely a 4 star read for me. I'll read any sequels Marr writes to this, but this just didn't get me the way I wanted it to. 
 3.4/5 
 (ARC provided by Amazon Vine)