Review: Graveminder by Melissa Marr

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.

As soon as I heard that Melissa Marr had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. It’s no secret that all the Bookworms are huge fans of her Wicked Lovely series (love me some Irial like WHOA!) and I was confident that any new offering from someone as clearly talented as Ms. Marr would be nothing short of great.

I was not disappointed.

Graveminder may not be set in the YA universe, but Melissa Marr brings all of her strengths from her work on the Wicked Lovely series to this new book: strong characters, amazing world-building and straight-out fantastic writing.

I loved Rebekkah who’s strong yet flawed. When she finally finds her place in the world, her life may not be perfect but she has the self-awareness and inner fortitude to do what she needs to do. And then, of course, there’s Byron. He’s the sort of strong yet silent type of man that just made my toes curl. And oh, how he loves Rebekkah. Not that it gets him anywhere really, but, *fingers crossed* that there will be more books in this series. *gives Melissa Marr the sad puppy eyes*

I adored the whole concept of the Graveminder. I loved the complex world that exists under Clayville, teeming with tension one might not expect from the dead, and the “man” who runs it, Mr. D. This fresh, new mash-up of zombie and ghost mythology was fascinating and Graveminder is a page-turner that will leave you wanting more.

This book was an amazing read, well crafted in every degree, and I want the sequel NOW!!

I give it 4.5 out of 5 books!

If you go to Melissa’s website, you’ll see that while there is no word as to whether or not there will be a sequel to Graveminder (I know it’s not published yet but come on, Ms. Marr, give a girl some hope!), there is a gorgeous book trailer and the hauntingly gorgeous official Graveminder song by Jill Tracy. You’ll definitely want to check them both out.

Now go and get lost…in a book!