Title: Grave Minder

Author: Melissa Marr

Publisher: William Morrow 2012

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 352

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville. While growing up, Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual at every funeral: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words, “Sleep well, and stay where I put you.”

Now Maylene is gone and Bek must return to the hometown—and the man—she abandoned a decade ago, only to discover that Maylene’s death was not natural . . . and there was good reason for her odd traditions. In Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected—and beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. From this dark place the deceased will return if their graves are not properly minded. And only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk. . . .

Such a muddled mess of a book. There are so many interesting ideas and world building aspects to this book, but the characters and plot just don’t do it justice. I was thoroughly confused by certain aspects of the world, but willing to accept some things are just fact in the book. Okay fine. But then we turn to the characters and I got so incredibly annoyed. Rebekkah is just a spoiled, indecisive person. Quickly I got sick of her internal monologue of “should I or shouldn’t I”. Very boring and repetitive. Byron was a bit better, but still a bit whiny for my tastes. Both of the main characters acted more like they were teenagers than in their mid-20s. I just didn’t buy it. And don’t get me started on Maylene and William. Why was is necessary to completely keep your successors in the dark as to the entire world of Claysville? The secret keeping just caused so many problems. I could have fixed the entire story in the first chapter avoiding the entire conflict. Last note: Why are the undead not zombies? They sure seemed like zombies to me… Very confusing.

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