Publisher: HarperCollins, William Morrow
Publish Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0061826870
Pages: 324
Technically this is Adult Fiction. However, since many of us know Melissa Marr from the WICKED LOVELY series, I tried this one. Sometimes authors do that crossover (one way or the other) well and sometimes they don't. It's always interesting! Ms. Marr did a lovely job with the crossover.
Basically, it's tradition in the town of Claysville that a Barrow woman become the Graveminder and a Montgomery man become the Undertaker. The Undertaker runs the morgue and assists/protects the Graveminder. The Graveminder makes sure that the dead stay put.
Bek's mom married into the Barrow family so Bek is the step-granddaughter of Maylene, the current Graveminder. Byron is the son of the current Undertaker. But Bek and Byron don't have a clue, they only know that they're drawn back to Claysville and to each other. Bek fights both attractions, while Byron gave in long ago. He doesn't understand it, but he's making his peace with it. When Maylene is murdered, Bek has to come home and suddenly Bek and Byron are at the heart of the situation.
As far as characters go, I think they were well done. Bek was a little vague to me, I felt like one of the secondary characters, Amity, was more interesting. But overall they were good.
The world building, in regards to the World of the Dead, was great. The way the Graveminder and Undertaker see the world differently was interesting. The way that Mr. D or Charles treated the two was interesting too. There were actually a couple of points where I felt sympathy for Mr. D (Charles). I loved how all the eras were mashed together.
I really like the concept, the dead need to be tended in order to stay put in their graves and that the townspeople have no idea of what's going on. It reminded me of something Stephen King would do, but with less horror.
This is a stand alone book, which was also nice.
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