Marr, Melissa: Graveminder
Graveminder (2011)
Written by: Melissa Marr
Genre: Paranormal
Pages: 324 (Hardcover)
Why I Read It: Wicked Lovely was the book that broke the YA barrier for me. I think most adult readers recognize the experience of reading the one YA novel that made you realize that YA wasn't just for kids, and there might be more stuff for that audience that you'd like, right? Wickedly Lovely did that for me. Sadly, the series started to sag in quality (shortly after I named Marr my favorite paranormal YA author, coincidentally enough), but when I head about Marr's adult debut Graveminder, I found myself craving a similar experience that I had with Wicked Lovely. Except I wanted Marr to break down her own barriers: I wanted to see just how different her adult fiction would be from her YA. However, I'll admit to hesitating before getting this book, but once it won the Alphabet Soup Book Club challenge, I knew it was high time to read it.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: 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.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. Sorry, but it's a book club pick, and book club picks mean spoilers. If you haven't read the book yet and care about not getting spoiled, just skip to "My Rating" and you'll be fine. Everyone else, onward!
First and foremost: I'm sorry.
The only reason this book was even in the polls was because it was part of my TBR pile, and if I'd listened to that doubtful voice in my head, I wouldn't have picked it up. After all, I decided not to buy Darkest Mercy after reading the ARC, so it stands to reason that if one book per year showed a certain slip in quality, what would two books in a year reveal?
I've read quite a few book clubber reviews for this, so again, I want to say: I'm sorry.
But at least I suffered with you.
Here's the deal with me and books about small, creepy towns. I live in a small town. I've had my brush with creepiness (but not CREEPINESS), and for the horror genre, the small creepy town is as common as vampires or werewolves. Maybe not as popular, but certainly as common. When I get a small, creepy town story, not only do I want atmosphere coming out my ears, but I want a distinct sense of setting (after all, it's set in SMALL, CREEPY TOWN) as well, and a sense that whatever's happening in the story can ONLY HAPPEN in this particular small, creepy town.
In terms of world-building, Marr definitely gives us something a little unique. The pact between the people of Claysville is something I haven't seen before, and it doesn't even require virgin sacrifices to keep things rolling. In truth, there really doesn't seem to be any major consequences if things go to hell. Sure, we saw the dead come to life and start going all nom-nom-zombie on people, and maybe that would be really bad if they escaped Claysville, but I can't remember if they could escape Claysville, so there's that. I also figure: if Rebekkah couldn't leave Claysville after accepting her charge as Graveminder, how could the dead leave at all?
So there's quite a few holes in what looks like a great premise. One of the holes that bugged me most: that the Graveminder HAD TO BE a woman, and the Undertaker HAD TO BE a male. Talk about boring and lame. What would happen if a man filled each role? Or a woman in each role? I'm already more interested. The possibility for same sex relationships in a situation where two people seem fated to belong to each other (despite, perhaps, heterosexual feelings for someone else) is just delicious. Not that a normal heterosexual pairing can't be interesting, but we'll get to that in a minute.
The setting itself felt pretty generic too. Despite the unique properties of the town, I never believed that the town was really any different from any other town. I'm told this is the case, over and over, but the thing is, despite the dead coming back to nom-nom on townspeople, that's not really unique, is it? The manner in which they come back, yes. The fact that a bite doesn't mean you'll turn zombie, yes. But the horror/paranormal genre is so littered with zombies that not only did I never feel fear, but the very thing that made this town different (well, the consequences of what would happen if rules were broken) left me feeling that we could transplant the story to ANY small town and it'd be the same thing.
In other words, I wanted something more. It sounds like if any town in the US had struck up the same contract, they'd have the same deal. I wanted something more unique, more sinister, something more that threatened the lives of those who lived there, because again, I never felt that people were in danger.
But that raises the question: was this supposed to be horror? Or paranormal romance?
Dense little me read this as a kind of horror story, a modern fantasy in the attempted style of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, but after reading other reviews, I realize I missed the obvious. It's just a paranormal romance, and I say just a paranormal romance like it's nothing special because, well, it isn't. If it were special, I'd be invested in the couple, and I never was.
Bryon is devoted to Rebekkah for the whole book, no matter how badly she's treated him in the past or present. Rebekkah fears commitment, feels she's no good for Byron because he was supposed to belong to her step-sister, so she's always running away. And even once they learn that due to their inherited roles as Graveminder and Undertaker, they're essentially comically bonded, there's never any real resistance to the notion. Some lip service is played to the concern about whether or not they have feelings for each other only because of the contract, only because of their roles, but they never really explore that in depth and just decide to go with the flow.
I get that soul mates are hard to do, but it's really not a compelling romance. Even the sex scenes don't go much further than PG-13, and for a writer trying to break out of the YA mold, that's a dangerous thing. I'm not saying you have to get all erotica on the reader, but something suitably mature would be nice, and I mean that in more ways that just how the intimate scenes played out. I mean maturity on all levels, from the writing to the world-building to the characters to everything.
And I'm sorry to have to say the following, but it needs to be said. When I was an undergraduate taking advanced creative writing workshop, one of the critiques I got that burned me to no end was that what I had submitted was the bones of what could be a really great story, and now I needed to go back and flesh those bones out. Of course, it burned me because I thought I had fleshed it out, and here I was being told otherwise.
Well, in Graveminder, Melissa Marr has the bones of what could be a really great story. Unfortunately, instead of going back to flesh it out, she got it published.
Now, a caveat: I'm pretty sure (but could be wrong) that this book is meant to be the first of something. I think Marr plans to write more in this world BUT!!! I could be wrong. Regardless, this book needed fleshing out. I get the need to have a greater story arc (the whole thing about the land of the dead felt utterly undeveloped, as did the characters, notably Alicia. In fact, it's the role Alicia plays this book that makes me think more volumes are to come), but that doesn't mean that every installment shouldn't be fleshed out to its fullest.
Part of the problem: instead of really letting the reader see Claysville and all its weirdness through two or three POVs (which, for a 300 + page book should be the limit), we get a billion of them. Not just Rebekkah and Byron, but Maylene, William, Daisha, the major, a priest or the lady who can see the future, one of Maylene's biological granddaughters. And that's what I can vaguely remember off of the top of my head. Seriously? Instead of showing us MORE of the story, it dilutes it, because we lose our connection to the characters we're supposed to be caring about. The POV-jumping alone was enough to make me want to put the book aside, and if this hadn't been a book club pick, I probably would have. I'll be honest: I've already seen Marr start getting crazy with multiple, unnecessary POVs in the Wicked Lovely series, so seeing her fall back on the same style here was pretty much a major red flag: unless I see reviews of people I really trust, this is the last book of Melissa Marr's I'll read. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but you have to understand: I've been more unhappy than not with the last three installments of her Wicked Lovely series, and all the signs point to the fact that Marr is having a tough time handling the publication of one book per year. The quality is slipping quite a lot, and when I'm not invested in what's going on at any level, it's time for me to hit the brakes and move on to something else.
My Rating: Below Standard
Yeah, I know. It's a pretty harsh rating. But you have to understand the context. 1) Ever since Fragile Eternity, I've been less and less impressed with Marr's writing and storytelling ability, and this book just reconfirmed what I already feared: that it's time to move on. 2) The books I'd read just prior to Graveminder were books that took the time to really put the reader into the world that'd been created. I believed in said world, believed in the setting, and was ready for the ride, no matter how long it took me to finish the book. So if you loved this book and you're mad I rated this so low, those are the two reasons why. If you really want to be pissy about my expectations, blame Jo Walton's Farthing and George R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream, because those are the two books that spoiled me.
In short, what I thought was supposed to be a horror story ended up being a weak and rather boring paranormal romance. I don't mind romance so long as it excites me (see Jeaniene Frost's Halfway to the Grave or Diana Gabaldon's Outlander), but soul mate stories are hard to do, and they're REALLY hard to do if the characters aren't characters you can root for. The story felt barely sketched out: there's some promise here, but so much time is spent with characters being coy with other characters that it's hard to sink my teeth into the world and any uniqueness it has to offer. There's lots of holes here, and said holes may be filled up in later stories, but honestly, I'm not invested enough to go any further.
For those readers who were delighted with the Wicked Lovely series as a whole, have at it. You'll probably have lots of fun with Graveminder. Everyone else, though, there are better books to sink your teeth into.
Cover Commentary: The cover is a bit misleading to me. It promises an eerie, haunting ghost story that we really don't get. It looks like the cover for a horror novel, you know? I think the UK cover is a little more appropriate, and more pleasant to look at besides. At least the UK cover gives the illusion of gates at a graveyard, whereas the US cover just has a creepy house/barn looking thing.
EDIT: On this post at Marr's blog, she says this:
Is there a Graveminder sequel?
Again, I’m not planning one. I have written about a third of one, but I’m not committed to it right now. I’ve actually written the starts of 2 other adult novels (different worlds) that I haven’t finished either. Maybe someday, but that’s not where my Muse wants to be right now. I am working on another adult novel, The Ananchronists, that’s due to my editor in 2012.
More Reviews: Check out the reviews book club participants have posted! If you reviewed this book but are not featured here, please comment below with a link to your review and I'll add it below.
A Bookseller Blog: Review Here
ardys_the_ghoul: Review Here
bardiphouka: Review Here
intoyourlungs: Review Here
lilychild: Review Here and Second Review Here
maibyers: Review Here
starmetal_oak: Review Here
temporaryworlds: Review Here
Tethyan Books: Review Here
Book Club Poll: Quick reminders: first off, if you're not officially participating in the book club, please do not feel obligated to answer the poll. Second, there's a lot of book club participants who are NOT on LJ and I want to make sure they're able to respond appropriately since I'm tracking for points. Because I'm evil like that. So if you're a book clubber, whether you read the book or not, please click the link below!
Click here to take the Graveminder poll!
If you started the book but couldn't finish it, please comment and talk about the reasons why. What turned you off from the book? How far did you go before throwing in the towel?
And as you already know, the November Book Club selection is Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Some of you may have started it already, but if need additional details on the title, just click here. Sign up for the 2011 Alphabet Soup Challenge!
Click here