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aiyanamarie's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
not everything is resolved at the end - Tamsens sealed grave, did it finally give the ghost peace.
and Charlie, is he with his dad? will he see Laurel again?
the end lacks those two components but life isn't always finished in a pretty bow and the book did a good job displaying that without making it feel like I lost something.
and Charlie, is he with his dad? will he see Laurel again?
the end lacks those two components but life isn't always finished in a pretty bow and the book did a good job displaying that without making it feel like I lost something.
lattelibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Starting off, I knew that this was going to be a fun little read (I love anything that's death-related), but I didn't expect to get so into it. I mean, honestly, how dare a book about death get me upset...about death?? Uncalled for. (Translation: Totally called for).
Also, I gotta say upfront that I am super biased because a) I love speculative fiction, b) I love it when the setting/world is just left of plum to our world with no explanation, and c) I love loose endings.
In addition to death (which is seen as more natural than it is in our world--grieving still exists, but you also literally get to prep for your death in a way that's entirely different than in the Real World), this book also touches on running away from home, being homeschooled, no longer wanting to be homeschooled, fitting in, bullies, and sister relationships. This book was a lot more than I had originally bargained for.
During this book, there are three separate plots going on: 1) Athena, who is trying to fit in at school, and begins to make friends with who might be the wrong crowd, 2) Laurel, who no longer wants to be homeschooled, but meets a boy who has just run away and is now living on her family's property, and 3) the ghost who just wants a permanent, death-long friend. All of these plots intermingle and intertwine in such a natural way that you don't even realize that it's the author's doing, and not just this family's lives ebbing and flowing in the way it does in real life.
The characters in this novel felt real--it felt like they could have been any number of students in my high school or middle school. I understood the want to have friends, the longing to do what the other members of your family are doing, the loss of a family member that still rings true so long after their deaths. In a way, these characters could have been me, and they could have been you,, too. That's how real they felt to me.
Overall, this book was fun and light-hearted for such a heavy topic, and I honestly can't wait to see where Byrne's mind goes next.
Review cross-listed here!
Also, I gotta say upfront that I am super biased because a) I love speculative fiction, b) I love it when the setting/world is just left of plum to our world with no explanation, and c) I love loose endings.
In addition to death (which is seen as more natural than it is in our world--grieving still exists, but you also literally get to prep for your death in a way that's entirely different than in the Real World), this book also touches on running away from home, being homeschooled, no longer wanting to be homeschooled, fitting in, bullies, and sister relationships. This book was a lot more than I had originally bargained for.
During this book, there are three separate plots going on: 1) Athena, who is trying to fit in at school, and begins to make friends with who might be the wrong crowd, 2) Laurel, who no longer wants to be homeschooled, but meets a boy who has just run away and is now living on her family's property, and 3) the ghost who just wants a permanent, death-long friend. All of these plots intermingle and intertwine in such a natural way that you don't even realize that it's the author's doing, and not just this family's lives ebbing and flowing in the way it does in real life.
The characters in this novel felt real--it felt like they could have been any number of students in my high school or middle school. I understood the want to have friends, the longing to do what the other members of your family are doing, the loss of a family member that still rings true so long after their deaths. In a way, these characters could have been me, and they could have been you,, too. That's how real they felt to me.
Overall, this book was fun and light-hearted for such a heavy topic, and I honestly can't wait to see where Byrne's mind goes next.
Review cross-listed here!
jennifermreads's review against another edition
Athena & Laurel, “the Windham girls” as they are known in town, lead secluded lives following the death of their older sister. As a new school year dawns, Athena & Laurel try to find a place in the world … but the ghost that haunts their property would prefer they remain with it forever.
I tried reading this for the Book Riot Challenge (#9: under 100 GR reviews). Sometimes there is a reason why there are so few reviews on Goodreads. And, why, when I check my library’s book supplier website, the “demand” for the title is only 45 copies … two years after publication!
The meandering storyline, with jarring interruptions from a ghost, could not hold my interest. Plus if, after 53 pages, I still do not understand what a grave keeper is (is it every person? Or just the Windham family?), what the doors are for, and why they are so private, it is time to close the book covers and move on.
I tried reading this for the Book Riot Challenge (#9: under 100 GR reviews). Sometimes there is a reason why there are so few reviews on Goodreads. And, why, when I check my library’s book supplier website, the “demand” for the title is only 45 copies … two years after publication!
The meandering storyline, with jarring interruptions from a ghost, could not hold my interest. Plus if, after 53 pages, I still do not understand what a grave keeper is (is it every person? Or just the Windham family?), what the doors are for, and why they are so private, it is time to close the book covers and move on.
books_and_pups27's review against another edition
4.0
So far a lot of the 2017 releases I’ve read can only be classified as uniquely strange. This book fits that category very well.
Set in what could be considered the real world, in this novel people put a lot of stock into thier graves and the upkeeping of them. A grave is decorated, opened, and sealed with great ceremony similar to how we celebrate coming of age milestones in real life. This whole concept is unique and takes a litle bit of reading to fully understand. I believe the author based it off of how certain cultures all over the world view death not as something to be feared, but accepted and understood as just a part of living. I guess you could classify this as magical realism, and it has the similar small town magical weirdness that most books have in that particualr genre.
Also like most books in this genre, it focuses on one particular family that is the central point of where all the magic comes from. The Windham family is in charge of the upkeeping of graves and the tenents of Grave Keeping. The main characters, Athena and Laurel are two very different sisters who both respond differently to how they are viewed by the town for what they do. After the death of their older sister they are kept cut off from the rest of the town by their parents. In spite of this, the Windham family is a very loving and supportive one. The parents were great, and considering how in YA parents are usually terrible, that was refreshing. The sisters fight as normal siblings do, but both of them are unique characters. Throughout the novel I was thinking how relateable this whole family was in spite of the strange setting. It made me nostalgic for when I was the age these sisters were.
Another important element to the story was the ghost, a character that get’s their own POV as the story progresses. While at first it was a unique perspective, as the story went on it became heart-breakingly lonely and by the end I was DROWNING IN FEELS. It balances out the more lighthearted acceptance of death by saying “HEY THIS IS WHAT IT’S REALLY GONNA BE LIKE WHEN YOU DIE”. After reading this it feels like both the main characters and the reader of the book will have a new respect and appreciation for life, which is what I think the author intended.
So overall this book was another genre-bender that was not what I expected it to be. It starts out as more light hearted and slightly amusing, but by the end you will DEFINITELY BE FEELING SAD FEELINGS. Also trigger warnings for animal death. And basically deaht in general. If that sort of thing bothers you, this book may not be for you. But I’m definitely glad I picked this up. It fits the magical realism perfectly and is a credit to the genre. I look forward to more from this author.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Set in what could be considered the real world, in this novel people put a lot of stock into thier graves and the upkeeping of them. A grave is decorated, opened, and sealed with great ceremony similar to how we celebrate coming of age milestones in real life. This whole concept is unique and takes a litle bit of reading to fully understand. I believe the author based it off of how certain cultures all over the world view death not as something to be feared, but accepted and understood as just a part of living. I guess you could classify this as magical realism, and it has the similar small town magical weirdness that most books have in that particualr genre.
Also like most books in this genre, it focuses on one particular family that is the central point of where all the magic comes from. The Windham family is in charge of the upkeeping of graves and the tenents of Grave Keeping. The main characters, Athena and Laurel are two very different sisters who both respond differently to how they are viewed by the town for what they do. After the death of their older sister they are kept cut off from the rest of the town by their parents. In spite of this, the Windham family is a very loving and supportive one. The parents were great, and considering how in YA parents are usually terrible, that was refreshing. The sisters fight as normal siblings do, but both of them are unique characters. Throughout the novel I was thinking how relateable this whole family was in spite of the strange setting. It made me nostalgic for when I was the age these sisters were.
Another important element to the story was the ghost, a character that get’s their own POV as the story progresses. While at first it was a unique perspective, as the story went on it became heart-breakingly lonely and by the end I was DROWNING IN FEELS. It balances out the more lighthearted acceptance of death by saying “HEY THIS IS WHAT IT’S REALLY GONNA BE LIKE WHEN YOU DIE”. After reading this it feels like both the main characters and the reader of the book will have a new respect and appreciation for life, which is what I think the author intended.
So overall this book was another genre-bender that was not what I expected it to be. It starts out as more light hearted and slightly amusing, but by the end you will DEFINITELY BE FEELING SAD FEELINGS. Also trigger warnings for animal death. And basically deaht in general. If that sort of thing bothers you, this book may not be for you. But I’m definitely glad I picked this up. It fits the magical realism perfectly and is a credit to the genre. I look forward to more from this author.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
wilde_reader's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
emilyusuallyreading's review
3.0
What I Liked
The concept of one's grave kind of being like your private bedroom where no one can enter and you can spend as much time as you'd like alone, lost in your thoughts, is an intriguing one.
I'm not usually a huge fan of paranormal, but I enjoyed the presence of the ghost in this text. She livened up everything in the story and made it fun and even tense.
I loved Athena's character. Although she also seemed a little aged-down for an 11th grader (read below), her insecurities and struggle to fit in after living a sheltered childhood make sense and are so relatable.
What I Didn't Like
Laurel is in 8th grade, but she's written like an 8 year old. Perhaps being secluded and homeschooled makes her seem younger than she is, but I was homeschooled and pretty sheltered (in some ways even more than Laurel) and it didn't stomp down my overall maturity. Running around with a shirt and no pants and then awkwardly realizing other people can see her, forgetting to bathe or wear deodorant for days, asking very childlike questions - those things made me wish that Laurel and Charlie were eight and nine instead of twelve and thirteen. They were just too old to act so young.
I wish there was a little more world-building. I understand the idea of making it as if grave-keeping is natural to the world, so there is no need to explain... but it isn't, and I actually looked up The Grave Keepers on GoodReads about a third of the way through just to see if I could get any glimmer of what was going on.
The concept of one's grave kind of being like your private bedroom where no one can enter and you can spend as much time as you'd like alone, lost in your thoughts, is an intriguing one.
I'm not usually a huge fan of paranormal, but I enjoyed the presence of the ghost in this text. She livened up everything in the story and made it fun and even tense.
I loved Athena's character. Although she also seemed a little aged-down for an 11th grader (read below), her insecurities and struggle to fit in after living a sheltered childhood make sense and are so relatable.
What I Didn't Like
Laurel is in 8th grade, but she's written like an 8 year old. Perhaps being secluded and homeschooled makes her seem younger than she is, but I was homeschooled and pretty sheltered (in some ways even more than Laurel) and it didn't stomp down my overall maturity. Running around with a shirt and no pants and then awkwardly realizing other people can see her, forgetting to bathe or wear deodorant for days, asking very childlike questions - those things made me wish that Laurel and Charlie were eight and nine instead of twelve and thirteen. They were just too old to act so young.
I wish there was a little more world-building. I understand the idea of making it as if grave-keeping is natural to the world, so there is no need to explain... but it isn't, and I actually looked up The Grave Keepers on GoodReads about a third of the way through just to see if I could get any glimmer of what was going on.
burstnwithbooks's review
4.0
I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. I absolutely adore the premise and I completely loved the way that the open graves were integrated into the story. Plus, I grew attached to the characters and their growth throughout the book. I think a few things should have been changed to truly market this as a middle grade, and then it might have exploded more, but I personally still really enjoyed it and would be curious to pick up anything more from this author in the future.
alifromkc1907's review against another edition
3.0
Gut Instinct Rating: 3
Characters: 3
Believability: 3
Uniqueness: 5
Writing Style: 4
Excitement Factor: 3
Story Line: 3
Title Relevance: 5
Artwork Relevance: 5
Overall: 3.78
Characters: 3
Believability: 3
Uniqueness: 5
Writing Style: 4
Excitement Factor: 3
Story Line: 3
Title Relevance: 5
Artwork Relevance: 5
Overall: 3.78
andy5185's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. Not what I hoped it would be. I couldn’t get past the whole “spending time in your grave” thing. It’s my loss!