Words I Write Crazy: Week 49 Reviews: Graveminder, Guns for the Dead, Cursed by Death

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Week 49 Reviews: Graveminder, Guns for the Dead, Cursed by Death

From Goodreads:
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.

From Goodreads:

The worst part isn't being dead, but finding a job. Francis Lee Lemons wakes up in the land of the job, unemployed and bored. As a criminal in his life in modern America, he figured that the best plan in his afterlife is to stick to what he knows. But getting in with the local crime syndicate—run by an 1800s gunslinger, Alicia—isn't that easy.

From Goodreads:

The dead don't always stay dead in Claysville . . . and in the afterlife, Death himself can't be trusted.

Amity Blue has begun to remember strange impossible events, her ex trying to bite her and people vanishing like mist. Everyone in town swears a mountain lion is responsible for the recent deaths, but Amity is sure that there's more to the story.

After a stalker—a dead stalker—appears at the bar where she works, Amity discovers that the dead don't always stay dead in Claysville. Along with the current Graveminder, Rebekkah Barrow, Amity seeks out the enigmatic Mr D, who seems to be Death himself, only to discover that the centuries-old contract to protect Claysville has been broken.

Caught between life in a cursed town and Death himself, Amity and Rebekkah must find a way to put the dead where they belong—because if the Hungry Dead keep rising, everyone in town will be lost.

Return to the world of Graveminder, Goodreads Choice Winner for Best Horror Novel in this stand-alone Graveminder novel (also includes two Graveminder short stories.)

My first review of Graveminder
My Review:
I loved reading these books! I loved reading Graveminder the first time, and now that it has a sequel and novellas, I had to read them! They were so fantastic, I loved being back in this world again and with these characters! It's such a cool concept!

The idea of a deal with Mr. D, Death, of a woman who tends to the dead, and the Undertaker who takes care of her, and a town that made a bargain so everyone is safe from illnesses until they're 80, yeah, it's such a great concept!

I totally forgot everything that happened in Graveminder, how we slowly learned more about this world and how it works. And who the bad guy was. So loved reading it again. Then Guns for the Dead was really great, to see more of the world of the dead from the perspective of the dead, Alicia and Frankie, and the trouble that she causes Charles.

Cursed by Death, I loved so much! The idea that the contract was broken is a little scary, and I loved watching everything play out! That we got Amity's perspective, the one that Rebekka has deemed her successor as Graveminder, was fantastic! But oh, I wish that it wasn't a "stand alone Graveminder novel" because the way things end, there's so many places the story can go from there and I want to find out!

These were such fantastic reads, and I can't wait to read more by Melissa Marr!

Author: Melissa Marr

Series: Graveminder #1, 1.6, 2
First Read: March 10th, 2012

Read: December 8th, 8th, 9th, 2022
Source: Ebook.bike, Library
Reason Why: Rereading, and they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2022 Books!
Publisher: HarperCollins, Smashwords Edition, MM Ink
Published: May 1st 2011, June 7th 2013, October 21st 2020

Graveminder: