The town of Claysville has a secret, one that only a few residents are allowed to know....
 
For years, Rebekkah Barrow has avoided the town of Claysville and her own mixed feelings about Byron Montgomery. With the unexpected death, however, things have changed and she is now forced to return. Unfortunately, neither she nor Byron realizes just how closely the fates of the Barrow women and the Montgomery men are intertwined. Rebekkah must now tend to the dead as the GRAVEMINDER or risk seeing the hungry dead return. Will Byron be able to protect her even as they both struggle with their forced destinies?
 
GRAVEMINDER is quite a departure from Melissa Marr’s young adult series as GRAVEMINDER is solidly an adult tale. The atmosphere is hauntingly dark, almost overwhelmingly so and yet the determination of the various characters to fight against a predestined fate offers a glimmer of hope. Melissa Marr does a great job with the characters in GRAVEMINDER! Rebekkah and Byron are not heroic in the traditional sense. In fact, both have spent years doing the exact opposite- running from any sort of confrontation, relationship, or sense of responsibility. It is their very humanness that makes them so likable.
 
However, it is the pace of the world building that makes GRAVEMINDER so extraordinary. Melissa Marr doesn’t tell us all the secrets of Claysville up front. In fact, even after finishing the tale there are still aspects we want to know more about, people we want to see more, tales we know are left to tell. The parameters of the world build slowly and naturally, as Byron and Rebekkah learn more and more about the dark pact that Claysville signed so many years ago. Quite honestly, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see what happened next! I hesitate to even mention the inclusion of zombies in GRAVEMINDER as this is not your traditional zombie tale by any means! Rather, Melissa Marrs has put her own unique spin on the zombie theme and crafts a spectacular tale that transcends genres. Bravo!

Publisher: William Morrow  (May 2011)

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