My New Pet Peeve

There's not a whole lot I come across that gets under my skin when I'm reading.  Sure, bad dialogue, stupid decisions, and poor writing all make for a bad book, but there isn't much that really grates on my nerves.  I think my biggest pet peeve up until now has been characters that call their girlfriend "Baby." (Probably because that annoys me to no end in real life.)  Every time I read somebody saying that, I just want to throw the book down and vomit.  Yes.  It is truly that annoying.  Luckily, I don't come across it that often, although I did have the misfortune of reading two books in a row recently with characters who did that (really, what are the chances?!)

But I have found a new pet peeve:  characters behaving badly.  Not just a little badly, but really badly in ways that aren't necessary.  I talked about this a bit in my previous post, about the book Oblivion, and I'm mentioning it again here, because, believe it or not, I had the misfortune of reading two books in a row with characters who behaved badly enough that it was a distraction from the story (I know, right?).  The first book was obviously Oblivion, and the second book was Behold the Bones by Natalie C. Parker.

I'm not going to give the blurb here, because I already did that here.  Follow the link, read that post, then come back here for the rest of the story, so to speak.

So.  You're probably wondering how it all panned out.  Was the story as great as I thought it would be, or was it a big let down?  It was mostly one and partly the other.  I am really irritated that the author put so much bad behavior into it.  I get that she was trying to show that the heroine, Candy, was a bit wild and going through a rebellious phase, but the way she portrayed it just rubbed me the wrong way.

I never felt the need to get drunk or try drugs and I had more fun than you can shake a stick at.  (Ha ha!  That's my attempt at backwoods humor, not an attempt to show how lame I was (am?).  But seriously.  I had tons of fun and was plenty popular (if you don't believe me, check out my yearbooks).  And surely all teenagers these days don't smoke pot every day or get drunk and have bad hook-ups every weekend.  So why put that kind of thing into a story when it isn't the point of the story?

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not trying to be preachy or judgmental.  Take bad language for example. The book has a scene with Candy and a guy she had a previous altercation with:

At the end of lunch, Riley Wawheece calls my name and doesn't follow it up with anything obnoxious or harassing.  "Candy. Hey. Wait up," is all he says.  Which of course, I don't.  But he continues his pursuit with some of his infamous charm.  "God d*** it, Candy, I'm trying to give you something.  Just wait a God d*** minute." . . . . "Just," he starts to shout, but thinks better of it and lowers his voice, I just need to talk to you for a f***ing second."

I actually thought the exchange was hilarious, maybe because it was so realistic.  But the thing is,  a 12 year old girl is not going to say, I want a potty mouth (ha ha again) like some stupid redneck guy because that would be cool, and I guess that's how all teenagers act so I'd better do it too. The guy was supposed to be crude and rude; that was the point the author was trying to make.  He wasn't the heroine of the story.

My point is, when everyone knows that impressionable tweens are reading these books, maybe we could tone it down a bit.  Especially when it isn't really necessary.  A girl can make out with a guy as an act of rebellion without (I won't even say it here) out by a tree with other people around.  See? (I'll get off my soapbox now.)

Anyway . . . . I was getting pretty upset for a while there, because the good parts of the story kept getting better, and I kept getting distracted from them, but the closer I got to the end, the more the bad behavior sort of diminished, or at least started having negative consequences (reality check time), so I started to enjoy the book more. By the time I only had 35 pages to go, I was dismayed that the book was going to be over so soon, because it was getting really good and how could she possibly wrap it up in 35 pages in a way that would do the story justice?!?!

So what, you ask, were the good parts of the story?  Well, an underlying theme had to do with relationships - both those between people as well as between people and place.  The author did a really good job of developing this theme and making it meaningful.

Also, the blurb made it sound like the book was going to be a goofy girl-falls-for-new-boy romance. The story actually had the heroine involved with three different guys in different ways and to varying degrees.  It was fantastic the way the author set up who Candy was going to end up with, and super fun to see how it evolved from beginning to end.

The main concept of the story was just as good as I hoped it would be.  Not only did it have a family curse and ghosts, but also magic and mystery and even some parts that were super creepy, but not in the usual horror story kind of way, because the book wasn't really a horror story.  The whole thing was really well done, with questions raised and answered at just the right time in just the right way, with little revelations here and there.  I didn't once get bored with the whole thing, and would have kept on reading for another 100 pages to get more of the good stuff.

And the writing - I really liked the writing.  It was told in first person, and had a really unique voice. Not only that, but I liked the use of imagery.  This was the kind of story that makes me want to rush through it to see what is going to happen next, but it has the kind of writing that makes me say woa, I need to stop and read that bit again, either because it was so expressive, or so funny, or so, so, I don't know, but something special for sure.
Here are some examples:

"How does the man survive?" Red asks, still laughing at his father's incompetence.  "I swear you gotta be some kind of special to lose your teeth on the highway."

The second sign of the apocalypse arrives in the form of Riley Wawheece.  Blundering forth with his cadre of unwashed followers, he slings his eyes over to me and mutters, "Hey, Candy."
That's all.  Just a hey and my name lobbed like a grenade. . . .
"What did you do to that boy?" Abigail ducks her head to ask. . . .
"Who knows what's going on in that boy's head at any given time?". . .  "He probably confused me for -- well, he's probably just confused."

Again, it shifts and -- there! -- a hand reaches through the fog to claw the earth . . . The hand appears again as the figure crawls up the hill.  Closer and closer.  I don't take my eyes from its -- her? -- face.  I don't dare lose this sight.  My world in this moment.  Me and the girl climbing the hill with muddy fingertips.

Then, a crack like thunder snaps over the swamp.  It hits my chest like a hammer. I double over, gasping and burning, and dry as though I were a river that was suddenly drained.
Screams.
Mine.
And Mary's.
And Sterlings.

So, did the author wrap the book up in 35 pages in a way that did the story justice?  Yes.  It was perfect. I wasn't disappointed with the ending in the least.  So, all things considered, I'd have to say I really liked this book.

(Just a little add-in:  It's six months after I originally wrote this post, and I came across this website talking about Southern Gothic fiction (here).  It's pretty funny and describes this story to a T (minus the 'possum)!


Rating:  3.5 Stars
Reading Level: not available
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades (a lot of bad behavior)
Page Count:  356
Genre:  Coming of Age, Mystery, Southern Gothic, Paranormal/Supernatural
Keywords: friendship, mystery, family secrets, magic, ghosts

It's Poetry, Baby

I've been on a bit of a poetry kick lately.  Reading poetry, writing poetry.  It all started when I was helping my son look for poems for a school assignment, so I was reading a lot of them.  And what I noticed is, although there are some nice whimsical poems and some that express awe, most of them tend to be darker, filled with angst, or dread, or grief, or melancholy and a whole host of other negative emotions.  This is probably because when people are happy, they are out and about doing things, not sitting around writing poems.  But when they are sad or depressed or grieving, they tend to hole up by themselves.  And if they are a poet, they write poetry at those times.  It is a way to deal with those feelings.  A catharsis, so to speak.

I just finished a book where the main character has had a traumatic experience that she can't remember, but bits and pieces of it are coming out on paper.  It is called Oblivion, by Sasha Dawn.

I KILLED HIM.

HIS BLOOD IS ON MY HANDS.

HIS HEART IS IN MY SOUL.

I KILLED HIM.

One year ago, Callie was found shivering in an abandoned apartment, the walls covered in her red-inked scrawls. She remembers nothing of that night. Nothing of the thirty-six hours before. All she knows is that her father, the reverend at the Church of the Holy Promise, hasn’t been seen since. Neither has Hannah Rynes, a young girl from the parish.

Since that fateful night, she's been plagued by graphomania – a compulsion to write. The words that pound in her head and flow from her red felt-tip pen onto the pages of her notebook, onto her jeans, onto her limbs, make no sense, yet they may be the key to unlocking her memory.  - inside book jacket

Now, of course the main character is not really trying to write poetry, although the boy in the story tells her that that's what it is, like lyrics to a song (which is essentially poetry set to music - two emotional bangs for the buck)  Which brings me to what was so amazing about this story.

Wait, wait, first I think I should tell you what was NOT amazing about this story and get it off my chest and out of the way.

First:  This book has my two biggest pet peeves (see post discussing this topic here) - guys who say "baby" and people behaving badly.  As for the dialogue, I guess some people like that so who am I to say otherwise?  And as far as the bad behavior goes, I get why the author did it; she is setting up the kind of relationship the main character has with the side characters, both of which move the story forward.  I just think there could have been a better way to do it.

Second:  Too much relationship drama.  Along with the bad behavior, this is a big distraction from an otherwise perfect story. I feel like it totally messed with the atmosphere of the main story.  I understand the need for a side story, but it could have been done in such a better way (like Maggie Stiefvater does in The Raven Boys - plenty of side story to go around, but fits perfectly with the whole vibe of the main concept).

Third:  This story features an unrighteous religious leader masquerading as a righteous guy, which always creeps me out (and not in a good way).  This is why I have rarely enjoyed a single book about religious cults.  Of course, this was also necessary to the story, but maybe he didn't have to be the Reverend.


Okay.  So now that we've dealt with all that, lets get to the good stuff.  The amazing stuff.  The stuff that made me give this book four stars even though it probably could have been 5 stars (Gasp!  I know I almost never do that!) if the author had fixed up those things I didn't like.

Amnesia. Missing persons. Family secrets. Buried secrets (literally!). I really, really loved the main concept in this book.  These are all the kinds of things I enjoy reading about.  And they are very well done.  The clues are doled out at just the right pace to develop the mystery and reveal the secret perfectly.

And we can't forget the graphomania.  Not once in the 700 plus books that I have now read, have I ever come across a story where a character has graphomania, so yay, let's hear it for being unique!  But more than the novelty of it, is how well it is done.  This is exactly why the boy tells Callie that what she is writing is poetry.  Because it is.  But it is also creepy as all get out.

Here are some examples of the things she writes:

Burn her. Burn her. Burn her.
Burn her in an urn.
Crucify.
Crucify, quarter and stone her.
Buried alive, buried alive, buried alive . . .

and

Flutter shy, shutter click.  Cluttered skies scuttle quick into the vast unknown, into the vast unknown, into the vast unknown.

and

Close close close close close the crimson door crimson crimson crimson crimson door crimson door door door close the crimson door in your mind . . . 

The author also describes what Callie experiences during the blackouts she's been having, as well as when she dreams:

I stifle a sob and press the blade of my shovel to the wet earth.
Crucify.
It dawns on me: I must be digging for my father's body. . . .
I see nothing but dark bleeding into the beyond. . . .
I'm numb, leaden, planted in the earth like an ancient oak tree. My roots intrude on my father's grave, push into his remains, curl about his bones.

and

A barrage of raindrops pelt the back of my neck like bullets from an automatic weapon.
Dig. Chink. Sift.
Dig. Chink. Sift.

and

In the black of night, I'm rowing. Water is too choppy. I'll never make it. Never make it. Never make it. 

See what I mean?  I never cease to be amazed by the power of words, and these are some powerful words.  The depth of emotion, the suggestion of violence, it's no wonder this girl has lost her memory!  And it is coming back to her with all of the force of a horrific secret.  Once again, I am amazed at the brilliance of the author, not just for her word choice, but for choosing this method to slowly unveil the clues and unravel the mystery in this book.

It would have been a terrible shame to go through all of the good stuff to have a stupid ending, and I am very happy to say that the ending was great.  Everything was tied up nicely, we got all of our questions answered, and there was even a surprise twist as a bonus that we never ever saw coming.
Definitely a book worth reading.

And on a poetry note, check out my blog's poetry page, which you can find in the menu to the right.


Rating:  4 Stars
Reading Level: 730 Lexile
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades (mature subject matter plus a lot of bad behavior)
Page Count:  400
Genre:  Thrillers/Suspense, Mystery, Romance
Keywords: family secrets, murder mystery, graphomania, romance, mental illness

Let's Talk About: Romance

So I checked this book out of the library the other day, thinking it was going to be a ghost story.
The book was The Restorer by Amanda Stevens.

And here was the blurb that I read that made me decide to check it out:

My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe. . . 

I said to myself, this book is right up my alley!  I noticed when I got home, though, that the book had a little sticker on the binding that said "ROMANCE" and I was like, what???   Because I checked it out from the adult fiction section (I usually get my books from the YA section), and I never would have checked out a romance from the adult fiction section.  This is because when I have, (and not on purpose), mostly what I've ended up with isn't what I'd call romance at all.  It's all like, Oh, I'm going to have an affair with my boss who is married, or Oh, I am lusting after my coworker who is so dark and mysterious, or Oh, I am going to go into lurid detail about my night with some random guy I met at the hospital.  Hmmm. I'm not sure what any of those scenarios actually have to do with romance (hooking up with my boss doesn't sound very romantic to me).

Romance is supposed to deal with love and affection.  And a romance story is supposed to deal with people actually falling in love.  Now in defense of the blurb above, there was a little more that I didn't include, which said something about the detective's magnetism, which I either overlooked or interpreted as being a minor part of the story (since the rest of the blurb also talks about the serial killer who leaves clues in the headstones that they are trying to catch, making this now a murder mystery on top of ghost story).

Anyway, I saw that sticker and was like, now I don't know if I want to read this.  But I did anyway, and the 'romance' was NOT romantic, just as I suspected.

Now, I guess I should have said that I'm not a big romance fan to begin with.  I mean, I will not usually pick out a book just because it belongs to that genre.  There has to be something more to it, something interesting about it.  Like it is an adventure story or a mystery or a funny story that just happens to have romance thrown in, or it is clearly a romance but with a very interesting twist.  Young adult novels do this quite a bit, I guess because they figure that teenage girls are all into falling in love and stuff.  So they throw it in to more than half the stories just for good measure.  And you know what?  Those authors are usually really good at it.  So if you are looking for romance that is really truly romantic, you should pick up a young adult novel for sure.

Here are a few that I've enjoyed that have romance in them, but aren't necessarily romance novels:

Freak Magnet by Andrew Auseon
This is actually pretty much all about romance, but it's not at all syrupy or cliche.  It has a beautiful rich girl with family issues and a quirky (possibly Asperger's) guy who decides he has to meet her.  It follows their relationship as it evolves from less than nothing into something special.  Really good story.
(Reading Level: 5.0/Middle Grade+)

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
Loved, loved, loved this trilogy!  It is the story of Greek gods living in modern times who have lost their immortality and are dying.  It has gods in love with mortals, mortals in love with gods, demigods in love with gods, and gods in love with demigods despite their best efforts.  Oh, and reincarnated mortals not admitting that they are in love with each other.  It is also full of mystery and action and adventure.  Very well-rounded. (Reading Level: 4.5/Upper Grades)

Crash by Lisa McMann
This is a book about a girl who keeps seeing visions of an accident that kills a boy.  A boy she has a crush on.  A boy who is forbidden because his family and her family are bitter rivals.  This is nothing like Romeo and Juliet, though.  It is a nice thriller/suspense with plenty of witty dialogue and a budding romance that helps move the story along.  Oh, and it has two follow-up books.  Yea! (Reading Level: 4.9/Middle Grade+)

Enclave by Ann Aguirre
After the world ends things are pretty nasty, but there is still room for love.  Two teenagers develop a romance while fighting mutated monster-things, and in book two their relationship is tested while they try to live in a sort of utopia in the heart of the land of the monster-things, and in book three we find out how it all pans out - their love as well as their fate in relation to the monster-things.  Lots of action and adventure without the gushy stuff (in the romance, I mean, not in the blood and gore.) (Reading Level: 4.8/Middle Grade+)

Fateful by Claudia Gray
I thought I was getting a love story aboard the Titanic in classic historical fiction style.  Well, let me tell you, the 'secret' in the love interest's past is not at all what you would expect, placing this book firmly in the speculative fiction category.  The book has a perfect balance of romance and, well, other stuff, and because it's a stand alone book, you actually get to find out what happens at the end. (Reading Level: 5.3/Upper Grades)

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Don't let the confusing first couple of chapters make you toss this book aside. Once I got past the beginning, this turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read.  The book is mainly about discovering secrets and figuring out what happened in the past and how it is related to the present, but it has a nice bit of a love story in there too.  From what I've seen, everyone else either absolutely loved (by far the majority opinion) or absolutely hated it, so if you decide to give it a try, hopefully you end up on the love side. (Reading Level: 5.0/Upper Grades)

Partials by Dan Wells
Dystopian.  Science Fiction.  Action/Adventure.  Romance?  You betcha.  Girl falls in love with genetically engineered super soldier while trying to figure out how to save their dying world.  Three books of awesomeness guys as well as girls can enjoy. (Reading Level: 6.1/Middle Grade+)

Rook by Sharon Cameron
Here is another historical fantasy action/adventure romance novel.  It has a sort of love triangle, but only one guy has a chance, and he's so perfect for the heroine you don't even feel sorry for the other dude.  It is a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which probably a lot of you have heard of and none of you have read.  It was great.  Definitely on my list of favorite books. (Reading Level: 5.6/Middle Grade+)

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule
I wrote a (kinda) detailed review about this book about a year ago (check it out here) in which I was pretty conflicted about it.  But since this review is about the romance, I'll definitely recommend it, because that is one of the things I loved about it.  I don't want to spoil anything, but the backstory, when you finally figure it out, is like, WHOA.  Amazing. and Different.  And Beautiful.  And if you go back and read my earlier post, I compromised and bought the paperback version. (Reading Level: ? /Upper Grades)

The Smile by Donna Jo Napoli
This is not only historical fiction at its best, but one of the best books I've ever read.  It is about the girl in the Mona Lisa painting.  It is about the options available to women in 15th century Italy.  And of course, it is also about love.  Read it, read it, read it. (Reading Level: 4.0/Upper Grades)

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff
I didn't care for the blurb of this one, but I love the author so I gave it a try.  Using the myth of Lillith as a starting point, it has the daughter of a demon falling for a human boy, but it isn't all angely and demony and supernaturally powered and all that.  It had an unexpected underlying story and a real message, not sexy guys with wings going around doing battle and stuff.  Very unique and interesting. (Reading Level: 5.1/Upper Grades)

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
I had to include this one because I didn't really have one yet that deals with people with a power.  Oh, and because the dialogue between the main character and the boy she is falling for is fantastic.  I've only read the first book in the series, and I didn't care for how it ended, but I'll read the next one just to enjoy all the things the guy says. (Reading Level: 4.3/Upper Grades)

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
So I tried to squeeze in a horror book, which this sort of is.  It does have witches and magic and a scary scene at the end.  But it also has a hokey love triangle with the boy next door and a ghost.  Pretty stupid, really, and kind of a mess, but I read the whole thing so I guess it wasn't too bad.  You might enjoy it. (Reading Level: 4.2/Upper Grades)

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier
Last one!  I felt I needed to cover Fairytales or Fantasy, and I didn't have much for Fairytales so Fantasy it is.  This has the ordinary girl and the extraordinary guy who just so happens to work for the bad guys.  (But of course, nothing is really as it seems.) It is a nice love story with equal parts of fairies and brownies and other uncanny creatures from Celtic mythology, but also a rebellion so there is intrigue and fighting and all that too.  A very nicely done trilogy. (Reading Level: 5.3/Middle Grade+)



Okay.  So I think this is a pretty well-rounded list.  You can see almost everything I've read that I remember having an aspect of romance by going to my Book List about Romance (Here's the link if it makes it easier for you!)

Just a note, many of these books are more appropriate for readers in the upper grades.  If you want the specifics, (you know, is it sex or drugs or profanity or violence), you can find out by entering the title into the AR BookFinder here.

I Just HAVE to Tell Somebody About This Book!

I started a new book last night and I am so excited about it that I HAVE to tell somebody.  And you, dear reader, are that lucky somebody, because, to be honest, I don't have anybody else to tell.

It's not that I'm totally friendless by way of being a hermit or social pariah or any such dramatic type of thing.  It's just that the people I know fall into four categories:

1:  They could absolutely care less.  (Enter husband stage right.) 

2:  They have way too many more important things to be doing to have time to talk about books.

3:  They have time to talk about books, but they have way too many more important things to be doing to have the time to actually read a book.  (Thus totally spoiling the fun of the talking for both of us.)

4:  They love to talk about and read books, but they are so busy reading and doing their other important things that must be done, that there is no time left to spend time together talking.


This is why I started this blog in the first place.

So this book I started reading.  I didn't even get through chapter one and I am already jumping up and down in anticipation.  You see, I am so excited to tell somebody about it, that in my haste to put forth words, I forgot to bring the book in here with me.  So I'll have to go get it.  (Be right back!)

As I was about to say, the book is by Natalie C. Parker.  I read her book Beware the Wild a couple of years ago.  It was a Southern Gothic novel about a boy who goes into the swamp but doesn't come out.  Instead, a girl comes out, taking his place, and nobody seems to remember him except his sister.  It was really weird and definitely different, and pretty good, but I don't remember thinking it was super special or anything.  Well this book is supposed to take place in the same town, shortly after the first book, but the main character now, was a side character then, and vice versa.  This book is called Behold the Bones.  The blurb that is in the front of the book jacket is pretty long:

Candace “Candy” Pickens has been obsessed with the swamp lore of her tiny Louisiana town for…forever.

That doesn’t mean Candy’s a believer, however. She and her friends entered the swamp at the start of summer and left it changed, but Candy’s the only one who can’t see or feel the magical Shine. She’s also the only one who can’t see the ghosts that have been appearing in town ever since. So Candy concentrates on other things—real things. Like fighting with her mother and plotting her escape from her crazy town.

But ghosts aren’t the only newcomers in Sticks, Louisiana. The King family arrives like a hurricane: in a blur and unwanted—at least by Candy. Mr. King is intent on filming the rumored ghostly activity for his hit TV show, Local Haunts. And while Candy can’t ignore how attracted she is to eighteen-year-old Gage King and how much his sister, Nova, wants to be friends, she’s still suspicious of the family.

As Candy tries to figure out why the Kings are really in town and why the swamp now seems to be invading every crack in her logical, cynical mind, she stumbles across the one piece of swamp lore she didn’t know. It’s a tale that’s more truth than myth, and may have all the answers…and its roots are in Candy’s own family tree.

When I read this summary I was just kind of like, meh, that sounds like about forty books I've already read.  But the book was there on the shelf in front of me at the library and I thought, well, how bad could it really be?  So I picked it up and brought it home. . . . Where it's been sitting on my shelf for a few weeks.  I don't even know why I decided to read it next.

You're probably wondering right about now, based on my lackluster reception of the book, what could possibly have gotten me so excited in the first eight pages.  To be honest, I don't quite know myself.  I guess it was just something about the way the book's concept was presented that completely turned my opinion about it.  This is how it begins:

GRANDPA CRAVEN KICKED IT THE day I was born.

     It's a family tradition:  Once in every Craven's memory, a child will be born on the day some other Craven dies.  In the infinite loop of cosmic justice, that child will grow up to be killed by the birth of another.  We call it the Craven Curse and every year on the anniversary of Grandpa's death, we visit the family graveyard and listen to Uncle Jack recite the list of all those who have carried this fine tradition of death by birth forward.

     That's why every year, before they wish me happy birthday, my family hauls me to a backwoods graveyard to remind me that I, Candace Craven Pickens, killed my own grandpa.

Now, that should have been the blurb on the back of the book.

The chapter goes on to say that all the relatives are standing around while Nanny Craven sits by grandpa's headstone alternately sipping her moonshine and pouring some onto the grave.  And Uncle Jack tells about the ancestors and how they lived and died and so on and so forth, until they tell Candace happy birthday at the end (because of course she hasn't died yet) and then Candace gets to drink the moonshine and is harassed by her crazy grandmother.  That's about as far as I've gotten.

This concept is super appealing to me. Not only does it have all the kinds of stuff I love, but I can kind of relate to it as well.

Curses ✔

Hanging out in a graveyard ✔   

Hanging out in a family graveyard  ✔     

Mystery ✔    

Family mystery ✔ 

Uncle Jack ✔

Hicks drinking moonshine in the family graveyard ✔

Totally original backstory ✔

All around general weirdness ✔

So, there is just something about curses that I think make a great story if they are well written.  And I love stories with a graveyard.  Maybe it's my archaeology background or my love of genealogical research, or maybe my sometimes melancholy musings, but I find graveyards intriguing. And the only thing more intriguing than a graveyard is a family graveyard.  There is just so much story and lost history (translates as mystery) there.  And I love a good mystery, especially when it doesn't stay a mystery and you get all the answers in a tidy package at the end.  And did I mention family mystery? I've stumbled upon quite a few of those while researching my husband's family tree.  And, it just so happens that my own family has a sort of mystery.  You see, my great grandfather and his brother mysteriously changed their names and left home back in the 1920's, and wouldn't talk about where they were from. Nobody knew who my great grandfather really was until my aunt miraculously dug it up almost thirty years after he died (but, alas, not with all the answers in a tidy package).  So, yeah, family mysteries are cool.  My family also has had its fair share of hicks, and some ancestors who lived in Louisiana during the 1800's.  They are far enough removed from the present to be just a story, but a story with so many holes that they are a mystery (there we go again!).  I don't have a crazy moonshine drinking grandma, but I do have an uncle named Jack, who incidentally is a great talker, so . . . 

Maybe what grabbed me is the all around general weirdness of the story so far.  You know, cursed hicks with a family mystery having a birthday celebration in a family graveyard.  I mean, who can top a combination like that?  And the back story is very creative.  And original.  That's why I wasn't drawn in by the blurb about ghosts, even though I like stories about ghosts.  But a long chain of family members dying on the day another is born?  That's something new.  And new is always good.  

Let's just hope the story turns out to be.  I would hate to have gotten all excited for nothing.

My great grandfather Heinrich Gruenberg

a.k.a. Harry Goldie