Book Review: Girl at the Grave

Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It's not often these days you pick-up a book and find it to exactly what you are expecting. Girl in the Grave was this for me. I wanted a easier to read (ie: YA, teen or romance) story that had some 'edge' (ie: horror, Gothic) to it and a strong female lead. I got everything I could have wanted and more!

It's Teen for Sure!
This is obviously written for the teen genre. Whether you like teen books because you are a teen or (like me) enjoy the style of writing that is common in them. Teri Bailey Black does a superb job of finding one voice in our lead teen girl and creating characters and situations around her that resonant with her lead gal and the reader.
So there are tropes like many teen books. A forbidden love, a (sort-of) love triangle, and of course the ever difficult to figure out moment of loosing ones virginity (be it kissing virginity or otherwise). So long as you go into this expecting those typical teen elements I think you'll find the rest of the book is really well done.

Atmosphere
Sometimes I just want to read or watch something for the atmosphere. It doesn't matter what happens or how, who is involved or when. Instead what matters is the mood, atmosphere and feel of the story. Black has done an excellent job of finding a Gothic voice (it's just occurred to me that her name is ironic given the feel of Girl at the Grave, lol). Set many years ago, in a small town we find creepy elements like old houses, houses with half the house burnt, small graveyards and out of the way forest sanctuaries. Black does an excellent job of creating a Gothic story without any ghosts. Weird right? No, just perfect in my mind. As a former (still wishes I was sometimes) Gothic teen of the 90's I felt like this book was something I would have cherished as a teen. It's like the despair, murder, secrets and hushed whispering is speaking to me directly and I know teen me would have been all over that.

Plot
There is actually a lot of plot going on in this story. Our lead gal had her mother murdered (hanging) because of a murder, the boy she starts hanging out with at school is in fact the son of her mother's murder victim, the townsfolk are ruled by the rich and male of the town, and so transgression like abuse are (more or less) acceptable if not obviously thrown in anyone's face. This all culminates in a murder mystery that tries to solve not only the murder of yore but murders that start happening right then in the line of sight of our lead gal. I didn't see some of the twists that happen but at no time felt like ANY of them were cheap. This is a very, very exciting thing for me as often I find murder mysteries to be one of two things; too predictable or too outrageous. It was lovely to read a Gothic teen story with a well done murder plot.

Overall
I really adored this book. I could absolutely see me revisiting it in the future to have a 'break' from more dense literature. It was wonderful to follow-up The Picture of Dorian Grey (which I found dense and ultimately boring) with Girl at the Grave as it helped me remember that you don't have to read a book written centuries old to get a darker feeling story.
Black connected with me as a reader on so many levels. I wondered at one point if her and I were sharing pieces of a brain as she would do something I would have done with a character (and do it so well!).
You just can't go wrong with this Gothic teen murder mystery.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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