Welcome to My Monday Minis Reviews where I share short reviews of books I’ve read. For today I’ll be sharing my review of
Shallow Graves
by Kali Wallace
My Review
Breezy wakes up dead. She has no memory of how it happened or why, one year later, she rose up. The dead guy she killed with her touch is a mystery to her. Why was he digging her up? Did he kill her? What did he want from her?
Breezy must hide what she is as she unravels the mystery of her death and why she came back from those who would shun her and those who want her for their own reasons.
No, Breezy is not a zombie. She doesn’t shuffle around looking for brains to eat. In fact, if she does eat food it makes her ill. I was intrigued by that. For most of the book, you have no idea how she came back or why.
And there are others out there. Like, but not like Breezy. This is where I got a flashback to Nightbreed. Great book and movie about beings of all shapes and sizes just trying to live and avoid being persecuted for being something other than human.
As Breezy learned more about what she was, I thought she handled it well for coming back from the dead. She soldiered on, determined yet scared, trying to hang on to the human part of herself. Read very genuine to me.
About those other beings. I’m pretty sure one was a werewolf, not too crazy about him. I did really like the ghoul brothers. Yep, ghouls. I know, they eat dead bodies. But they can’t help it. And they’re not grungy and smelly. You’d never suspect they cut up bodies in their bathtub and eat them.
A well woven horror mystery, Shallow Graves kept me up late, reading until I reached end. And the ending was a great wrap with up an opening to write more. Not sure if there will be a sequel or series, but if there is, I’ll read it.
4 Stars
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Synopsis
Breezy remembers leaving the party: the warm, wet grass under her feet, her cheek still stinging from a slap to her face. But when she wakes up, scared and pulling dirt from her mouth, a year has passed and she can’t explain how.
Nor can she explain the man lying at her grave, dead from her touch, or why her heartbeat comes and goes. She doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past.
Haunted by happy memories from her life, Breezy sets out to find answers in the gritty, threatening world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight, and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she discovers is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.
Debut author Kali Wallace interweaves folklore and myths from all over the world in this stunning novel about the heartbreaking trauma of a girl’s life cut short and her struggle to reconcile her humanity with the monster she’s become.
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This counts towards my Horror Reading Challenge.
