Shallow Graves

What exactly is going on in SHALLOW GRAVES? Well, Breezy has woken up and she is so much different than before. She is... a zombie (zombie being a very loose term) who can regenerate and take lives (souls) of murderers. She is thrown for a tumble when someone drugs her and then sends her into a tiny room, clearly knowing what she is. Breezy may not know what she is, but she is definitely searching for the truth.

Breezy is a really interesting character, and her voice and characteristics is definitely not one would find very frequently in books. She puts science above magic, at least she does in the beginning. She makes a bunch of suicide tests and wonders why she can't die. She takes data of how she dies and knows that no matter how far she is broken, her body will heal. Then she is captured, and she must figure out whether or not she is a monster her captors claim she is or the human she believes herself to be. It's the age-old question.

The plot is packed with action. In the beginning, the book starts off with Breezy going serial killer hunting. And she does indeed find a killer (though not a serial killer) who is on the hunt for his second victim. Bam! He dies. It gives an aura of mystery over Breezy's powers, and I'm curious to exactly what she does. (Soul taking? Soul theft? Soul... Well, something one of those Dementors do to their victims? But in reverse? Like taking the darkness out of the souls instead? Don't know. And the topic itself isn't very addressed.)

The villain... Well, it's actually villains. Depending on which part of the story the reader is in, the villain differs. It's hard to tell who exactly is the real one, because there are so many of them. The Mother. The priest. The priest's lackey. The murderers themselves (minor villains). But they all help define Breezy a bit more and help her figure out who she is, and that is awesome.

The ending is a very satisfying part. Though Breezy doesn't go to a bloody rampage of death and revenge, she does find a purpose. Her personal mission of discovering things, in fact. She may not join NASA (who knows how they will react to a zombie-like girl?), but she'll be happy. And once again, that is awesome.

Overall, SHALLOW GRAVES is most certainly not what I expected. But it's a really good read about a girl who is, at first, asking the wrong questions until she, like a true scientist, stumbles onto the right one. Great plot, good moments of action, and a really terrifying monster(s).

Rating: Four out of Five

When Breezy wakes up, it isn’t from a normal night’s sleep. Instead, she wakes up from the ground, after a year of being dead, and the first thing she does is touch a man and unexpectedly kills him. Not knowing what has happened to her, she wanders and struggles to piece together her previous life while being thrown into a world of magic, creatures she never thought could exist, and a fate she may never escape.

What I Loved:

Breezy is an unapologetic main character who knows who she is (if not what) and makes no excuses for her actions. She is tough and rough around the edges, never striving to be perfect or even terribly concerned with being good. Her opening narrative provides an incredible hook immediately, and the premise is intriguing and mysterious. Diversity is also a wonderful and natural part of the story, featuring a bisexual woman of color protagonist to a plethora of diverse secondary characters.

What Left Me Wanting More:

Though the premise is fascinating, the story line often derails into seemingly directionless areas. The mystery behind Breezy’s murder only surfaces occasionally between a sort of cult community take down. However, readers who enjoy genre-bending stories may find that part the most invigorating. Likewise, the story hints at many deep and complex themes from humanity to murder, yet they are only seldom explored given their weight in plot progression.

While the secondary characters are interesting, they have a tendency to feel flat and often little time and dialogue are given to get to know them. Even so, this does make Breezy’s character a strong focus and opens her primary narrative to more detail and development.

Final Verdict:

Though Shallow Graves isn’t the best fit for me, the layers of diversity, intriguing premise, and unapologetic heroine make this book a lovely selection for those who desire magic, murder, and the unusual in their stories.

Shallow Graves features a new and interesting concept of the dead. Breezy is dead, or undead, but not in the 'must have braiiiiiiiiiiins' fashion that has become so popular in fiction today. She seems just like a regular girl, she just can't die. And believe me, she has tried. One of my favorite parts of this book featured Breezy's lists, one of which was her list of ways in which she has tried to die including drowning, shooting and crashing head-long into a tree. The writing style worked well and Breezy is a great new voice.

I love seeing diversity in main characters and Breezy ticks a lot of boxes; she is a Chinese, bisexual teenage girl who loves Science and was obsessed with being an astronaut. I really felt her pain as she lamented the fact that her one ambition in life was now off limits despite the fact that she was now perfect for the job - no need to eat or breathe and apparently indestructible. It was also really interesting to read as she tried to apply her analytical mind to the new task at hand - namely figuring out this new world and finding out why she isn't dead.

Shallow Graves does not follow down the traditional path of distracting from the plot with an ill-fitting love interest. There is a boy, there is potential with the boy, but neither of them seems interested in pursuing that at the moment. There is also an underlying thread that makes social commentary on the issues of slut shaming and victim blaming. I loved that Breezy was self and socially aware enough to recognize how differently her life (and death) would have been if she had been a teen boy murdered rather than a girl and these sections come off as thought-provoking, rather than preachy.

Unfortunately, not everything in this story worked quite as well as it could have. The author chose a non-linear manner of storytelling which worked in parts, but other times was strange and confusing. There are two main mysteries and neither of them ends particularly strongly. I was particularly disappointed in the reveal of who killed Breezy. I was hoping for one of those 'oh my god, no way?!' moments, but it just fell a little flat and felt frustrating. The other storyline featured a big baddie who, rather than being defeated, was merely contained. This made the book feel like the first in a series, though that doesn't appear to be the case, and I didn't like that ambiguousness.

Bottom Line: A fun book with an interesting new character. Wish it was a series though....