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hopef's review against another edition
fast-paced
2.25
While the concept is interesting and the splits fo eventually make sense at the end, the jumping within the second chapter especially is distracting at best. Also, the novella length left both the characters and the concept underdeveloped.
It may be helpful to some readers to note that this is written in second person.
It may be helpful to some readers to note that this is written in second person.
octavia_cade's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, this is lovely. It's fair to say I'm slightly biased - I've been salivating over this story since I first read part of an early draft - but the whole thing together is just wonderful. It's the prose that gets me the most. It's so lucid, and so enormously, quietly powerful that it's just perfect for this story... although let's face it, lovely prose is something the author is becoming ever more known for. There are a few short fiction writers who can routinely make me sick with jealousy at the shining beauty of their prose, and Andi is one of them.
This is just so highly recommended. It's beautiful and thoughtful, and there is so much care given to both character and structure that it's going to end up being one of those books I read again and again, finding something new in every time.
This is just so highly recommended. It's beautiful and thoughtful, and there is so much care given to both character and structure that it's going to end up being one of those books I read again and again, finding something new in every time.
rivqa's review against another edition
5.0
Ghosts, possibilities, stories. Elegantly structured and gorgeously written. A beautiful, heart-filling novella.
anotsowickedwhich's review against another edition
4.0
“All ghost stories start with endings, but you are a woman, not a story.”
This book tells the story of the various possibilities a single event may go. The one factor that always remains the same is this — an attempted murder of a teenage girl on a hillside in New Zealand. Whichever particular path is the ‘truth’ isn’t quite the point in my opinion. Certain moments and people still fill in spaces along each timeline. It was both paranormal and a little bit sci-fi. Both things I tend to enjoy in a read.
As a story told in second person, this isn’t a normal read for me, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. There is something almost diaphanous about the writing and prose despite how suffocating and dark the subject matter is. Like something drifting along in the wind that touches your arm lightly and gets your attention. It had mine the whole way through.
It was a quick read; a single sitting was all it took for me. I truly would not have minded more had there been so!
I received a free copy of this book for review from BookSirens. Thank you so much to them and the author for the opportunity.
This book tells the story of the various possibilities a single event may go. The one factor that always remains the same is this — an attempted murder of a teenage girl on a hillside in New Zealand. Whichever particular path is the ‘truth’ isn’t quite the point in my opinion. Certain moments and people still fill in spaces along each timeline. It was both paranormal and a little bit sci-fi. Both things I tend to enjoy in a read.
As a story told in second person, this isn’t a normal read for me, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. There is something almost diaphanous about the writing and prose despite how suffocating and dark the subject matter is. Like something drifting along in the wind that touches your arm lightly and gets your attention. It had mine the whole way through.
It was a quick read; a single sitting was all it took for me. I truly would not have minded more had there been so!
I received a free copy of this book for review from BookSirens. Thank you so much to them and the author for the opportunity.
hope_lenzen's review against another edition
2.0
A home grown ghost story. The possible different endings to a young girls story with a paranormal twist.
I loved the idea. Before reading this I got very excited to delve in but I’m very sad to say I was slightly disappointed. I feel as if the paranormal aspect was forced into a story that didn’t need it and it was almost as if it was an afterthought. It was also written in second person and I really felt increasingly badgered by the author as the story developed. I never grew to love Phyllis or Aroha or really any of the characters and the different possible endings, instead of feeling complete and standalone, felt disjointed and almost made the reading experience uncomfortable. I feel like this story spent way too much time telling me things I didn’t need to know and when it came to important moments they were glossed over with barely a second thought. The effects of time travel for example... there wasn’t enough for me to fully appreciate the consequences chosen by the character and I feel this really effected my reading experience.
I loved the idea. Before reading this I got very excited to delve in but I’m very sad to say I was slightly disappointed. I feel as if the paranormal aspect was forced into a story that didn’t need it and it was almost as if it was an afterthought. It was also written in second person and I really felt increasingly badgered by the author as the story developed. I never grew to love Phyllis or Aroha or really any of the characters and the different possible endings, instead of feeling complete and standalone, felt disjointed and almost made the reading experience uncomfortable. I feel like this story spent way too much time telling me things I didn’t need to know and when it came to important moments they were glossed over with barely a second thought. The effects of time travel for example... there wasn’t enough for me to fully appreciate the consequences chosen by the character and I feel this really effected my reading experience.
mariahaskins's review against another edition
5.0
This is a compelling story that is both strange and wonderful, weaving together a ghost story, history (it's mostly set in New Zealand in and around the 1930s), time travel, and more. The novella is divided into four parts as it delves into the real, and imagined, history of Phyllis Symons who lived and died in Wellington in the early 20th century. Buchanan gives us an unflinching and harrowing look at her life and her death and her afterlife. It's a story that grabs you and will not let go.
I love how the grit and grime of everyday life exists beside the supernatural, and magic and science fiction, in this story, and I also adore the strong and compelling sense of time and place: I really felt transported to another place and time while reading it.
This is a story about a woman who is murdered, but the murder is not the point. Rather, it's about the life she had and might have had. A haunting and luminous book.
I love how the grit and grime of everyday life exists beside the supernatural, and magic and science fiction, in this story, and I also adore the strong and compelling sense of time and place: I really felt transported to another place and time while reading it.
This is a story about a woman who is murdered, but the murder is not the point. Rather, it's about the life she had and might have had. A haunting and luminous book.
meagankc21's review against another edition
4.0
Totally weird but incredibly compelling story (or should I say stories?). What a wonderfully creative narrative that kept me thinking and wondering what the heck was happening. Full review coming soon
noelanig's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
barbarahowe's review
4.0
Seventeen-year-old Phyllis Symons was murdered in 1931, struck on the head and then buried alive in fill from the excavation of Wellington’s Mount Victoria tunnel. That historical fact is the springboard for From a Shadow Grave, by New Zealand author Andi C Buchanan. This novella is divided into four chapters, with the first imagining what Phyllis’s life might have been like in a sequence of events leading up to her murder, and her shadow existence afterwards as a ghost. Our sympathy is drawn for a poor, not well-educated, probably dyslexic girl struggling to find her way among the constrained economics of the Great Depression. The author evokes sympathy for the ghost, too, a lonely spirit stuck forever on Mount Victoria:
Your mother visits the Karori Cemetery every Sunday after church for a year, but she never visits Mount Victoria. She visits your body, but she never visits you.
But this isn’t simply a ghost story. It’s more about what-ifs and possibilities. The first chapter is the starting point for the other three, each one a different direction the story could have gone after Symons’s burial.
In the first alternative, it is eighty years later, and a young Maori woman named Aroha Brooke climbs Mt Vic, looking for Phyllis. She promises to break the bond tying the ghost to her death site, in exchange for Phyllis’s help in fighting something much more menacing than a ghost.
In the second alternative, Aroha travels back in time, hoping to find Phyllis before she suffocates.
The speculative fiction elements are less significant in the third alternative, which is more about ordinary human determination and acceptance. Aroha reappears, but only as a minor character. The focus is on Phyllis, who grows into a more active player in her own story.
From a Shadow Grave is poignant and beautifully written, enough so to overcome my dislike of second-person narration. (You do this, you feel that, …) I wish we had learned more about what drives Aroha, but that’s a minor quibble. It’s a lovely story as is.
This review was first published on This Need to Read.
Your mother visits the Karori Cemetery every Sunday after church for a year, but she never visits Mount Victoria. She visits your body, but she never visits you.
But this isn’t simply a ghost story. It’s more about what-ifs and possibilities. The first chapter is the starting point for the other three, each one a different direction the story could have gone after Symons’s burial.
In the first alternative, it is eighty years later, and a young Maori woman named Aroha Brooke climbs Mt Vic, looking for Phyllis. She promises to break the bond tying the ghost to her death site, in exchange for Phyllis’s help in fighting something much more menacing than a ghost.
In the second alternative, Aroha travels back in time, hoping to find Phyllis before she suffocates.
The speculative fiction elements are less significant in the third alternative, which is more about ordinary human determination and acceptance. Aroha reappears, but only as a minor character. The focus is on Phyllis, who grows into a more active player in her own story.
From a Shadow Grave is poignant and beautifully written, enough so to overcome my dislike of second-person narration. (You do this, you feel that, …) I wish we had learned more about what drives Aroha, but that’s a minor quibble. It’s a lovely story as is.
This review was first published on This Need to Read.