kahuggs 's review for:

Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf

3.0

---

Grave Birds is a Southern gothic mystery with supernatural elements, chiefly the grave bird creatures, remnants of a departed person's soul containing final images or memories before a person's death, visually represented in the form of ghostly birds. The protagonist, Hollis Southerland, gained the ability to see grave birds after she briefly died in a car accident before being brought back to life. Hollis finds herself on the cusp of achieving her dreams and goals: buying her late uncle's beautiful house to repurpose as a venue for her up-and-coming event planning company. All of that goes sideways when a handsome stranger, Cain Landry, comes to town. As Hollis tries to make her way through the upheaval wrought by Cain Landry, she finds herself unraveling an old, undiscovered mystery featuring one of the prominent families in her small Southern hometown. It's spooky and twisty and engaging. Old secrets, long since buried, come to light as Hollis encounters multiple grave birds and teases out the connections between them.

I generally enjoyed this book! It's spooky and atmospheric, but I wish the connection between the real-world whodunit and the supernatural elements were better balanced and interwoven.