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A review by bookandcoffeeaddict
The Grave Winner by Lindsey R. Loucks
5.0
I received this book in exchange for an honest review (LoP or Lovers of Paranormal)
On the day of her mom’s funeral, 15 year old Leigh sees the reanimated corpse of a recently deceased classmate lurking in the graveyard. While the townspeople and the media find this a fascinating miracle, Leigh has firsthand knowledge of the wrongness (not to mention smell) of said miracle. She gets it into her head that if she buries her mother’s favorite things with her, it will somehow prevent her too from rising. That turns out to be a really bad idea, sparking off a chain reaction involving sorceresses, the living dead, and lots and lots of spiders.
This book is a mild YA horror with a dash of romance. The plot is very original and unpredictable, and Leigh and her best friend, Jo, are great characters with very true to life personalities and great voice. While a love triangle does pop up over the course of the book, it takes a back seat to the rest of the plot.
My favorite character in this book was Sarah, the resurrected prom queen. The poor dead girl was dragged into the whole mess just because Tweedledee and Tweedledum needed her grave. Ultimately, Sarah ends up being both the victim and the hero of this tale, and a more tragic hero I have never seen. She committed suicide and now she is the living dead, forced to return to the world she was willing to die to get away from and rotting away piece by piece. She’s decaying, smells to holy hell, and can’t speak, but does she stay in her room and lament her fate? Possibly. But she also tries her damnedest to help Leigh, which really speaks to her character.
The story was pretty low on angst despite some of the main concepts like death and sacrifice, but emotive enough for the reader to make an emotional connection. All in all, this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to other paranormal lovers.
On the day of her mom’s funeral, 15 year old Leigh sees the reanimated corpse of a recently deceased classmate lurking in the graveyard. While the townspeople and the media find this a fascinating miracle, Leigh has firsthand knowledge of the wrongness (not to mention smell) of said miracle. She gets it into her head that if she buries her mother’s favorite things with her, it will somehow prevent her too from rising. That turns out to be a really bad idea, sparking off a chain reaction involving sorceresses, the living dead, and lots and lots of spiders.
This book is a mild YA horror with a dash of romance. The plot is very original and unpredictable, and Leigh and her best friend, Jo, are great characters with very true to life personalities and great voice. While a love triangle does pop up over the course of the book, it takes a back seat to the rest of the plot.
My favorite character in this book was Sarah, the resurrected prom queen. The poor dead girl was dragged into the whole mess just because Tweedledee and Tweedledum needed her grave. Ultimately, Sarah ends up being both the victim and the hero of this tale, and a more tragic hero I have never seen. She committed suicide and now she is the living dead, forced to return to the world she was willing to die to get away from and rotting away piece by piece. She’s decaying, smells to holy hell, and can’t speak, but does she stay in her room and lament her fate? Possibly. But she also tries her damnedest to help Leigh, which really speaks to her character.
The story was pretty low on angst despite some of the main concepts like death and sacrifice, but emotive enough for the reader to make an emotional connection. All in all, this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to other paranormal lovers.