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A review by knightressx
Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
In Southeast Texas in 1999, three generations of Evans women run the only funeral parlor in town. But when bodies start arriving and rising from the dead with a hunger for their neighbors’ flesh, Ducey, her daughter Lenore and her granddaughter Grace all know what must be done: the dead must be put to their final rest as per familial custom.
Sometimes cozy and sometimes grisly, Bless Your Heart is a novel with engaging characters, sprinkles of dark humor, horrifying antagonists and more than a couple of secrets. I enjoyed reading about the Evans women, their struggles with their complicated history-particularly following an event fifteen years prior known as the “Godawful Mess”-and at times with one another.
Each member of the family has their own distinct personality and while their mindsets sometimes differ in terms of how they view the vampiric Strigoi and the nature of death, their love for one another is still paramount.
Lindy Ryan does a wonderful job of capturing the nature of a small Southern town; where relationships, secrets and grudges are closely intertwined. The secondary characters are also interesting: with Deputy Roger Taylor trying to puzzle together a growing number of disappearances and dead bodies and Crane, the mysterious newcomer to the town who captures the interest of Grace’s daughter Luna.
The Strigoi are portrayed as utterly horrifying and bear characteristics of both vampires and zombies. The gore depicted from their attacks was initially surprising, but helped to emphasize the extent of their threat as the number of victims increased.
The tension in Bless Your Heart builds steadily to its thrilling and emotional climax, though I wish we had spent a little more time with Ducey, Lenore, Grace and Luna prior to the conclusion.
Thank you very much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Lindy Ryan for providing access to this ebook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.
Sometimes cozy and sometimes grisly, Bless Your Heart is a novel with engaging characters, sprinkles of dark humor, horrifying antagonists and more than a couple of secrets. I enjoyed reading about the Evans women, their struggles with their complicated history-particularly following an event fifteen years prior known as the “Godawful Mess”-and at times with one another.
Each member of the family has their own distinct personality and while their mindsets sometimes differ in terms of how they view the vampiric Strigoi and the nature of death, their love for one another is still paramount.
Lindy Ryan does a wonderful job of capturing the nature of a small Southern town; where relationships, secrets and grudges are closely intertwined. The secondary characters are also interesting: with Deputy Roger Taylor trying to puzzle together a growing number of disappearances and dead bodies and Crane, the mysterious newcomer to the town who captures the interest of Grace’s daughter Luna.
The Strigoi are portrayed as utterly horrifying and bear characteristics of both vampires and zombies. The gore depicted from their attacks was initially surprising, but helped to emphasize the extent of their threat as the number of victims increased.
The tension in Bless Your Heart builds steadily to its thrilling and emotional climax, though I wish we had spent a little more time with Ducey, Lenore, Grace and Luna prior to the conclusion.
Thank you very much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Lindy Ryan for providing access to this ebook. All opinions expressed are solely my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Death