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the_reading_vvitch's reviews
468 reviews
Bless your heart by Lindy Ryan
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny―Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since "That Godawful Mess" that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her daughter alone.
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But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.
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I would say that this was more amusing than frightening, though given the setting and the characters it may have been intentional. Regardless, it was a quick and enjoyable read and I flew through it in one day. There is a lot of gore and blood in this story, but I could always use more ominous vibes and sensations. Although I liked the Evans family's strong female characters, I would have preferred more backstory to them and less slow-moving Southern chitchat. It is possible that this was done on purpose to continually provide the reader little titbits as secrets are kept from the town and each other throughout the story
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The main characters of Bless Your Heart span a wide age range while adhering to Southern Gothic aesthetics. Comic horror and dark fantasy fans will find a lot to enjoy here, and the unanswered questions at the end suggest that there may be more in this series to come. I will be keeping an eye out for sure