Synopsis:
This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…
…and a boy who cannot die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…
Review:
I got this ebook from Netgalley in return of an honest review.
Going into this book I was expecting a funny, light hearted story about the friendship of a girl and boy who happens to live in a cemetery. Nothing like that!
This actually surprised me positively. From the first page I knew it was going to be more than I first thought it would, and that got me excited.First of all, the characters were fascinating, but that is not the same thing as likable. I found both the boy's and the girl's fathers to be detestable, but most of all, I hated Carrie Anne's mother. She knew what her husband was doing, yet she did nothing. Carrie Anne almost got killed on the first day of school and she got abused by her father, and yet her parents just kept asking where she had gone wrong, what was wrong with her. I really felt sorry for her.
And even though we only got to read one chapter of the boy's story, I felt really attached to him, especially when he makes his appearance in Carrie Anne's life.
From that moment on, this book took a turn. It became a really eerie, creepy, dark, sinister, odd, cute and sad at the same time. And that was alright, it worked really well with the way the story progressed.
The ending caught me off guard. I reckon it ended in the perfect place, making this such an incredible tale. It touched serious matters and made the situation of the people living them very understandable to someone who doesn't know them. In fact, I believe this book was quite the allegory!
I recommend this one hundred per cent, and I really hope to read more by this author in the future.
