Review: Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Shallow Graves

When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. In life, Breezy was always drawn to the elegance of the universe and the mystery of the stars. Now she must set out to find answers and discover what is to become of her in the gritty, dangerous world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she finds is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Holy smokes... Shallow Graves was not at all what I was expecting, but it was something completely different and brilliant. Shallow Graves was fast paced from the start, throwing the reader into the action and making you chase to catch up to the goings on. Never did this seem like a bad thing, instead, it meant that the pace was fast and the book was addictive. Yes, there were parts where the pace did drop, but it never seemed slow.

I spent much of this book happily confused, and by the end I still had to ask myself what had happened for the last 300+ pages. This book was equal parts humor, paranormal and mystery, with a little horror thrown in for good measure (this is, after all, a thrilling zombie book). Yes, there were things that could have been better explored, but I think that exploring things better would have made this book drag so I'd like to think this was a conscious decision on Wallace's part.

Breezy as a character was brilliant, she was calm and cool, not at all like a lot of hysterical YA protagonists. Her internal monologue was entertaining with a dry, sarcastic humour you totally wouldn't expect from a zombie. She's well adapted to her situation, which seemed unrealistic but it worked.

The supporting characters, though they were few, were great - Zeke and Jake and their brownie under the stairs - seriously, these two were amazing. I want a book just about the two of them and their life!

Overall, Shallow Graves was a comedic, dry horror that kept a good pace and was written in such an entertaining voice. Plot wise, I wasn't completely blown away but every other aspect of this book made it more than worth a read. 


Book released 26th January 2016 by Katherine Tegen Books
Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review

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