Let me preface this by saying I don’t give books high ratings unless I truly enjoyed it and believe in the story. I also don’t hold a couple mistakes against the author, should I find typos, because I recognize that people make mistakes and are always improving. Some things are simply just unavoidable. Having said that, five star ratings are hard to get from me. I basically have to love everything about the book. It has to be perfect, and that is rare. Let me get into the the details of my reasoning for rating this book four stars.
Grave Beginnings starts out with a gripping intro, acquainting the reader with its main character, Vincent, in a tricky situation. The author uses this situation as a tool to explain some of the most integral parts of the supernatural setting, as well as Vincent’s overall situation. This is done in first person, and it works really well. It reminds me of those detective tv shows or movies where the detective is constantly monologuing to himself. The book also reminds me of Supernatural, a tv show that I love, because Vincent is essentially on the hunt for a mythological big bad.
I did feel that Vincent suffered from some maturity issues at times, but this didn’t become super apparent to me until the last few chapters. He read more like a teenager at that point, which made me wonder if the book was targeted at younger readers. Throughout most of the book, I enjoyed his voice, his sass, and his general personality. Many remarks had me smirking or laughing, and the pop culture references didn’t bother me. His snark about every situation was my favorite thing about him. I especially enjoyed his interactions with the secondary character, Ortiz. They made a great team in the novel once they met up, though Ortiz did seem like the stereotypical tough girl cop throughout. The way she unwaveringly challenged everything Vincent said and did, coupled with her ability to keep him in line was refreshing, and so the stereotype didn’t bother me.
Some things that did bother me was that the writing felt a little too much like hand holding at times. Certain things that were meant to be hints were mentioned repeatedly and it felt excessive. A lot of the time, it seemed like pointless details thrown in. Other times, it felt like Vincent’s bitterness at his situation showing through versus how he would have liked to live his life. The book concludes why these details were added when the final big bad is revealed, and then it just feels like the author didn’t trust the reader to make those conclusions themselves. Character development felt more like telling instead of showing at times, and various bits of it were rehashed and made it feel like the author was worried the reader wouldn’t get it. This book also suffers from run-on sentences, which appears to be the author’s chosen writing style for Vincent’s monologues. I’m a firm believer that this can be done without run-on’s, and it dragged the book down for me. Some sentences packed so much in, it was hard to keep track of the point. Others were worded in a way that I couldn’t follow easily and left me confused due to both the length and structure.
I also had problems suspending my disbelief near the end due to the tactics used in battle, which relates back to my question about Vincent’s age. There is some sexualization of a certain character that goes on that ties into this and made me uncomfortable as well. I might be more lenient if Vincent is supposed to be a teenager. However, I was always under the impression that he’s an adult, so these things bother me based on that assumption, since Vincent’s age is never revealed.
The only other thing that stood out for me was the amount of repetition that goes on throughout the book. Certain words being used excessively on the same page made the writing redundant and dry at times. Some chapters were difficult to push through for that reason. A good example of this would be if fire was involved, then the words flames, fire, etc would be used repeatedly to the point where my inner editor could no longer overlook it. There was a point where I put the book down and took a break, but I eventually picked it back up and finished it because I genuinely liked the characters and wanted to see how the story ended.
The end of the book definitely managed to pique my curiosity enough to purchase the second book. I also believe the author has potential for good story telling and that he will only improve as he continues to hone his craft. I have faith that the second book in the series will be leagues ahead of the first. Plus the first book sort of left us off on a cliffhanger because Church is a tease, and I’m super curious to find out more about him and Vincent.
In closing, if you love supernatural detective stories and can overlook some writing flaws, then give this book a try. Most probably won’t even take issue with some of the things I did toward the end if the number of five star reviews is any indication. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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