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Book Review
Title: Two Graves
Author: Zoe Kalo
Type of Book: Novella (Approximately 70 pages)
Spoilers below?: Yes.
Introduction: I was really interested in the premise of this book. It sounded suspenseful, potentially spooky, and intense. As soon as I was able to get my hands on this book, I began my read and it shockingly didn’t even take my an hour (include probably about 30 minutes of checking social media in that since I got distracted).
Quick Review: The cover is absolutely gorgeous. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but if you are looking for something pretty to put on your shelf than this book fits the bill. The cover made me get the impression the book might be spooky, but it’s not as spooky as you might think. I found this book to be entertaining, but not what I expected from the cover and summary.
Plot: I was incredibly confused by the plot. I understood something happened to the main character’s son (which I thought was her brother? She was sixteen, so did she have her kid at twelve or thirteen? The way she talked it was like he was her brother, so was this supposed to be one of those situations where the grandparents raise the grandchild as their own?…) but then I was left confused as to what exactly happened. I re-read this book a few times trying to understand what happened, but I was left even more confused as my brain tried to put the story together. The book at least had my hooked at what supposedly happened, but to no avail. Then, after I got so thrilled to find out what was happening, the book kind of just ended. I know this is going to be a series, but it left me feeling a little sad. Was that the cliffhanger for the next book? I hope so! I want to know so much more! This was only a little seventy page novella, so I hope there’s more to come.
I was also very confused as to who the “Father” the main character was talking to. This “Father” left, so I was left assuming this was the Father of both the main character and her “little brother” (Apparently son as I read more reviews). But, she never gives him any form of affection or father-daughter like talk between the two, so I’m assuming he was the Father of her child? I would have liked if this was more specified. As much as I love putting the work into a good mystery, this wasn’t much of a mystery, and more of just some plot details left out. If this book was centered on finding how the relationships between the characters, then sweet! I’ll do the work for that. But this book did not give me this feel.
I found the sixteen year old version of the main character and the man she talked on the phone with sounded way to adult-like. I know there are very mature kids out there, but it just seemed odd. If these two had a kid together at a very young age, I wouldn’t think they’d be acting super mature towards each other and playing the adult roles. It just seemed odd to me, but maybe it isn’t. That’s just my opinion.
Now here’s the real mystery that bugged me – why did this woman want revenge and against whom? This person appears, but we never know why or who he is. It clearly wasn’t the Father of her child. Did this person do something to her child? That’s hinted at. There just wasn’t enough information for me to truly understand. I get wanting to leave a cliffhanger, but this felt like the entire plot wasn’t even addressed. It’s like, reading Gone Girl (spoiler alert……) and never finding out what happened to Nick Dunne’s wife and her never returning – she just leaves and disappears, Nick tries to find her, and then the end in the middle of his hunt. It didn’t seem right. Perhaps this was just an introduction to the rest of the series (and that could work!) but without a hint as to when the next book would come out seems unfair to the reader.
Overall: I expected a lot more and I hope more is added (whether it’s in this novella or a series of novellas or a series of books). This novella was super interesting, but it was just missing some bits and pieces that would have made it so much better! This author is incredible at describing wardrobes and pieces of music, it’d be a real shame to not see more of her work floating around in my local book shops!
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
This novella was fantastic, and I’m glad I got a chance to read and review it. I definitely want to read more since this book was so well written, and I’m sure there is more to this story lurking in Zoe Kalo’s brain. It’s intriguing, it left me speechless, and it had my brain working overtime trying to connect anything and everything to try to solve the story.
Briar's Reviews 