Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.
Warning: Some bloody/gory scenes.
Well this is my second Christopher Golden book, and I definitely think this one held up better than the last one I read. We have a son (Malcolm) being forced on a quest to take his dead mother (Maggie Wise) back to Maine to bury her. I thought that this book had great character development, some interesting world-building, and I thought that he once again shows, no one you may love in this book is ‘safe’ and going to make it out until the end. The main reason why I gave this four stars is that things slowed down too much at one point in the book and I got tired of one of the characters (Malcolm’s sister) talking in freaking riddles. And also, Violet, sigh. She started getting on my nerves a lot. And I think her point of view at times just slowed the book down too much. At one point we switched from Malcolm, to Violet, to bad guy #1, to bad guy #2, and then to bad guy #3.
Carry Me to My Grave follows Malcolm Wise, youngest son of Maggie Wise, so-called town witch in Elkhart, Indiana as he follows his mother’s last wise. Maggie tells Malcolm he has to bury her back to where she was born, on an island, Shediak, Maine. Malcolm doesn’t know why his mother has made arrangements that will take her body and him across the U.S. on a train, but he decides he will do whatever he can to keep his word. His sister-in-law Violet, and two brothers that Maggie hired are focused on getting Maggie buried in Maine. But some people are out there to stop Malcolm from burying his mother, and will do whatever they have to, to stop him.
The characters were interesting in this one. I liked Malcolm and his focus on doing what his mother asked and when he realizes the why behind it, he’s determined to get it done. I wish we had gotten Maggie’s perspective though, just because we hear from everyone about who she was, and what really had happened to set these things in motion. It just felt like a bit of a cheat to not get that addressed. Violet as I said above, at times was okay, but I started to get tired of her perspective and her focus on keeping this one character (no spoilers) alive. I know me, I would have been done the first time I came across [redacted]. We also get some side characters, the Swickward’s as well who scenes reminded me a bit of that scene in Logan. And that’s about all I am going to say about that.
The setting of this book takes place in the U.S. after the Korean War, so after 1953. That time period made sense since I know a few people would go, why in the world didn’t they just fly to Maine. You have a lot of people at times being murdered in this book and I have to wonder if people would have reacted differently if this took place in the here and now. And then I get sad thinking, nope, more people would have had their phones out and still got killed.
The ending was brutal I thought, but bittersweet. I don’t think Golden does sequels, so I don’t think we will be seeing any of these characters again.
Updated to include bingo:
- Wheels – leaving; traveling; transportation; immigration; vacation; assistive mobility devices; road trip; infrastructure; robots; a car on the cover. Since it’s about transporting a body via train and car, figured this would count.
