This is a strange book for me to review. I listened to the audiobook and it was brilliantly read by Penelope Rawlins. I listened to it in two days, in between other things that required greater attention, and I enjoyed it very much. From that kind of a quick go-through, it read flawlessly, except for certain old tropes that irked me as a child and that I am surprised to find intact in a novel written so recently.

SPOILERS:

Throughout most of the book it feels as though the main character is the young countess, even though we do switch back and forth between her POV and that of the grave robber’s apprentice. Even though the book is *named* after him, it still feels like it’s her story. And, being written in a time when girls are meant to be more important players in their own novels, the countess is very intelligent and active and bossy. Her quick thinking and skills in acting get them out of many scrapes. Nevertheless, there are comments throughout the book that depict her or females in general or the relationship of males to females in a stereotypical way that no longer should have a place in our novels or in our lives, and in the end, the boy and his powerful father rescue the girl and her parents. Despite all her cleverness and courage, like heroines of old, she still needed him to rescue her. Admittedly, everyone in the good guy camp contributed to the successful rescue of her parents and the dethroning and murder of the bad Archduke and his evil ally, but it was the boy and his dad who pulled it all together. Even the relationship between the countess and the apprentice, which starts off seeming radical because of the difference between their classes, turns out to be between two nobles, after all. He just didn’t know that he was the son of the real Archduke. So, in the end we are restored to the proper balance of unquestioned hierarchy, but with a good guy at the head instead of a bad guy.

I don’t even like hearing myself say these words because it annoys me to be giving attention to themes that were not intended to be important in the book and I don’t like to pick at the books like this. But I feel the need to say something. In a world where we are learning to change so many assumptions, we have to look at even these little, supposedly unimportant things and ask ourselves, collectively, what is the impression they are giving, and is this the impression we want to give? ( )

Adventure

I have has this book to read for a couple years; it ended up being an okay read. It’s decently written but very predictable. The story reads a lot like a fairy tale and has a lot of elements of stories you’ve probably read before (a young girl running from an unwanted marriage, a young man who doesn’t know his parents and finds out they have noble origins).

Parts of the story are pretty gruesome. I know this is aimed at the middle grade audience but I doubt I would want my son (who is nine and reads lots of middle grade books) reading most of this. The grave digging parts can be pretty stomach turning; additionally the evil Archduke is marrying young girls and then killing them after he obtains their dowry (again pretty disturbing when you think about this old man marrying 12 year old girls). There is also talk of torture and gruesome taunts made to Angela’s parents (a raw human heart and gems are delivered to them on a platter at one point).

The story wraps up decently and the writing is easy to read. The whole story has kind of a dark a gruesome atmosphere to it. I never really engaged with any of the characters that well and kind of just breezed through the story and then felt kind of “eh, that was fine” by the end of it.

Overall this is an okay dark and creepy middle grade read. While the story is decently written...it is incredibly predictable and I am uncertain what the true target audience is (some themes are too mature for middle grade audience but the characters are middle grade in age). ( )

Hans doesn’t know who he really is. He know he was washed ashore in a chest and was “adopted” by a grave robber. He also knows he has a strange birthmark. One night when robbing graves, he discovers he’s really helping Angela, a young countess escape from her marriage to an evil man. And this gets the necromancer involved. Now you may think I’m going to tell you what necromancer means, but I’m not going to. Look it up in a dictionary! As the both seek to escape, which includes a ride down a snowy mountain in a coffin, they discover a lot about themselves including who is Hans’ father. And like all good fantasies, the story ends happily—at least for those who deserve a happy ending. For the evil ones the ending is not so happy. ( )

High adventure awaits in this Shakespearean tale of missing heirs, evil magicians, and a Bluebeard-style wicked ruler. The author's gleeful embracement of the conspicuously awful (torture chambers, descriptions of rotting corpses, and being buried alive...) reminded me of the more gruesome Grimm tales, with a bit of Lemony Snicket thrown in. I, personally, loved the various objects the over-the-top Necromancer used for eyeballs in his loathsome empty sockets. I was hoping for a bit more character development. The heroine and hero seemed little changed by their adventures. I also thought the heroine's love of puppetry was going to be put to more significant use. ( )