Title: The Caged Graves
Standalone
Author: Dianne K. Salerni
Publish date: May 14th 2013 by Clarion Books
Source: ARC received from the publisher
Buy it from: Amazon
Goodreads summary:
17-year-old Verity Boone expects a warm homecoming when she returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867, pledged to marry a man she has never met. Instead, she finds a father she barely knows and a future husband with whom she apparently has nothing in common. One truly horrifying surprise awaits her: the graves of her mother and aunt are enclosed in iron cages outside the local cemetery. Nobody in town will explain why, but Verity hears rumors of buried treasure and witchcraft. Perhaps the cages were built to keep grave robbers out . . . or to keep the women in. Determined to understand, Verity finds herself in a life-and-death struggle with people she trusted.
Inspired by a pair of real caged graves in present-day Catawissa, this historical YA novel weaves mystery, romance, and action into a suspenseful drama with human greed and passion at its core.
Review:
So. Guys. I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t heard more of you talking about The Caged Graves by Dianne Salerni.
I’ve said time and time again that I love Historical Fiction. But often I’m wary of it at the same time. It so rarely feels authentic. It often feels like the author sacrifices either research or character development for the other, and I’m left unsatisfied.
Not so in The Caged Graves– it felt authentic through and through.
Another thing that doesn’t USUALLY work for me, but did here is a smidge of a love triangle element. And it’s not all that surprising. Verity wibbles between the fiance she’s meeting for the first time and the young doctor’s apprentice that she feels an attraction too. It felt real– she was getting to know both men at the same time and trying to figure out her feelings for both. There wasn’t always a clear victor. To the point where I actually skipped to the end to see if she picked my favorite guy– and I NEVER skip to the end.
And the MYSTERY. It was fascinating and eerie. There’s this great deal of uncertainty about the circumstances of Verity’s mother’s death. Was it natural? Or SUPERNATURAL? The Caged Graves walks that line perfectly, eerie enough that things can’t just be explained away.
And Verity herself? If I’d been alive in 1867 (and, erm… fictional), I suspect we would have gotten along grandly. She’s a developed character and is both realistic to the time period she lives in and a strong female character (in a non-ass-kicking sense).
Need a second opinion?
“I found myself so absorbed in the story that I finished it in a few hours.” –First Novels Club
“Maybe readers that read historical fiction more than me may enjoy this one.” –Great Imaginations
“It seems like a ghost story, so it reads like that, all suspenseful, but then it gets mysterious and beautiful.” –The Grown-Up YA
