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The Boy in the Cemetery
This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live...
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone
...and a boy who cannot die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for...
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone
...and a boy who cannot die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for...
134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
February 12, 2016
Delectably creepy, spooky, dark and enticing. I absolutely adored this book, absolutely one of my most memorable reads for a long time. A proper little dark surprise package. With atmospheric settings, ghoulish happenings, emotions stirred and the mind stretched, this was one hell of a satisfying and enjoyable read. Did I say I loved it? I did. I really did. It reminded me somewhat of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, another YA book about a boy that lives in a cemetery. Both excellent books.
This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…
…and a boy who cannot die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…
We meet "Boy" at the beginning of the book, living a miserable life long ago, in poverty beyond belief with his loving but struggling mother and ever absent father. All around him people are fighting The Consumption, the sickness that sucks the very marrow from your bones, grabs hold of you and heads you on a few weeks of hell before letting you die and finally be at peace. These are not happy times for Boy, not at all. He hurts inside.
We fast forward to the modern day to meet sad and neglected, invisible and broken Carrie Anne. A girl who is living in her own personal hell with a father who abuses her at night in her bed (it's not graphic but it is mentioned) and a mother who turns her cheek the other way.
Carrie Anne is broken inside and wants to die.
They move to a new house and much to Carrie Anne's delight there is an ancient graveyard at the back of their new home. She feels drawn to this spooky place, the neglected headstones, the place nobody goes. As if life is not bad enough for this dear girl she is bullied in school on her very first day, she stands out as a misfit. But on that day, for Carrie Ann everything changes...
She meets Boy...and Boy meets Carrie Anne.
Oh, but oh! The circumstances of their meeting is bizarre and gave me the first real taste of the ghoulish wonder of this book. Magnificently written, every word is like magic, dripping with darkness and delight all at the same time. I was mesmerised reading this book, completely lost in this dark tale.
You see, boy can't die, he's been around for a very long time and now he has a new friend, and Carrie Ann has a new friend, let the fun begin.
Good isn't it? This book has stunning and dark imagery all the way through it, I felt everything from pity to disgust, smiles to shock, it gave me the whole package, a new world within the pages of this book. I was sucked in and suitably impressed with the creep factor, the chill factor and the heart factor.
Carrie Anne and Boy seek solace and friendship in each other in the most unusual of ways and places. It's a beautiful yet disturbing friendship, the book has a darkness that weaves amongst it's sweet parts, like a nice cake where you don't see the mouldy bits until you take a bite. He shows her a world she has never seen before.
The storytelling is stunning, the plot fantastic, it's intriguing from the onset, the characters are so darn flawed, I felt so much for many of them, so real, so tangible, so good. Their pain draws them together and holds them dear to each other. A Young Adult book that anyone can read, of any age, without a doubt.
The ending left me speechless and breathless, I had to gather my thoughts for a while on how I felt about the ending. I was kind of numb. Oh Lord, what was I meant to feel? I didn't know! I still don't. I do know this..
I loved this book! I recommend to anyone that fancies a journey to this special place of grim tales and rats tails, sadness and pity, joy and delight, shock and sadness. It's all here. Absolutely loved it. Five easy stars from me. I could read it again and again.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, many thanks.
For more of my book reviews, plenty of awesome books to win, and author Q&A events come to: https://www.facebook.com/BookloverCat...
To follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/promotethatbook
This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…
…and a boy who cannot die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…
We meet "Boy" at the beginning of the book, living a miserable life long ago, in poverty beyond belief with his loving but struggling mother and ever absent father. All around him people are fighting The Consumption, the sickness that sucks the very marrow from your bones, grabs hold of you and heads you on a few weeks of hell before letting you die and finally be at peace. These are not happy times for Boy, not at all. He hurts inside.
As she smiled her thin smile, the river lapped behind her. "My angel," she said. "You are the most wonderful thing that I have ever done in my life. My angel, there are no words for how much I love you. You are so strong and brave. You need to be strong and brave." Tears ran from her bloodshot eyes and turned to dust on her cheeks. Such was the strength of The Consumption.Boy one day encounters a Cemetery, a Graveyard and decides to explore, his encounter there will change his life forever. Boy will never be the same again. Never ever. It's his new home, always and forever more.
We fast forward to the modern day to meet sad and neglected, invisible and broken Carrie Anne. A girl who is living in her own personal hell with a father who abuses her at night in her bed (it's not graphic but it is mentioned) and a mother who turns her cheek the other way.
Carrie Anne is broken inside and wants to die.
They move to a new house and much to Carrie Anne's delight there is an ancient graveyard at the back of their new home. She feels drawn to this spooky place, the neglected headstones, the place nobody goes. As if life is not bad enough for this dear girl she is bullied in school on her very first day, she stands out as a misfit. But on that day, for Carrie Ann everything changes...
She meets Boy...and Boy meets Carrie Anne.
Oh, but oh! The circumstances of their meeting is bizarre and gave me the first real taste of the ghoulish wonder of this book. Magnificently written, every word is like magic, dripping with darkness and delight all at the same time. I was mesmerised reading this book, completely lost in this dark tale.
You see, boy can't die, he's been around for a very long time and now he has a new friend, and Carrie Ann has a new friend, let the fun begin.
He wore clothes that at one time may have been a dark suit of some kind, but now his attire was threadbare, moth-eaten rags. His body was dried sinew and bone, with pieces of one-time flesh dripping bones like a burnt candle the colour of tripe. He wore no shoes or skin on his feet. His head was swollen and oversized, a patchwork of tears and fissures. His one blue eye regarded Carrie Anne deeply. He was indeed, as she had thought when she first met him, a young boy in an old used body.
Good isn't it? This book has stunning and dark imagery all the way through it, I felt everything from pity to disgust, smiles to shock, it gave me the whole package, a new world within the pages of this book. I was sucked in and suitably impressed with the creep factor, the chill factor and the heart factor.
Carrie Anne and Boy seek solace and friendship in each other in the most unusual of ways and places. It's a beautiful yet disturbing friendship, the book has a darkness that weaves amongst it's sweet parts, like a nice cake where you don't see the mouldy bits until you take a bite. He shows her a world she has never seen before.
The storytelling is stunning, the plot fantastic, it's intriguing from the onset, the characters are so darn flawed, I felt so much for many of them, so real, so tangible, so good. Their pain draws them together and holds them dear to each other. A Young Adult book that anyone can read, of any age, without a doubt.
The ending left me speechless and breathless, I had to gather my thoughts for a while on how I felt about the ending. I was kind of numb. Oh Lord, what was I meant to feel? I didn't know! I still don't. I do know this..
I loved this book! I recommend to anyone that fancies a journey to this special place of grim tales and rats tails, sadness and pity, joy and delight, shock and sadness. It's all here. Absolutely loved it. Five easy stars from me. I could read it again and again.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, many thanks.
For more of my book reviews, plenty of awesome books to win, and author Q&A events come to: https://www.facebook.com/BookloverCat...
To follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/promotethatbook
November 19, 2014
2.5 stars, rounded up
Meh.
Now, I agree with authors not placing a trigger warning on their works because it may spoil the work. However, this is a review so I'm going to right meow under spoiler tags.
This is the book of a boy who cannot die because he becomes death meeting a girl who wants to die. The book starts out by relaying the story of the boy and how he came to be and then moves on to Carrie Anne, our main character.
I had a few problems that detracted from my enjoyment of this book. First, I hated the writing style of the boy's story, which lasts the first 15% of the book. It read somewhat like a fairytale and an allegory, but not quite as smooth as it should be. The sentences were all relatively the same length, which is much harder to read than you realize.
Next, I don't know how many times I have to say this, but I'm going to say it again. Showing versus telling is not an option. Nope, not even in midgrade books. Trust me, I read a lot of midgrade books (far more than I put on here) and if there's one thing I think midgrade authors should know, it's that kids really aren't stupid. Nope, kids are really really intelligent, they just lack experience.
So when a new character is introduced, we are presented with a laundry list of character traits. The quotes I'm using are from an uncorrected ARC and may change.
Sarah Miller was fourteen years old and had lived a troubled life. Her father was a drunk and violent and her mother a drug addict who wasted any money they managed to scrape...In that time Sarah enjoyed shoplifting, bullying, fighting and smoking weed.
For the record, it hurts my heart to not place the Oxford comma there.
This is all worthless information to us because the author later shows us that she likes bullying and fighting and smoking weed. Showing us is also much more powerful because it allows us to form the character in our own mind.
The aforementioned bully also gets asked why she is bullying, why she's doing what she's doing. Her reply?
"The real reason is this: I like it. It makes me feel good to hurt others. I like it."
Remember that piece where I said kids are really intelligent? They are, but they're not incredibly self aware. At fourteen, I don't expect any kid to be too aware of what they're doing and why unless there's precedent for it. And if there is, then that child has the capacity and empathy to step back and say "Wait. What?"
Sarah Miller lacks all of that.
So Carrie Anne finds a vicious bully her first day. Not just any bully, but one that seriously wants to kill things. She finds the bully by running into the girls' bathroom and catching Sarah smoking pot. She's running into the bathroom because she spoke up in her first day of class and the kids are laughing at her.
Which I have a problem with.
Anyone here have social anxiety? I do and I lived a charmed childhood, so it's not even social anxiety compounding itself over a history of abuse. Just plain social anxiety for me. You know what people with social anxiety don't do? They don't interject themselves to the forefront of attention when they literally know no one.
Hell, some of us don't even interject ourselves to the forefront of attention with any amount of trusted people around.
Carrie Anne's history of abuse is incredibly important and doesn't go away, that's not how this all works. Social anxiety, depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, these all just don't go away because the plot has to move forward. There's good times and bad for all of them, but I guarantee you that being a new student in the middle of a school year, your first day is going to be a bad day where you can barely breathe from your mind yelling at you that everyone is watching, they are judging, and they are finding you wanting.
Finally, I have a problem with figuring out what the message of this book is supposed to be. A lot of that message hinges on the ending, so major spoilers!
This book would have been better off much shorter, I think. However, it does nothing too badly that I condemn it to my two star shelves. But it just wasn't too enjoyable and I don't know if I would recommend it to children just because I'm a bit iffy on the moral message the book was trying to get across.
Quick read that's not bad, but a bit poor on the execution. I will still probably read something else by Sebastian Gregory, though.
Meh.
Now, I agree with authors not placing a trigger warning on their works because it may spoil the work. However, this is a review so I'm going to right meow under spoiler tags.
This is the book of a boy who cannot die because he becomes death meeting a girl who wants to die. The book starts out by relaying the story of the boy and how he came to be and then moves on to Carrie Anne, our main character.
I had a few problems that detracted from my enjoyment of this book. First, I hated the writing style of the boy's story, which lasts the first 15% of the book. It read somewhat like a fairytale and an allegory, but not quite as smooth as it should be. The sentences were all relatively the same length, which is much harder to read than you realize.
Next, I don't know how many times I have to say this, but I'm going to say it again. Showing versus telling is not an option. Nope, not even in midgrade books. Trust me, I read a lot of midgrade books (far more than I put on here) and if there's one thing I think midgrade authors should know, it's that kids really aren't stupid. Nope, kids are really really intelligent, they just lack experience.
So when a new character is introduced, we are presented with a laundry list of character traits. The quotes I'm using are from an uncorrected ARC and may change.
Sarah Miller was fourteen years old and had lived a troubled life. Her father was a drunk and violent and her mother a drug addict who wasted any money they managed to scrape...In that time Sarah enjoyed shoplifting, bullying, fighting and smoking weed.
For the record, it hurts my heart to not place the Oxford comma there.
This is all worthless information to us because the author later shows us that she likes bullying and fighting and smoking weed. Showing us is also much more powerful because it allows us to form the character in our own mind.
The aforementioned bully also gets asked why she is bullying, why she's doing what she's doing. Her reply?
"The real reason is this: I like it. It makes me feel good to hurt others. I like it."
Remember that piece where I said kids are really intelligent? They are, but they're not incredibly self aware. At fourteen, I don't expect any kid to be too aware of what they're doing and why unless there's precedent for it. And if there is, then that child has the capacity and empathy to step back and say "Wait. What?"
Sarah Miller lacks all of that.
So Carrie Anne finds a vicious bully her first day. Not just any bully, but one that seriously wants to kill things. She finds the bully by running into the girls' bathroom and catching Sarah smoking pot. She's running into the bathroom because she spoke up in her first day of class and the kids are laughing at her.
Which I have a problem with.
Anyone here have social anxiety? I do and I lived a charmed childhood, so it's not even social anxiety compounding itself over a history of abuse. Just plain social anxiety for me. You know what people with social anxiety don't do? They don't interject themselves to the forefront of attention when they literally know no one.
Hell, some of us don't even interject ourselves to the forefront of attention with any amount of trusted people around.
Carrie Anne's history of abuse is incredibly important and doesn't go away, that's not how this all works. Social anxiety, depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, these all just don't go away because the plot has to move forward. There's good times and bad for all of them, but I guarantee you that being a new student in the middle of a school year, your first day is going to be a bad day where you can barely breathe from your mind yelling at you that everyone is watching, they are judging, and they are finding you wanting.
Finally, I have a problem with figuring out what the message of this book is supposed to be. A lot of that message hinges on the ending, so major spoilers!
This book would have been better off much shorter, I think. However, it does nothing too badly that I condemn it to my two star shelves. But it just wasn't too enjoyable and I don't know if I would recommend it to children just because I'm a bit iffy on the moral message the book was trying to get across.
Quick read that's not bad, but a bit poor on the execution. I will still probably read something else by Sebastian Gregory, though.
September 18, 2021
This is a dark, creepy, horrifying and odd story. The writing style is this peculiar tell-not-show style that works if you assume you are a bug sitting on the characters shoulders. This is a story about how a boy who is dead but could not die and "lives" in a cemetery (the description of his catacomb dwelling is really neat!) befriends a girl who lived but was not alive.
The ending had an interesting twist, though I can't see how this actually improves matters. I felt the story did go off the rails a bit in the section before the ending. My feelings about this book are mixed.
NOTE: WARNING:
The ending had an interesting twist, though I can't see how this actually improves matters. I felt the story did go off the rails a bit in the section before the ending. My feelings about this book are mixed.
NOTE: WARNING:
January 14, 2016
My Review:
This was not what I was expecting. I thought I was about to read a story about a boy and a girl helping each other, work through some issues and becoming strong loving friends. It was in a way but a little darker and a lot more scary. The story starts with the Boys life and everything he is going through, then it goes to the Girl, Carrie Ann, and the awful life she has. Both characters broke my heart, I cared about them and the story was scary, emotional and fascinating.
I haven't read a book like this before it was scary and terrifying but emotional and heartbreaking the characters tug at your heart and they don't have it easy but you are happy they have each other. The ending was amazing and I hope there will be another. The Author Sebastian Gregory is very new to me but one that I plan to read again. I liked his writing style and he can really tell an amazingly scare but heart felt story. This story touches on some sensitive subjects and things that happen in the book are unexpected and horrific and should be read with caution.
Recommend: This book is just wow and needs to be read by many.
This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life
This was not what I was expecting. I thought I was about to read a story about a boy and a girl helping each other, work through some issues and becoming strong loving friends. It was in a way but a little darker and a lot more scary. The story starts with the Boys life and everything he is going through, then it goes to the Girl, Carrie Ann, and the awful life she has. Both characters broke my heart, I cared about them and the story was scary, emotional and fascinating.
I haven't read a book like this before it was scary and terrifying but emotional and heartbreaking the characters tug at your heart and they don't have it easy but you are happy they have each other. The ending was amazing and I hope there will be another. The Author Sebastian Gregory is very new to me but one that I plan to read again. I liked his writing style and he can really tell an amazingly scare but heart felt story. This story touches on some sensitive subjects and things that happen in the book are unexpected and horrific and should be read with caution.
Recommend: This book is just wow and needs to be read by many.
Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my review
Hope you have a great day and Happy Reading!
This review was originally posted on Because reading is better than real life
October 18, 2020
A very quick read, but one that will be remembered.
Our story opens with a young boy dealing with the death of his mother. He is left with an abusive father, one who thinks nothing of using his young son to get into the cemetery to rob the dead. Unfortunately, something terrifying is there. After his father is killed the boy is happy to make his home in the cemetery, forgotten by all.
We then switch to young Carrie Anne, a girl who is being abused by her father and not protected by her mother. Desperately unhappy she wants someone to notice her. Unfortunately, the thing that notices her is the boy from the cemetery that is at the bottom of the garden of her new home.
After a first day at her new school that results in her being hospitalised and two bullies disappearing, it’s no surprise that Carrie Anne is looking for someone to save her.
There’s a macabre fascination with things rotting and people’s rottenness coming to the fore that I assume is symbolic of the awful treatment these children experienced. Bitter revenge fantasy in part, and the two characters cause untold damage in their attempts to make a friend.
While some elements of the story could have been developed, this was certainly a great story for introducing horror and considering how we manage the monsters that walk amongst us.
Our story opens with a young boy dealing with the death of his mother. He is left with an abusive father, one who thinks nothing of using his young son to get into the cemetery to rob the dead. Unfortunately, something terrifying is there. After his father is killed the boy is happy to make his home in the cemetery, forgotten by all.
We then switch to young Carrie Anne, a girl who is being abused by her father and not protected by her mother. Desperately unhappy she wants someone to notice her. Unfortunately, the thing that notices her is the boy from the cemetery that is at the bottom of the garden of her new home.
After a first day at her new school that results in her being hospitalised and two bullies disappearing, it’s no surprise that Carrie Anne is looking for someone to save her.
There’s a macabre fascination with things rotting and people’s rottenness coming to the fore that I assume is symbolic of the awful treatment these children experienced. Bitter revenge fantasy in part, and the two characters cause untold damage in their attempts to make a friend.
While some elements of the story could have been developed, this was certainly a great story for introducing horror and considering how we manage the monsters that walk amongst us.
March 20, 2021
A good/sad story very quick and easy to read. But the proof reader could do with some lessons in spelling and grammar
October 27, 2014
A perfect short story for the Halloween season - THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY by Sebastian Gregory is one of the most intense novels I've ever read. A girl who didn't want to live meets a boy who cannot die: a full review under the cut!
RELEASE DATE: October 29th, 2014
PUBLISHER: Carina
DISCLAIMER: Novel sent via NetGallery in exchange for a honest review
SYNOPSIS: This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live...Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone...and a boy who cannot die. The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for...
REVIEW: Oh wow - I'm not sure what I expected with this novel, but it far exceeded by thoughts! Gory, dark, and twisted, THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY is a haunting tale perfect for those who like the emotional horror story.
Carrie Anne has moved from her old home to her new place, set with a historic cemetery in the backyard. Suffering from horrid abuse, Carrie Anne is sullen, withdrawn, and internally distraught. The only place she can seek solitude is within the gravestones that adorn her backyard. But soon, Carrie Anne finds that she's not alone. In fact, the cemetery is home to a young boy who is far less alive than he seems .....
First and foremost, I would classify this novel as a short story. It's 120 Kindle pages long, and it took me less than a few hours to devour. Also, the novel is classified as a Young Adult novel, but I felt that the themes of the story were a little more adult than they led on and some of the descriptions could seriously scare some of the youngsters. Be warned!
This novel is a breath of life (pun intended?). The dark, gothic, and twisted nature of the writing is something that I haven't come across in awhile. Author Gregory does amazingly in painting a horrific atmosphere with words dripping with exceptional darkness. Gregory has a true talent - he can use less words to tell a truly gripping story, and it feels as if nothing has been left out.
The characters are perfectly rounded, even with the short nature of the book. Carrie Anne's character is one you immediately feel for - her struggle is apparent through the deep and dark thoughts of her subconscious. "The Boy", as he is referred to within the novel, rarely utters a single word, but you ultimately end up understanding his struggle through his intimate interactions with Carrie Anne. At the centre of this story is Carrie Ann's nameless parents. These are the true monsters of the story - in a novel filled with ghosts, skeletons, and death, it's the humans who are ultimately the scariest.
For a great short story full of horror, gore, and darkness, I'd highly recommend THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY by Sebastian Gregory.
RELEASE DATE: October 29th, 2014
PUBLISHER: Carina
DISCLAIMER: Novel sent via NetGallery in exchange for a honest review
SYNOPSIS: This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live...Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone...and a boy who cannot die. The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for...
REVIEW: Oh wow - I'm not sure what I expected with this novel, but it far exceeded by thoughts! Gory, dark, and twisted, THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY is a haunting tale perfect for those who like the emotional horror story.
Carrie Anne has moved from her old home to her new place, set with a historic cemetery in the backyard. Suffering from horrid abuse, Carrie Anne is sullen, withdrawn, and internally distraught. The only place she can seek solitude is within the gravestones that adorn her backyard. But soon, Carrie Anne finds that she's not alone. In fact, the cemetery is home to a young boy who is far less alive than he seems .....
First and foremost, I would classify this novel as a short story. It's 120 Kindle pages long, and it took me less than a few hours to devour. Also, the novel is classified as a Young Adult novel, but I felt that the themes of the story were a little more adult than they led on and some of the descriptions could seriously scare some of the youngsters. Be warned!
This novel is a breath of life (pun intended?). The dark, gothic, and twisted nature of the writing is something that I haven't come across in awhile. Author Gregory does amazingly in painting a horrific atmosphere with words dripping with exceptional darkness. Gregory has a true talent - he can use less words to tell a truly gripping story, and it feels as if nothing has been left out.
The characters are perfectly rounded, even with the short nature of the book. Carrie Anne's character is one you immediately feel for - her struggle is apparent through the deep and dark thoughts of her subconscious. "The Boy", as he is referred to within the novel, rarely utters a single word, but you ultimately end up understanding his struggle through his intimate interactions with Carrie Anne. At the centre of this story is Carrie Ann's nameless parents. These are the true monsters of the story - in a novel filled with ghosts, skeletons, and death, it's the humans who are ultimately the scariest.
For a great short story full of horror, gore, and darkness, I'd highly recommend THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY by Sebastian Gregory.
November 1, 2014
This a book that I do not usually read, but as a participant in #sundaychallenge hosted by me and my blog buddy Ananda on This Chick Reads, I decided to give it a try. The week's challenge was to read a book from an unknown author for me. I tried and I didn't regret.
With Halloween around the corner, the spooky stories are the most popular in this part of the year. The story starts about two hundred years ago, with a boy who loses his mother and is forced by his father to steel from corpses. But at the cemetery lives a creature that takes his soul and possesses his body.
More than two hundred years later, Carrie Anne lives a life that no child should ever live. She is abused by her own father. Her mother knows that and she does nothing to stop him. "Family is important" both parents say to Carrie Anne, "if you tell, the family would be separated". What family?!? A child should be child and live the life of a child! But running away "to keep the family together", Carrie Anne's father moves the family in a small neglected house, with a cemetery in the backyard. A cemetery that Carrie Anne sees as a sanctuary, where she notices a pair of strange eyes that are watching her. But nothing is more scary than her father in her room, on her bed. Carrie Anne meets the boy.
Wow, I'm not even sure in what genre to sort this book. It's spooky, scary and very emotional. The stories that involve molested children are very hard for reading. This story connects two molested children from different centuries. They both share same destiny. They both want their childhood back. Both of their characters are so well described, it is very emotional to see the world from their point of view.
I've found Carrie Anne's mum very weak as a character. What kind of mother lets her husband sexually to abuse her child and say nothing "in the name of family"? There were moments when I literally wanted to kill her, as much as I wanted to kill that monster of a father.
The Boy in the Cemetery is well-written and captivating Halloween story, that reminds us that monsters are real. The monsters don't live in the Underworld, but here on Earth, inside of us. Carrie Anne's father is a living proof of that.
My opinion: 4.5 / 5
With Halloween around the corner, the spooky stories are the most popular in this part of the year. The story starts about two hundred years ago, with a boy who loses his mother and is forced by his father to steel from corpses. But at the cemetery lives a creature that takes his soul and possesses his body.
More than two hundred years later, Carrie Anne lives a life that no child should ever live. She is abused by her own father. Her mother knows that and she does nothing to stop him. "Family is important" both parents say to Carrie Anne, "if you tell, the family would be separated". What family?!? A child should be child and live the life of a child! But running away "to keep the family together", Carrie Anne's father moves the family in a small neglected house, with a cemetery in the backyard. A cemetery that Carrie Anne sees as a sanctuary, where she notices a pair of strange eyes that are watching her. But nothing is more scary than her father in her room, on her bed. Carrie Anne meets the boy.
Wow, I'm not even sure in what genre to sort this book. It's spooky, scary and very emotional. The stories that involve molested children are very hard for reading. This story connects two molested children from different centuries. They both share same destiny. They both want their childhood back. Both of their characters are so well described, it is very emotional to see the world from their point of view.
I've found Carrie Anne's mum very weak as a character. What kind of mother lets her husband sexually to abuse her child and say nothing "in the name of family"? There were moments when I literally wanted to kill her, as much as I wanted to kill that monster of a father.
The Boy in the Cemetery is well-written and captivating Halloween story, that reminds us that monsters are real. The monsters don't live in the Underworld, but here on Earth, inside of us. Carrie Anne's father is a living proof of that.
My opinion: 4.5 / 5
October 30, 2014
Originally posted on: http://addictivechicklit.blogspot.com...
I don't read horror books for one reason: I scare easily, plus I don't like -more like hate- spiders, rats, snakes or anything half terrifying). So when I decided to pick this book I was worried that I would have to leave it unfinished or that I would just not enjoy it. And nothing further from the truth. This story is just beautiful. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are rats, decomposing corpses and gore a plenty but the story of the boy and the girl is so uniquely beautiful that I just couldn't stop reading.
Sebastian Gregory's style is very unique too. His descriptions are vivid and he transports you to another time and another place easily with his words. And his characters, even if the main ones are just kids, are really deep and complex and awaken really strong emotions in oneself. I instantly felt for the two kids, surrounded by detestable humans and an unfair world. I hated with all my heart the girl's parents though.
This is the perfect Halloween read, not only does it have all the death and gore details but it also has a strong beautiful story that will have you gripped to its pages. Even if I could have done with less rats, I really enjoying this book more than I expected and I will be checking for sure Sebastian's other books as I found his writting very enthralling. So if you have a couple of hours this weekend, go and get this book, totally worth it!
I don't read horror books for one reason: I scare easily, plus I don't like -more like hate- spiders, rats, snakes or anything half terrifying). So when I decided to pick this book I was worried that I would have to leave it unfinished or that I would just not enjoy it. And nothing further from the truth. This story is just beautiful. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are rats, decomposing corpses and gore a plenty but the story of the boy and the girl is so uniquely beautiful that I just couldn't stop reading.
Sebastian Gregory's style is very unique too. His descriptions are vivid and he transports you to another time and another place easily with his words. And his characters, even if the main ones are just kids, are really deep and complex and awaken really strong emotions in oneself. I instantly felt for the two kids, surrounded by detestable humans and an unfair world. I hated with all my heart the girl's parents though.
This is the perfect Halloween read, not only does it have all the death and gore details but it also has a strong beautiful story that will have you gripped to its pages. Even if I could have done with less rats, I really enjoying this book more than I expected and I will be checking for sure Sebastian's other books as I found his writting very enthralling. So if you have a couple of hours this weekend, go and get this book, totally worth it!
June 7, 2015
DEFINITE need for sexual abuse, self harm, and suicide trigger warnings. But this book... It broke my heart in a way that I thought a book about an undead boy, and depressed girl couldn't. If you're wondering what this read will be like; think The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) mixed with Rotters (Daniel Kraus). Amazing book, all in all. Sad, soul shattering. You find yourself rooting for these children. I highly recommend.
November 13, 2014
I wanted this book to be good, and the premise of the story was really neat, but the editing is so appalling that it detracted from my enjoyment of the story itself. If this book goes through a lot of thorough editing before final publication it will be much more palatable.
December 5, 2015
What a strange little novel, I'm not entirely sure if it was supposed to be YA or not, but definitely tons of adult subject matter. I thought it would be more like Neil Gaiman's novel, but alas, no one is like Gaiman. Still, it was entertaining. 3 stars.
October 25, 2014
Originally posted on beccasbooooks.blogspot.co.uk.
The Boy in the Cemetery was absolutely freaking awesome. A complete galaxy away from my typical genre, but endlessly enjoyable, and completely and utterly fascinating. This is the type of story that will make you wonder what, if anything, lurks in the cemeteries after dark, and one that will linger on in your mind long after you've finished reading.
Honestly, what first caught my attention with Sebastian's book was the cover. I know, it's horribly wrong of me to judge a book by it's cover but I do and I honestly can't help it. From the second I laid eyes on it, I wanted to read it. Despite my love for all books romantic and girly, I do have this part of me that loves anything spooky, unusual, and strange, so the cover of The Boy in the Cemetery captured that part of me immediately. Also, with Halloween gradually getting closer and closer, I was in the mood for something different, something to fit in with the approaching spookiness, and I found exactly that when I began Sebastian's book.
Firstly, Sebastian is such a talented writer. The opening of The Boy in the Cemetery caught my attention right away, and I was instantly whipped right into the story, surrounded by his incredibly grim setting. I was reminded, as Sebastian unveiled his world to me, of an old Victorian England, where young boys were recruited as chimney sweeps, and their lifeless bodies were pulled from the holes that they'd clambered up like it was no big deal. The streets which Sebastian's character, known as 'The Boy' lived on, were filthy, riddled with disease, and rats, and cockroaches. I imagined these dark and dirty alleyways with shadows hiding in corners and people drunk and shouting as they stumbled across cracked cobblestones. There was also the mention of The Consumption, which was taking people down at a rapid-fire rate. Sebastian told me, "So afraid were the people of the city that they dare not speak of it, for fear of in some way drawing the attention and wrath of the thing itself." I cannot put into mere words how effortlessly I was transported to the morbid scene. The Consumption was serious, and it's wasn't hard to take note of the fact that the people that 'The Boy' was surrounded by were dropping like flies. So, due to Sebastian's incredibly vivid and detailed descriptions, I was able to picture the setting for his story perfectly. I was even told of how The Consumption worked, how it took it's toll on it's helpless victims. Sebastian described it "like an ominous descending fog it choked the life of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught within its wisps." These descriptions were fascinating, and like a HD vision in my mind, I imagined clearly the people panicking and depressed from the slaughter-house that they were metaphorically living in. Sebastian made it clear that The Consumption took no prisoners. Once it had you, that was it. End of the road. This spectacular opening, with such passion in the descriptions, allowed me to place myself in the chaos of the setting immediately. The same can be said for the cemetery too, which is another major setting within Sebastian's book. The place was eerily decrepit and spine-tinglingly creepy. Gravestones were crumbling, and names were fading from the crumbling surfaces. It was incredibly easy for me to picture the scene, and even easier to imagine that I was standing right there, and that if I'd have moved my hand forwards, I'd have been able to run my fingertips right across the rough surface. Again, I have to quote Sebastian's MAGNIFICENT description here. "He could see the gravestones peering from the dark like ships lost on a fog sea." Sebastian's way with words is enough to make you want to live inside the man's imagination, just to see things the way he sees them. I think without these descriptions, I wouldn't have been able to lose myself to the story as much I as did.
It wasn't just Sebastian's settings that I was able to depict perfectly, it was his characters, too. 'The Boy' is introduced to us first, and he is referred to as 'The Boy' throughout the entirety of the book. I loved this. Of course, it would have been lovely to know his name, but the fact that we didn't know that detail about him made him seem all the more lost and faceless, which, literally speaking, he was. Not only was 'The Boy' nameless, but so were his parents, too. It seemed to fit in perfectly with the time-zone of the book though, the fact that he called his parents 'Mother' and 'Father', and it didn't seem odd at all, seeing as we call our parents 'Mum' and 'Dad'. I also felt that they didn't need to be named. I knew the important things about them, so I guess knowing their names didn't really seem so crucial. 'The Boy' evoked sheer sympathy and sadness from me. He loved his Mother to pieces, but his dad? Not so much. He lived in such a dismal place, sleeping on just a rotting mattress on the floor, surrounded by filth and poverty. I think the only person he truly, truly loved was his mother, which was obvious because his father was nothing but a vile bully, who had no problems with slapping and pushing 'The Boy' around. 'The Boy', to me, seemed so small and helpless, I wanted to cuddle him up and give him a better life, where he'd be warm and safe and well looked after. Unfortunately, with him being fictional, that obviously wasn't possible. But the feelings of wanting to help him in some way stayed me with me right up until the point that someone, or something, else got there first. Something strange and abnormal.
Another one of Sebastian's characters that really clung to my mind was Carrie-Anne. Carrie-Anne was clearly not in a good state of mind, and it was not surprising at all, considering what had happened to her. I was shocked that something so serious had been included within the story, but it just made Carrie-Anne seem all the more desperate for someone to find comfort in. She was broken, hurt, and had been through things that no child should ever have to go through. I guess Carrie-Anne and 'The Boy' were incredibly similar in that way. They'd both had upbringings that hadn't been at all normal, both damaged in some way. Carrie-Anne's family were two people who I hated from the get-go. One was weak, and the other was just a disgusting human being. Again, the same way I felt with 'The Boy', I wanted to wrap Carrie-Anne in my arms and squeeze her tight. She didn't see herself as normal, she was bullied at school, and pretty much bullied at home, too. There was no escape for her. That was until her family moved into the house that sat at the back of the cemetery. As soon as I realised where Carrie-Anne had moved to, I was captivated. I knew something was going to happen, that somehow the two characters, from completely different eras but with similar pasts, were going to come face-to-face, and it's safe to say that I flew through the remainder of the book, lapping up every single word that Sebastian had to offer.
Within the pages of The Boy in the Cemetery, I found something that I'd been missing for quite a while. I found that incredible part of my imagination that I realise I'd lost somewhere in the process of growing up. It's that part that completely shuts out reality and doesn't allow it to enter. That part where you believe, hand on heart, that absolutely anything is possible. Sebastian Gregory brought that part of me back to the surface. Whilst reading, I felt like I had returned to being an open-minded, excited child, who willingly allowed the weird and wonderful to completely take over. I loved Sebastian's style so much; it was obviously fictional, but I wanted so bad for it to be REAL! For things like that to happen. For creepy, un-dead things to lurk in cemeteries, and for two people from completely different walks of life to meet and become friends. If this book were to be made into a film, I would gladly sit and watch it. I was enthralled, entranced, completely enchanted with this wacky world and the people within it. I gained hopes for the characters, I grew my own ideas as to where they'd go and what they'd see, and long after I turned the final page, I was thinking about them.
Becca's Books is rating The Boy in the Cemetery by Sebastian Gregory with FIVE CUPCAKES! (Sorry Seb, I have nothing manly!) This is why I love my imagination so much, and why I'm so grateful to incredibly authors like Sebastian, who manage to bring an entirely fictional world to life with only words. I would happily, happily, happily read anything by Sebastian all day long. He's not afraid to cross the boundaries, he's not afraid to go where no one's gone before, and he is just EXCEPTIONAL.
The Boy in the Cemetery was absolutely freaking awesome. A complete galaxy away from my typical genre, but endlessly enjoyable, and completely and utterly fascinating. This is the type of story that will make you wonder what, if anything, lurks in the cemeteries after dark, and one that will linger on in your mind long after you've finished reading.
Honestly, what first caught my attention with Sebastian's book was the cover. I know, it's horribly wrong of me to judge a book by it's cover but I do and I honestly can't help it. From the second I laid eyes on it, I wanted to read it. Despite my love for all books romantic and girly, I do have this part of me that loves anything spooky, unusual, and strange, so the cover of The Boy in the Cemetery captured that part of me immediately. Also, with Halloween gradually getting closer and closer, I was in the mood for something different, something to fit in with the approaching spookiness, and I found exactly that when I began Sebastian's book.
Firstly, Sebastian is such a talented writer. The opening of The Boy in the Cemetery caught my attention right away, and I was instantly whipped right into the story, surrounded by his incredibly grim setting. I was reminded, as Sebastian unveiled his world to me, of an old Victorian England, where young boys were recruited as chimney sweeps, and their lifeless bodies were pulled from the holes that they'd clambered up like it was no big deal. The streets which Sebastian's character, known as 'The Boy' lived on, were filthy, riddled with disease, and rats, and cockroaches. I imagined these dark and dirty alleyways with shadows hiding in corners and people drunk and shouting as they stumbled across cracked cobblestones. There was also the mention of The Consumption, which was taking people down at a rapid-fire rate. Sebastian told me, "So afraid were the people of the city that they dare not speak of it, for fear of in some way drawing the attention and wrath of the thing itself." I cannot put into mere words how effortlessly I was transported to the morbid scene. The Consumption was serious, and it's wasn't hard to take note of the fact that the people that 'The Boy' was surrounded by were dropping like flies. So, due to Sebastian's incredibly vivid and detailed descriptions, I was able to picture the setting for his story perfectly. I was even told of how The Consumption worked, how it took it's toll on it's helpless victims. Sebastian described it "like an ominous descending fog it choked the life of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught within its wisps." These descriptions were fascinating, and like a HD vision in my mind, I imagined clearly the people panicking and depressed from the slaughter-house that they were metaphorically living in. Sebastian made it clear that The Consumption took no prisoners. Once it had you, that was it. End of the road. This spectacular opening, with such passion in the descriptions, allowed me to place myself in the chaos of the setting immediately. The same can be said for the cemetery too, which is another major setting within Sebastian's book. The place was eerily decrepit and spine-tinglingly creepy. Gravestones were crumbling, and names were fading from the crumbling surfaces. It was incredibly easy for me to picture the scene, and even easier to imagine that I was standing right there, and that if I'd have moved my hand forwards, I'd have been able to run my fingertips right across the rough surface. Again, I have to quote Sebastian's MAGNIFICENT description here. "He could see the gravestones peering from the dark like ships lost on a fog sea." Sebastian's way with words is enough to make you want to live inside the man's imagination, just to see things the way he sees them. I think without these descriptions, I wouldn't have been able to lose myself to the story as much I as did.
It wasn't just Sebastian's settings that I was able to depict perfectly, it was his characters, too. 'The Boy' is introduced to us first, and he is referred to as 'The Boy' throughout the entirety of the book. I loved this. Of course, it would have been lovely to know his name, but the fact that we didn't know that detail about him made him seem all the more lost and faceless, which, literally speaking, he was. Not only was 'The Boy' nameless, but so were his parents, too. It seemed to fit in perfectly with the time-zone of the book though, the fact that he called his parents 'Mother' and 'Father', and it didn't seem odd at all, seeing as we call our parents 'Mum' and 'Dad'. I also felt that they didn't need to be named. I knew the important things about them, so I guess knowing their names didn't really seem so crucial. 'The Boy' evoked sheer sympathy and sadness from me. He loved his Mother to pieces, but his dad? Not so much. He lived in such a dismal place, sleeping on just a rotting mattress on the floor, surrounded by filth and poverty. I think the only person he truly, truly loved was his mother, which was obvious because his father was nothing but a vile bully, who had no problems with slapping and pushing 'The Boy' around. 'The Boy', to me, seemed so small and helpless, I wanted to cuddle him up and give him a better life, where he'd be warm and safe and well looked after. Unfortunately, with him being fictional, that obviously wasn't possible. But the feelings of wanting to help him in some way stayed me with me right up until the point that someone, or something, else got there first. Something strange and abnormal.
Another one of Sebastian's characters that really clung to my mind was Carrie-Anne. Carrie-Anne was clearly not in a good state of mind, and it was not surprising at all, considering what had happened to her. I was shocked that something so serious had been included within the story, but it just made Carrie-Anne seem all the more desperate for someone to find comfort in. She was broken, hurt, and had been through things that no child should ever have to go through. I guess Carrie-Anne and 'The Boy' were incredibly similar in that way. They'd both had upbringings that hadn't been at all normal, both damaged in some way. Carrie-Anne's family were two people who I hated from the get-go. One was weak, and the other was just a disgusting human being. Again, the same way I felt with 'The Boy', I wanted to wrap Carrie-Anne in my arms and squeeze her tight. She didn't see herself as normal, she was bullied at school, and pretty much bullied at home, too. There was no escape for her. That was until her family moved into the house that sat at the back of the cemetery. As soon as I realised where Carrie-Anne had moved to, I was captivated. I knew something was going to happen, that somehow the two characters, from completely different eras but with similar pasts, were going to come face-to-face, and it's safe to say that I flew through the remainder of the book, lapping up every single word that Sebastian had to offer.
Within the pages of The Boy in the Cemetery, I found something that I'd been missing for quite a while. I found that incredible part of my imagination that I realise I'd lost somewhere in the process of growing up. It's that part that completely shuts out reality and doesn't allow it to enter. That part where you believe, hand on heart, that absolutely anything is possible. Sebastian Gregory brought that part of me back to the surface. Whilst reading, I felt like I had returned to being an open-minded, excited child, who willingly allowed the weird and wonderful to completely take over. I loved Sebastian's style so much; it was obviously fictional, but I wanted so bad for it to be REAL! For things like that to happen. For creepy, un-dead things to lurk in cemeteries, and for two people from completely different walks of life to meet and become friends. If this book were to be made into a film, I would gladly sit and watch it. I was enthralled, entranced, completely enchanted with this wacky world and the people within it. I gained hopes for the characters, I grew my own ideas as to where they'd go and what they'd see, and long after I turned the final page, I was thinking about them.
Becca's Books is rating The Boy in the Cemetery by Sebastian Gregory with FIVE CUPCAKES! (Sorry Seb, I have nothing manly!) This is why I love my imagination so much, and why I'm so grateful to incredibly authors like Sebastian, who manage to bring an entirely fictional world to life with only words. I would happily, happily, happily read anything by Sebastian all day long. He's not afraid to cross the boundaries, he's not afraid to go where no one's gone before, and he is just EXCEPTIONAL.
October 4, 2019
I didn't really enjoy The Boy in the Cemetery and I found it quite a slog to get through - it's a short book, so I would have thought it would only take me a day or two to complete, but it took a bit longer than that. I had to force myself to sit and read the last 30 or so pages just to get it over and done with. With that, I found that there were quite a few errors in the text which also threw off my reading now and again.
When I picked this out from my library I thought it was going to be a nice little spooky children's book to read in October. I'm unsure where I got the impression that this was what the book was going to be - but I soon realised that wasn't the case and subsequently reset my expectations for the young adult story it is (so that's obviously, my fault!). Saying that however, it was quite an odd one as, although the main themes of the story were adult/young-adult (abuse/sexual abuse), some of the ways the story was told felt quite childish. One thing that irked me was characters saying "fricking" during intense scenes when swearing would have been more appropriate/realistic, even in characters of their age - so it felt like an odd choice.
In short, I just didn't find this very satisfying to read and overall a bit irritating.
When I picked this out from my library I thought it was going to be a nice little spooky children's book to read in October. I'm unsure where I got the impression that this was what the book was going to be - but I soon realised that wasn't the case and subsequently reset my expectations for the young adult story it is (so that's obviously, my fault!). Saying that however, it was quite an odd one as, although the main themes of the story were adult/young-adult (abuse/sexual abuse), some of the ways the story was told felt quite childish. One thing that irked me was characters saying "fricking" during intense scenes when swearing would have been more appropriate/realistic, even in characters of their age - so it felt like an odd choice.
In short, I just didn't find this very satisfying to read and overall a bit irritating.
February 17, 2020
'The Boy in the Cemetery' by Sebastian Gregory is a horror novel about a girl who doesn't want to live and a boy who cannot die.
The book opens with the boy's story. He is robbing graves with his father, when his father becomes ill and dies. The boy is left to fend for himself in the graveyard.
Many years later, a young girl named Carrie Anne has tried to commit suicide because her father has sexually assaulted her and her mother covers it up. They move to a new town to make a new start, and find themselves in a house with an abandoned graveyard in the back. From the beginning, Carrie Anne is drawn, especially when she meets the undead boy who lives there.
It's kind of a gruesome awful tale. Carrie Anne is a pretty sympathetic character, and she is treated pretty awful by those around her. The boy in the graveyard is grotesque, but hard to feel anything for.
I received a review copy of this ebook issue from Carina and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
The book opens with the boy's story. He is robbing graves with his father, when his father becomes ill and dies. The boy is left to fend for himself in the graveyard.
Many years later, a young girl named Carrie Anne has tried to commit suicide because her father has sexually assaulted her and her mother covers it up. They move to a new town to make a new start, and find themselves in a house with an abandoned graveyard in the back. From the beginning, Carrie Anne is drawn, especially when she meets the undead boy who lives there.
It's kind of a gruesome awful tale. Carrie Anne is a pretty sympathetic character, and she is treated pretty awful by those around her. The boy in the graveyard is grotesque, but hard to feel anything for.
I received a review copy of this ebook issue from Carina and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
October 26, 2025
In Victorian England we need The Boy he lost his mother to consumption and his father to a wound received when stealing from the departed. He has no choice but to follow in his father 's footsteps. While plying his new trade he meets a man who has passed but whose body is still living. He passes his curse to The Boy .In modern day England we meet Carrie Ann Jones a young girl who just moved to a house that borders a old abandoned cemetery. With her father David and her mother Lucy. Carrie Ann doesn't have a good home life and carries the burden of a terrible secret. She is drawn to the cemetery where she catches a glimpse of The Boy. She realizes he is real when he saves her life. Though she has always felt drawn to the darkness she has no way of knowing that this house and this cemetery will change her life forever. This work of horror handles many difficult subjects that some readers may find hard to read. It is a very unusual horror novel unlike anything you have read before. I did enjoy this unusual quick read.
April 11, 2021
Intriguing, I was curious but not a huge fan of short stories generally, wanted to know the ending so finished the book.
Some parts not explained in-depth but also seemed like in a hurry to tell the story
Ending was like a cheat, I felt it needed more to it
Also the book was 94% long - not 100% which disappointed me
The last 6% was a chapter out of another book that seemed like the next one in the series
When in actual fact it isn’t anything to do with the same story
Also a huge tonne of spelling errors and mistakes
What made the story seem like an amateur wrote it with zero knowledge of grammar
instead of an author who wanted to connect with their audience
Some parts not explained in-depth but also seemed like in a hurry to tell the story
Ending was like a cheat, I felt it needed more to it
Also the book was 94% long - not 100% which disappointed me
The last 6% was a chapter out of another book that seemed like the next one in the series
When in actual fact it isn’t anything to do with the same story
Also a huge tonne of spelling errors and mistakes
What made the story seem like an amateur wrote it with zero knowledge of grammar
instead of an author who wanted to connect with their audience
November 18, 2017
I enjoyed this. The author has a way with words. The style and expression drew me in and I could ignore the few errors in the text. I even found myself clicking my teeth along with the boy towards the end. Having said that, I probably would have ended it a couple of sentences before the author did to keep the atmosphere open, it felt a little too neatly tied off, but that might just be me. I will read more by this author.
October 21, 2024
When a young girl named Carrie Ann moves to a house with a graveyard and meets a undead boy who lives in the graveyard, they create an unlikely friendship. Will people understand? Read on and find out for yourself.
This was a pretty good book about friendship that reminded me of watching a Tim Burton animated film. If you like books like this, be sure to check this book out at your local library and wherever books and ebooks are sold.
This was a pretty good book about friendship that reminded me of watching a Tim Burton animated film. If you like books like this, be sure to check this book out at your local library and wherever books and ebooks are sold.
April 9, 2019
This book was a bit of a weird one for me - it had some very adult themes (sexual abuse) and it was also fairly juvenile. The writing was dark, with lots of death, blood, and pain but I didn't feel attached to the characters much.
A quick read for people who like a dark story, but be prepared it doesn't really deliver much satisfaction.
A quick read for people who like a dark story, but be prepared it doesn't really deliver much satisfaction.
November 25, 2017
An interesting premise, but desperately in need of both an editor and a proofreader. I made it to end, but it was quite a slog.
May 30, 2018
Worst book ever.
November 1, 2019
Not for me..
This was a disturbing tale. I finished it, but I found nothing likeable. Gruesome and wholly a waste of time and money.
This was a disturbing tale. I finished it, but I found nothing likeable. Gruesome and wholly a waste of time and money.
December 31, 2025
Creepy little book
November 9, 2014
The Boy in The Cemetery begins in Victorian England where we first meet ‘The Boy’, a poor child who is living in squalor and poverty with a mother who he loves very dearly and a father who he very much doesn’t.
Life is already pretty bleak for The Boy and when his mother contracts The Consumption and dies; he is left living with just his drunk, violent father. It was the norm back then for young boys to be sent to sweep chimneys, but so many of them never made it back out of the chimney’s alive and The Boy fears that this is the fate that awaits him. But then a chain of events involving the local cemetery bring about drastic changes for The Boy and ‘life’ as he knows it.
Meanwhile, in the present day, we meet twelve year old Carrie Anne. Although, unlike The Boy, she may not be living in poverty, she is living with a monster of a father, a father who has snatched her innocence away and caused her to not want to be in this world anymore. Circumstances lead to Carrie Anne and her parents moving away to start a new life where their secrets can remain secrets. It just so happens that the house where they plan to start afresh backs on an old abandoned cemetery….The very same old abandoned cemetery where The Boy’s life changed all those years ago. It’s surely only a matter of time until the worlds of the dead and the living collide, leading to shocking, spooky and very dark consequences…
The Boy in The Cemetery is a novel I have been hugely looking forward to reading. It’s a million and one miles away from my usual genre, it doesn’t have a sparkly cover and you couldn’t exactly class it as a romance. However, I do like the idea of a spooky read and I was mega intrigued by this novel. Plus, the cover is amazing and it kind of hypnotised me, I could just stare at it all day. There is something magically creepy and intriguing about it that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I was expecting The Boy in The Cemetery to be a funny, light hearted take on a spooky novel…but I was seriously mistaken. This is one very creepy, sad, dark and eye opening tale. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sebastian Gregory’s writing is so out of this world it could be classed as paranormal in itself. It’s perfectly descriptive and even the most cynical of imaginations will have no difficulty envisaging the cemetery, The Boy, Carrie Anne’s distress, the darkness, the rats, the spiders…everything comes to life in a scarily realistic way. Sebastian’s writing is also brilliant at evoking emotions in you; your heart will go out to Carrie Anne and The Boy and you’ll feel such a strong hatred for Carrie Anne’s parents.
This book is like nothing I’ve read in a very long time and it brought back so many memories of reading as a child, as although in no way is this a children’s book, most adult books just don’t have this level of imagination. As far as I was concerned everything in this book was real.
I am a massive fan of Tim Burton’s animated films, especially The Nightmare before Christmas and The Corpse Bride and The Boy in The Cemetery reminded me so, so much of these films. It was literally like reading a novel version of these films, only with a darker, grown-up twist.
I found the storyline to be immensely gripping, I was so desperate to find out what was going to happen that I found myself racing through this book at an unusually fast pace, as the story of these two damaged, poorly treated young people unfolds. I found the ending to be extremely good too. It just felt ‘right’ and made for a brilliantly fitting end to the story and even leaves the door open for a possible sequel.
If you’re looking to read something a bit different or something a bit creepy for Halloween this Friday, then you’ve found your book with The Boy in the Cemetery. Open up your imagination and be prepared to squirm just a little….
Life is already pretty bleak for The Boy and when his mother contracts The Consumption and dies; he is left living with just his drunk, violent father. It was the norm back then for young boys to be sent to sweep chimneys, but so many of them never made it back out of the chimney’s alive and The Boy fears that this is the fate that awaits him. But then a chain of events involving the local cemetery bring about drastic changes for The Boy and ‘life’ as he knows it.
Meanwhile, in the present day, we meet twelve year old Carrie Anne. Although, unlike The Boy, she may not be living in poverty, she is living with a monster of a father, a father who has snatched her innocence away and caused her to not want to be in this world anymore. Circumstances lead to Carrie Anne and her parents moving away to start a new life where their secrets can remain secrets. It just so happens that the house where they plan to start afresh backs on an old abandoned cemetery….The very same old abandoned cemetery where The Boy’s life changed all those years ago. It’s surely only a matter of time until the worlds of the dead and the living collide, leading to shocking, spooky and very dark consequences…
The Boy in The Cemetery is a novel I have been hugely looking forward to reading. It’s a million and one miles away from my usual genre, it doesn’t have a sparkly cover and you couldn’t exactly class it as a romance. However, I do like the idea of a spooky read and I was mega intrigued by this novel. Plus, the cover is amazing and it kind of hypnotised me, I could just stare at it all day. There is something magically creepy and intriguing about it that I can’t quite put my finger on.
I was expecting The Boy in The Cemetery to be a funny, light hearted take on a spooky novel…but I was seriously mistaken. This is one very creepy, sad, dark and eye opening tale. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sebastian Gregory’s writing is so out of this world it could be classed as paranormal in itself. It’s perfectly descriptive and even the most cynical of imaginations will have no difficulty envisaging the cemetery, The Boy, Carrie Anne’s distress, the darkness, the rats, the spiders…everything comes to life in a scarily realistic way. Sebastian’s writing is also brilliant at evoking emotions in you; your heart will go out to Carrie Anne and The Boy and you’ll feel such a strong hatred for Carrie Anne’s parents.
This book is like nothing I’ve read in a very long time and it brought back so many memories of reading as a child, as although in no way is this a children’s book, most adult books just don’t have this level of imagination. As far as I was concerned everything in this book was real.
I am a massive fan of Tim Burton’s animated films, especially The Nightmare before Christmas and The Corpse Bride and The Boy in The Cemetery reminded me so, so much of these films. It was literally like reading a novel version of these films, only with a darker, grown-up twist.
I found the storyline to be immensely gripping, I was so desperate to find out what was going to happen that I found myself racing through this book at an unusually fast pace, as the story of these two damaged, poorly treated young people unfolds. I found the ending to be extremely good too. It just felt ‘right’ and made for a brilliantly fitting end to the story and even leaves the door open for a possible sequel.
If you’re looking to read something a bit different or something a bit creepy for Halloween this Friday, then you’ve found your book with The Boy in the Cemetery. Open up your imagination and be prepared to squirm just a little….
October 29, 2014
THE BOY IN THE CEMETERY BY SEBASTIAN GREGORY
THE BLURB
This is the story of a girl who lived but was not alive…
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…
…and a boy who was dead, but could not die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…
WHAT I SAY
WOW YOU GOT TO READ THIS BOOK
It just a fab read i loved the cover that was the first thing that pulled me into this book
The first thing it says on on top of page is " This is the story of a boy who was dead but could not die and a girl who lived but was not alive '
Well that just caught my attention what did that mean i was hooked from that first few lines
The descriptions are very vivid i could see all the places in my mind
Omg the cemetery was so creepy i liked to hear about the land , the angel figures and all the grave stones sounded so creepy i could see this run down cemetery in mind with it big black fence around it the big angel in the middle what a scary places but i wanted to hear more about it
The old house at the back so creepy too i got to say i would never live there .
The book starts with the little boy and his mum
His mum was so nice they had nothing to live for it was so hard for them he lived in the most dirty place . It was so unclean he was sleeping on the floor with the rats sometime he did get to sleep on a very rotten mattress with mould growing on it not very nice surrounding at all
His mum seem to work at night to get cash to feed them while his dad was a drunken bully .He was not very nice at all to the boy .
You could tell the boy loved his mum so much my heart when out to him
He mum like a lot of other around them died of consumption we get to hear all about this it sounded so bad
The boys dad die too which i going to say i was glad he was not a good man at all .He would take the boy to the cemetery to rob the graves he was killed robbing in there .
The book goes to the cemetery was this a good or bad place ?
Was it safe ?
What did you think of it ?
The other main character was Carrie Annie omg my heart went out to her she was living a life of hell she was being bullied at school and at home . Her dad was not a very nice man i just wanted to help her . Her mum did not seem to help or support her they move into the house at the back of the cemetery . I loved how her and the boy meet could he help her or was she seeing things . This poor girl when through things no child should ever have to go through i so wanted to help her . Her life was not a very happy one she felt she had no escape but had she ?
She seem to love the cemetery it was her safe place i felt . When you read the book you will be pulled into this wonderful old creepy place i just love it . It just so well written i was there with them
The book or plot was told so differently i just loved it it a very different read . A great book at a fab price to at the minute .
I want to tell you so much more but you could to read
I got to say it a very emotional read i just want to help both of them
The book fab for this time of year
5 stars Keep read enjoy read again
i just enjoy so much it the first book i have read by Sebastian Gregory it will not be the last
Just a wonderful written book
This song great for this book what you think ?
TODAY SONG ONE OF HIS BEST SONGS
Thriller by micheal jackson 1982
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJT...
THE BLURB
This is the story of a girl who lived but was not alive…
Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…
…and a boy who was dead, but could not die.
The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…
WHAT I SAY
WOW YOU GOT TO READ THIS BOOK
It just a fab read i loved the cover that was the first thing that pulled me into this book
The first thing it says on on top of page is " This is the story of a boy who was dead but could not die and a girl who lived but was not alive '
Well that just caught my attention what did that mean i was hooked from that first few lines
The descriptions are very vivid i could see all the places in my mind
Omg the cemetery was so creepy i liked to hear about the land , the angel figures and all the grave stones sounded so creepy i could see this run down cemetery in mind with it big black fence around it the big angel in the middle what a scary places but i wanted to hear more about it
The old house at the back so creepy too i got to say i would never live there .
The book starts with the little boy and his mum
His mum was so nice they had nothing to live for it was so hard for them he lived in the most dirty place . It was so unclean he was sleeping on the floor with the rats sometime he did get to sleep on a very rotten mattress with mould growing on it not very nice surrounding at all
His mum seem to work at night to get cash to feed them while his dad was a drunken bully .He was not very nice at all to the boy .
You could tell the boy loved his mum so much my heart when out to him
He mum like a lot of other around them died of consumption we get to hear all about this it sounded so bad
The boys dad die too which i going to say i was glad he was not a good man at all .He would take the boy to the cemetery to rob the graves he was killed robbing in there .
The book goes to the cemetery was this a good or bad place ?
Was it safe ?
What did you think of it ?
The other main character was Carrie Annie omg my heart went out to her she was living a life of hell she was being bullied at school and at home . Her dad was not a very nice man i just wanted to help her . Her mum did not seem to help or support her they move into the house at the back of the cemetery . I loved how her and the boy meet could he help her or was she seeing things . This poor girl when through things no child should ever have to go through i so wanted to help her . Her life was not a very happy one she felt she had no escape but had she ?
She seem to love the cemetery it was her safe place i felt . When you read the book you will be pulled into this wonderful old creepy place i just love it . It just so well written i was there with them
The book or plot was told so differently i just loved it it a very different read . A great book at a fab price to at the minute .
I want to tell you so much more but you could to read
I got to say it a very emotional read i just want to help both of them
The book fab for this time of year
5 stars Keep read enjoy read again
i just enjoy so much it the first book i have read by Sebastian Gregory it will not be the last
Just a wonderful written book
This song great for this book what you think ?
TODAY SONG ONE OF HIS BEST SONGS
Thriller by micheal jackson 1982
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJT...
October 27, 2014
I love horror / creepy books, and with Halloween approaching it seemed the perfect time to read The Boy in the Cemetery. Firstly I loved the cover which totally drew me in. It has an eerie look about it, but also reminded me a bit of a Tim Burton film. Then when I read the synopsis, I was ready to download and get started.
We are initially transported back in time to meet 'the boy' who lived in London many years ago. There is talk of the consumption which once it took hold inevitably led to your death. The boy lives a life of poverty and has to watch his Mum get ill and die from the consumption. His father, a crook, takes care of the boy and teaches him to rob graves in the local cemetery to try and earn money. His father is caught and attacked and also meets his death. Left to fend for himself the boy returns to the cemetery to try and get some stuff to make money. Whilst there he meets an untimely end at the hands of a gruesome man who is already dead.
From then on we meet Carrie Anne whose family are also dysfunctional. Her father is not a decent man, and her mother is a coward. Carrie Anne is very unhappy and we learn just how unhappy when she tries to take her own life. They move house to a new area to start over. This house backs on to the cemetery and Carrie Anne becomes fascinated.
We see Carrie Anne start at a new school and quickly becomes the victim of bullies. In her haste to escape she runs to seek solace in the cemetery, the bullies follow and attack her. However the boy comes to her rescue and they strike up a friendship.
Together Carrie Anne and the boy seek retribution for the things Carrie Anne has suffered during her life. This involves the police investigating the goings on, whilst Carrie Anne pretends not to remember in order to protect the boy. I don't want to tell you any more or I will give away the ending!!
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. When I started reading I realised it isn't the usual form of horror I tend to read, as there was less gore and more of a developing storyline. However, as the book went on the gore began (which I love), but there was also a strong plot that added another dimension to my reading.
I really felt for Carrie Anne. She had suffered some horrible things in her life at the hands of her father and he always seemed to get away with it. When she started being bullied at the new school I hated it. I was actually pleased to see the boy look out for her, even if it does up the gore levels!!!
I also liked the way the character of the boy was written. I got a real sense for who he was at the start of the book and whilst he is dead and carries out some horrible attacks, I couldn't bring myself to dislike him or wish him ill.
From a horror perspective the last third of the book was when it all comes together. Some of the descriptions are pretty graphic, and I built up a strong image of being in the cemetery, or at the house when some of the action is taking place.
The author has written this book in a clever manner, combining a strong story with just enough action and death. The book just flowed with the characters and I definitely built up allegiances with the 'goodies' versus the 'baddies'. I really enjoyed the ending and can see another book featuring Carrie Anne following in the future.
A well written Halloween read with a strong storyline and some macabre scenes for lovers of death and gore.
Thank you to Carina for providing a copy in return for an honest review.
We are initially transported back in time to meet 'the boy' who lived in London many years ago. There is talk of the consumption which once it took hold inevitably led to your death. The boy lives a life of poverty and has to watch his Mum get ill and die from the consumption. His father, a crook, takes care of the boy and teaches him to rob graves in the local cemetery to try and earn money. His father is caught and attacked and also meets his death. Left to fend for himself the boy returns to the cemetery to try and get some stuff to make money. Whilst there he meets an untimely end at the hands of a gruesome man who is already dead.
From then on we meet Carrie Anne whose family are also dysfunctional. Her father is not a decent man, and her mother is a coward. Carrie Anne is very unhappy and we learn just how unhappy when she tries to take her own life. They move house to a new area to start over. This house backs on to the cemetery and Carrie Anne becomes fascinated.
We see Carrie Anne start at a new school and quickly becomes the victim of bullies. In her haste to escape she runs to seek solace in the cemetery, the bullies follow and attack her. However the boy comes to her rescue and they strike up a friendship.
Together Carrie Anne and the boy seek retribution for the things Carrie Anne has suffered during her life. This involves the police investigating the goings on, whilst Carrie Anne pretends not to remember in order to protect the boy. I don't want to tell you any more or I will give away the ending!!
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. When I started reading I realised it isn't the usual form of horror I tend to read, as there was less gore and more of a developing storyline. However, as the book went on the gore began (which I love), but there was also a strong plot that added another dimension to my reading.
I really felt for Carrie Anne. She had suffered some horrible things in her life at the hands of her father and he always seemed to get away with it. When she started being bullied at the new school I hated it. I was actually pleased to see the boy look out for her, even if it does up the gore levels!!!
I also liked the way the character of the boy was written. I got a real sense for who he was at the start of the book and whilst he is dead and carries out some horrible attacks, I couldn't bring myself to dislike him or wish him ill.
From a horror perspective the last third of the book was when it all comes together. Some of the descriptions are pretty graphic, and I built up a strong image of being in the cemetery, or at the house when some of the action is taking place.
The author has written this book in a clever manner, combining a strong story with just enough action and death. The book just flowed with the characters and I definitely built up allegiances with the 'goodies' versus the 'baddies'. I really enjoyed the ending and can see another book featuring Carrie Anne following in the future.
A well written Halloween read with a strong storyline and some macabre scenes for lovers of death and gore.
Thank you to Carina for providing a copy in return for an honest review.
October 27, 2014
Firstly I would like to thank the publisher and author for allowing me to read and review this book digitally.
I was first drawn to the book because of the cover and after reading the blurb on the back I couldn't wait to start reading.
You will learn from the blurb that Carrie Anne is a young, troubled girl who is suffering from abuse and wants to die. You will also learn about the boy in the cemetery, who is neither dead nor alive and has long been forgotten about.
I will try to do this review without giving spoilers as I was surprised by the book once I started to read it.
Starting with Carrie Anne, I loved her character. I liked how from very early on, I could feel and understand the pain that she had been going through. I felt I got quite a good look into her background and that her character developed and evolved well throughout the book.
This is the same with the Boy in the cemetery. I feel that I had enough information on his background, to understand why he did certain things and reacted in certain ways throughout the book.
I feel that the mothers character could have had a much better background story. I felt her character was quite weak and that she was just there 'because'. There were a couple of close 'Oh, she'll do the right thing!' but it never amounted to much. From what I did learn about her and the way she interacted with Carrie Anne, I disliked her greatly. I think there was one occasion where I started to feel sorry for her, but that changed very quickly.
I could not stand the character of Carrie Anne's father. So I will say that that part of his character was written very well. It was an instant disliking and I think that was the point. However, I would have liked to have a bit more information on his back story. I feel that the author may have left this out so no feelings of sympathy for this man, could creep in at any point. In all honesty though, this man is so vulgar, I don't think anyone could have had any such feeling toward the character.
I loved the interactions between Carrie Anne and the Boy in the Cemetery and there were some great moments throughout the book that made me really root for them both. However, I personally, had an inkling about how the story would end, and I was correct. I found it quite sad that both of the characters stories, ended in the way they did. I had hoped that I had been wrong in my presumption. I usually do not like it when I can guess the ending (hence the 4 stars) but I felt that it was written in such a way that overall, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would highly recommend this book. I was expecting one thing and got something a lot more 'Adult' and full on. This book, in places, is very deep for a young adult book. I think this is a good and bad thing and hope that any young adult readers who do read it, have the maturity to understand what goes on throughout.
I would give this book an 8/10 as I felt that there could have been a tad more character development.
I was first drawn to the book because of the cover and after reading the blurb on the back I couldn't wait to start reading.
You will learn from the blurb that Carrie Anne is a young, troubled girl who is suffering from abuse and wants to die. You will also learn about the boy in the cemetery, who is neither dead nor alive and has long been forgotten about.
I will try to do this review without giving spoilers as I was surprised by the book once I started to read it.
Starting with Carrie Anne, I loved her character. I liked how from very early on, I could feel and understand the pain that she had been going through. I felt I got quite a good look into her background and that her character developed and evolved well throughout the book.
This is the same with the Boy in the cemetery. I feel that I had enough information on his background, to understand why he did certain things and reacted in certain ways throughout the book.
I feel that the mothers character could have had a much better background story. I felt her character was quite weak and that she was just there 'because'. There were a couple of close 'Oh, she'll do the right thing!' but it never amounted to much. From what I did learn about her and the way she interacted with Carrie Anne, I disliked her greatly. I think there was one occasion where I started to feel sorry for her, but that changed very quickly.
I could not stand the character of Carrie Anne's father. So I will say that that part of his character was written very well. It was an instant disliking and I think that was the point. However, I would have liked to have a bit more information on his back story. I feel that the author may have left this out so no feelings of sympathy for this man, could creep in at any point. In all honesty though, this man is so vulgar, I don't think anyone could have had any such feeling toward the character.
I loved the interactions between Carrie Anne and the Boy in the Cemetery and there were some great moments throughout the book that made me really root for them both. However, I personally, had an inkling about how the story would end, and I was correct. I found it quite sad that both of the characters stories, ended in the way they did. I had hoped that I had been wrong in my presumption. I usually do not like it when I can guess the ending (hence the 4 stars) but I felt that it was written in such a way that overall, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would highly recommend this book. I was expecting one thing and got something a lot more 'Adult' and full on. This book, in places, is very deep for a young adult book. I think this is a good and bad thing and hope that any young adult readers who do read it, have the maturity to understand what goes on throughout.
I would give this book an 8/10 as I felt that there could have been a tad more character development.
February 7, 2015
The Boy in the Cemetery by Sebastian Gregory
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5 stars
My Review:
For more than 200 years the boy has guarded his cemetery. Over the decades he has seen ever so many come and go, come and go and never have any been able to sense his presence. In the beginning the cemetery was a welcome change, a solace in the face of his own sorrow and miserable life but as the years passed, the boy became very lonely. Assuming his half-life will continue on as it always has, he is surprised and excited to meet Carrie Anne. Though he has only limited means of communication, he conveys to Carrie Anne that she is welcome in his world and he is glad to have her company.
Carrie Anne is not just desperately unhappy, she is monumentally unhappy and there is absolutely nothing she can do to change her situation. Carrie Anne’s father is a monster of the highest order and in order to protect his dirty little secret, he has moved his family to a remote location. Carrie Anne’s mother is just as much a monster as her husband but in a very different way. Carrie Anne’s mother is aware of what her daughter has experienced at the hands of her husband but is too weak to do a damn thing about it. Protecting herself is far more important than protecting her daughter and so, she allows the nightmare to continue. Carrie Anne’s only solace is the comfort and peace she feels when exploring the cemetery near her new home.
The meeting between the boy and Carrie Anne is certainly unsettling but Carrie Anne understand immediately that the boy will not hurt her and in fact, should the need arise, he will protect her. Both see in the other a deep-seated sadness that has no simple solution. For the time the two have together they provide not only friendship but a measure of comfort and as Carrie Anne’s life continues to spin out of control, the boy becomes far more important to her. In fact, Carrie Anne’s life doesn’t just spin out of control, it tilts completely off its axis and Carrie Anne finds herself in the middle of a missing persons and double murder case.
The Bottom Line: The Boy in the Cemetery is a seriously dark read that I really didn’t see coming. From how the boy came to be the guardian of the cemetery to the story of Carrie Anne’s life is just one tragedy after the other. Both the boy and Carrie Anne have experienced things in their respective lives that no child should ever experience and in each other the two find a mate that is uniquely positioned to understand the other’s pain and desperation. Be aware, dear reader, this is neither a happy nor hopeful story but one that is very dark and quite good. Be prepared for the sadness, be prepared for the anger and, above all else be prepared for a read that will draw you in and not let you go until the bitter end. The Boy in the Cemetery is a sort of morbidly fascinating read that is set to continue and I must say, I think I’m on board with another trip to the dark side.
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5 stars
My Review:
For more than 200 years the boy has guarded his cemetery. Over the decades he has seen ever so many come and go, come and go and never have any been able to sense his presence. In the beginning the cemetery was a welcome change, a solace in the face of his own sorrow and miserable life but as the years passed, the boy became very lonely. Assuming his half-life will continue on as it always has, he is surprised and excited to meet Carrie Anne. Though he has only limited means of communication, he conveys to Carrie Anne that she is welcome in his world and he is glad to have her company.
Carrie Anne is not just desperately unhappy, she is monumentally unhappy and there is absolutely nothing she can do to change her situation. Carrie Anne’s father is a monster of the highest order and in order to protect his dirty little secret, he has moved his family to a remote location. Carrie Anne’s mother is just as much a monster as her husband but in a very different way. Carrie Anne’s mother is aware of what her daughter has experienced at the hands of her husband but is too weak to do a damn thing about it. Protecting herself is far more important than protecting her daughter and so, she allows the nightmare to continue. Carrie Anne’s only solace is the comfort and peace she feels when exploring the cemetery near her new home.
The meeting between the boy and Carrie Anne is certainly unsettling but Carrie Anne understand immediately that the boy will not hurt her and in fact, should the need arise, he will protect her. Both see in the other a deep-seated sadness that has no simple solution. For the time the two have together they provide not only friendship but a measure of comfort and as Carrie Anne’s life continues to spin out of control, the boy becomes far more important to her. In fact, Carrie Anne’s life doesn’t just spin out of control, it tilts completely off its axis and Carrie Anne finds herself in the middle of a missing persons and double murder case.
The Bottom Line: The Boy in the Cemetery is a seriously dark read that I really didn’t see coming. From how the boy came to be the guardian of the cemetery to the story of Carrie Anne’s life is just one tragedy after the other. Both the boy and Carrie Anne have experienced things in their respective lives that no child should ever experience and in each other the two find a mate that is uniquely positioned to understand the other’s pain and desperation. Be aware, dear reader, this is neither a happy nor hopeful story but one that is very dark and quite good. Be prepared for the sadness, be prepared for the anger and, above all else be prepared for a read that will draw you in and not let you go until the bitter end. The Boy in the Cemetery is a sort of morbidly fascinating read that is set to continue and I must say, I think I’m on board with another trip to the dark side.
November 2, 2014
Originally posted on Paris Baker's Book Nook.
This book quickly stood out as a favourite pick for many for Spooky Reads Week, so I had to get it for myself.
What I discovered was an incredibly unique and strangely beautiful, yet deeply disturbing story.
We first meet The Boy, in Victorian London. A boy who’s life is filled with pain and suffering from a sick mother and a twisted father. He longs to escape, but in his quest to learn the secrets of the dead, becomes unable to die.
Then there is Carrie Anne. I must say that while there is beauty to this story, it is not necessarily an easy read. The subject matters it covers – the abuse Carrie Anne suffers at the hands of her father – is not pleasant knowledge. There are no in-depth descriptions, so it’s not too vivid like that, but the hurt and suffering of a very young girl by the one man who should protect her, that felt very real and vivid indeed.
While trying to escape her suffering, Carrie Anne is drawn to the strange boy in the cemetery, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. They have a mutual understanding of childhoods stolen, and trust being breached. Carrie Anne finds herself drawn into the strange life of the un-dead boy, filled with rats, bugs and bones, but which still provides more comfort than she’s known for a very long time.
I must say that one thing Sebastian writes particularly well, is setting. In Victorian London, I completely felt like I was among the grubby streets with the boy. In the cemetery and the crypts, I could practically feel the dirty, rotting and damp surroundings.
The one thing that I struggled with, was that the book was filled with errors – spelling, punctuation etc. While I am used to receiving review copies, where the final editing is often yet to be done, I bought this on Amazon, and was therefore incredibly disappointed that I found myself stumbling over errors every few pages or so. It made for slightly difficult reading at times.
However, it’s a fantastic and unique book, which overall I was very impressed with.
This book quickly stood out as a favourite pick for many for Spooky Reads Week, so I had to get it for myself.
What I discovered was an incredibly unique and strangely beautiful, yet deeply disturbing story.
We first meet The Boy, in Victorian London. A boy who’s life is filled with pain and suffering from a sick mother and a twisted father. He longs to escape, but in his quest to learn the secrets of the dead, becomes unable to die.
Then there is Carrie Anne. I must say that while there is beauty to this story, it is not necessarily an easy read. The subject matters it covers – the abuse Carrie Anne suffers at the hands of her father – is not pleasant knowledge. There are no in-depth descriptions, so it’s not too vivid like that, but the hurt and suffering of a very young girl by the one man who should protect her, that felt very real and vivid indeed.
While trying to escape her suffering, Carrie Anne is drawn to the strange boy in the cemetery, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. They have a mutual understanding of childhoods stolen, and trust being breached. Carrie Anne finds herself drawn into the strange life of the un-dead boy, filled with rats, bugs and bones, but which still provides more comfort than she’s known for a very long time.
I must say that one thing Sebastian writes particularly well, is setting. In Victorian London, I completely felt like I was among the grubby streets with the boy. In the cemetery and the crypts, I could practically feel the dirty, rotting and damp surroundings.
The one thing that I struggled with, was that the book was filled with errors – spelling, punctuation etc. While I am used to receiving review copies, where the final editing is often yet to be done, I bought this on Amazon, and was therefore incredibly disappointed that I found myself stumbling over errors every few pages or so. It made for slightly difficult reading at times.
However, it’s a fantastic and unique book, which overall I was very impressed with.
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