Graveyard Mind

by Chadwick Ginther

In Winnipeg's underworld, every mortician is on the take and every revenant of myth waits to claw their way out of their tombs. The dead stay in the ground because of Winter Murray, a necromancer of the Compact. A victim of abduction and a criminal herself, Winter stalks Winnipeg's Graveside, preventing larger, more heinous crimes from spilling over into the lives of the Sunsiders, no matter what laws of gods and men she must break to do so. Winter is a chimera, sharing the genetic material of her own never-born fraternal twin sister. Her dead twin's essence provides her a link to the Kingdom - the land of the dead - and a tie to a past she's run from for thirteen years. Winter struggles to find a redemption she doesn't believe she deserves. The temptation of dirty deeds is everywhere: An animated skeleton with a penchant for wearing dead men's clothes wants her on his payroll. Her deceased, but not gone mentor, still pushes her to take the easy way by being hard. A composite man assembled from soldiers who still puts boot to ass when Winter demands. A vampire that wants just a taste. Each pulls at Winter ensuring a normal life remains eternally out of reach, and the easy way is anything but.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[Rhonda]

I loved the voice and the world building in this book. Loads of interesting characters too. My favourite part was the relationship between Winter and Frank. I’d definitely come back for another dose of that :)

[Lauren]

Thank you Chizine Publications for sending me an ebook copy of Graveyard Mind in exchange for an honest review.

Graveyard Mind starts off with a bang and the action and crazy twists and turns only escalate from there. This book is a fast paced and quirky dark fantasy full of vampires, mob boss skeletons, reanimated corpses a la Frankenstein, a cultish church hell-bent on using the dead to further their own agenda (and pad their pockets) and a necromancer or two. However, at times I felt like there were almost too many players and too many moving parts to the story. There was definitely a lot of action but no deep descriptions or rich language to get lost in. My ideal story has enough action to keep me engaged and move the plot along but also some satisfying language for me to appreciate the author's skill. And Chadwick Ginther definitely has the skill of world building. The Winnipeg he created was something straight from a nightmare. A few more descriptions and my dark loving heart would have been so pleased.

The main protagonist, Winter, was sarcastic, smart mouthed, and self deprecating, I really enjoyed her sharp tongue and first spirit. I also enjoyed the parts where her vestigial twin, Summer, surfaced and would have liked a bit more back story on that situation.

The ending felt a bit rushed and a little too convenient and I was left with a few unanswered questions. Maybe those "questions" wouldn't bother some people but I am nosy and I needed a few additional answers.

All in all, I enjoyed Graveyard Mind. I felt like it was wildly creative and action packed, just lacking a few details.

[Emily]

At some points, I found the story difficult to follow. He seemed to rely on plot points that weren't really fleshed out and confusing dialogue.

[Robbie]

I'm going to make this sound bad, but it's not really a bad book. It was almost a really good book but for two things: I didn't really believe in Winter (or Summer, for that matter); and everything that could go wrong did go wrong such that it started to feel contrived by the end. There's a lot of action in the book and Winter is supposed to be quite the badass, but most of the time she's conveniently weakened by one thing or another such that she can't go all out. All the missteps required to get things into place also kind of made the book feel a bit dense: like maybe it would benefit from dropping a character or two to thin things out a bit so that the story and the characters had more space to be fleshed out and breathe (for those of them with the requisite organs to do so). I think that if the character of William were completely dropped and everything he was required for were handled by a more fleshed out growth in the relationship between Winter and Summer then it would have been a really good book. Instead, it was "merely" a decent, dark urban fantasy.

[tara_l]

It was okay. I liked the underworld of necromancers, undead, and all the shenanigans. I thought there were some creative aspects to the story and the writing was pretty good. I also really enjoyed this being set in Winnipeg because that's not a usual setting for a lot of these books.

However, I had some issues with it that made it hard to finish and had me skimming to the end:

- This is a case where a man wrote a woman character as first person POV and it didn't really work, especially in regards to the female relationships between Lyssa and Winter, and Tammy and Lyssa.

- I found it hard to like Winter. I actually found it hard to like anyone in this book.

- It was a bit confusing at times, like there could have been a bit more explanation of some of the lore, because it made a lot of assumptions about what we knew or didn't know.

- To be honest, even after reading it, I'm not entirely sure I know what the plot of this book was.

[Amber]

Winter is a chimera, meaning that her dead twin Summer lives inside her, she is also Winnipeg's necromancer keeping a watch on the Graveside of things and making sure things don't get too out of balance. There's a new cult in town though and it's up to her to track them down and root them out...
This was a super interesting concept that kept getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. Frank the composite man, Christophe the vampire, McCoy/Mr. Bones the animate skeleton and Billy and his shuck Bear where all interesting characters and Winter becomes more interesting when she and her sister start talking to each other but we keep getting side tracked describing things that don't really add to the story. It was however very cool to see my city through a fantasy horror perspective.

[Anita Vernaus]

Absolutely loved reading Graveyard Mind, part of it because it takes place in my hometown. The other part because the story was absolutely intriguing and it flowed so well. Picturing Winnipeg with a Dark Underground world of Necromancers, Vampires, and other creepy beings was amazingly stunning and right up my alley.

With Chadwick's writing I was able to put myself in Winter's shoes and experience what she was experiencing. I could see what she was seeing, hear what she was hearing, I could feel what she was feeling.

I look forward to exploring more of Chadwick Ginther's other works, and hope he comes out with more amazing stories of the Winnipeg Underworld.

[Amy]

I loved it. My province (shout out Manitoba!) all the creeps, lots of action and a protagonist who is trying to be everywhere but can't (ah the real modern horror story). The ending felt like it wasn't as worked on as the start of the book - I lost the plot and had to re-read a bit. And I could go for some more backstories in the ancillary characters. But would definitely buy the next book if one were written to make this a series! There are so many places this could go. What a great concept novel.
Also - takes place in Oct if you want to read it then while on site for double points.

[Nicole Luiken]

Strong opening chapter. An interesting world full of revenants, vampires and evil cultists. Cool magic and lots of action--particularly the last third of the novel, which frequently had me racing to turn the pages to figure out how she was going to get out of her predicament. But make no mistake, this is dark, often grim, fantasy. While Winter had a horrible backstory, I found her too gray for my taste, and the rapprochement with Summer at the end seemed a shade too easy.

[Bianca Cormier]

I wasn’t a bad story, but I feel it would have benefited from being divided into three books. There were so many concepts and pieces of lore introduced, but they weren’t explored or explained in enough depth. The same goes for the characters—there were so many that it became confusing at times, and I found it hard to connect with any of them. The potential was definitely there, but the pacing and density of information made it feel a bit overwhelming.

[Ben]

Quite captivating! It was a very interesting concept, and the Canadian settings and references felt like a breath of fresh air after reading so much American/European fiction. My only gripe was that this book throws you right in with no context, and in order to understand what's happening, you sink or swim. It took me until about a quarter of the way through until I grasped what was going on, but honestly that is fine as it was a relatively simple read from a linguistic perspective.

[Bree Pye]

This book was loaded to the gills with action and voice. While I thought the characters could have used a bit more development, the read was an enjoyable one from the first page to the last. Who wouldn't want to read about a bad-ass necromancer chick facing her demons (literally)? Definitely give this one a read!!!!

[Melia]

I felt like I jumped into the 2nd or 3rd book in a series. The way Winter talks about Cristophe and Mr. Bones makes me feel like I'm trying to catch up. Also, I felt like I was reading Tank Girl, which isn't a bad atmosphere but it's more action and no scares at all. Not a bad story, just not at all what I was expecting. The list of songs at the back of the book earns a whole star in itself.

[Kerrydan]

Like the Dresden Files, but Canadian, and with necromancers instead of wizards!
Once the action started, I couldn't put it down. Being from Winnipeg, I loved the familiar setting. But the story and dark supernatural world would've been great even if it weren't set in my home.
Looking forward to reading more in this series!

[M.L.D.]

[Japunkt]

Urban fantasy/horror (necromancy, with a touch of Lovecraft) set in Winnipeg. The beginning got bogged down a bit with exposition, but it picked up as the story progressed. Pretty decent, and I’d read a sequel.

[Sean McGinity]

This was reviewed on my podcast in great detail. Listen to the SeanGeek Podcast episode here for my full review of this great book.
I published my new episode Season 7, Episode 4 – A Review of Graveyard Mind
https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-7sfug-b...

[Kristen]

I made it to approx 20% through, as I was excited to read a local Winnipeg writer, and while the premise and story were interesting, I struggled with reading the physical book and would have appreciated a ebook option.

[Bunny]

Pretty good. The ending felt a little rushed, but the rest... Pretty good stuff.

[Jeannie Lopez]

Awesome Awesome , loved the characters and the story kept me wanting to finish.

[Jenn Toews]

I have loved every book that Chadwick has written, this one was no different.

[Zada Kent]

Inventive, original story.
The minor grammatical errors were a bit distracting.

[Sabrina]

Stars: 3.5

[Sharron Arksey]

Somewhere between 3.5 and 4.

[Jennifer]

2.8

[Aeroreader]

Absolutely brilliant. Original and like nothing I’ve read before.

I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.

[Caroline Ingvaldsen]

Set in Winnipeg, an interesting urban fantasy featuring an appealing protagonist operating in a supernatural sphere with it's own unique protocols.