Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Gravedigger's Son by Patrick Moody - Wait list

The Gravedigger's Son

by Patrick Moody
Graham Carter
ebook
0 of 0 copies available
Wait time: Not available
Place a hold Read a sample Read a sample
0 of 0 copies available
Wait time: Not available
"A Digger must not refuse a request from the Dead." —Rule Five of the Gravedigger's Code
Ian Fossor is last in a long line of Gravediggers. It's his family's job to bury the dead and then, when Called by the dearly departed, to help settle the worries that linger beyond the grave so spirits can find peace in the Beyond.
But Ian doesn't want to help the dead—he wants to be a Healer and help the living. Such a wish is, of course, selfish and impossible. Fossors are Gravediggers. So he reluctantly continues his training under the careful watch of his undead mentor, hoping every day that he's never Called and carefully avoiding the path that leads into the forbidden woods bordering the cemetery.
Just as Ian's friend, Fiona, convinces him to talk to his father, they're lured into the woods by a risen corpse that doesn't want to play by the rules. There, the two are captured by a coven of Weavers, dark magic witches who want only two thing—to escape the murky woods where they've been banished, and to raise the dead and shift the balance of power back to themselves.
Only Ian can stop them. With a little help from his friends. And his long-dead ancestors.
Equal parts spooky and melancholy, funny and heartfelt, The Gravedigger's Son is a gorgeous debut that will long sit beside Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 26, 2017

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781510710740
      • File size: 2098 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781510710740
      • File size: 2097 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 1, 2017
      The son of a cemetery's keeper has his work cut out for him by a vengeful witch who raises all the local dead at once--and threatens worse. The whole episode turns out to be a family quarrel writ large. The latest in a 1,000-year line of Gravediggers tasked not only with interring the dead, but dealing with any last requests their restless spirits might have, 11-year-old Ian would rather be studying herbal medicine than learning the family trade. Tricked into venturing down the forbidden Pumpkin Trail--a dark woodland path lined with jack-o'-lanterns--he falls into the clutches of three not entirely unfriendly young witches (called Weavers) and their sinister grandmother Dehlia. With help from Bertrum, his fierce if somewhat raggedy zombie guard/tutor (a scene stealer if ever there was one), Ian escapes...but not before giving up a smoking potion of blood and bone to Dehlia that raises thousands of bewildered corpses in the cemetery. Luckily, Ian has many generations of predecessors to call on to help re-lay the dead, and Dehlia needs only doses of empathy from him and his long-dead mother, a Weaver herself, to give over her scheme. Aside from the olive- or dark-skinned Weavers, the cast presents as white, and Carter follows suit in occasional mildly gothic illustrations. The boneyard's a busy place in this debut, but the dead and undead are less terrifying than those in Joseph Delaney's Revenge of the Witch (2005). (Fantasy. 10-13)

      COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading