Review Detail

Blurb:
Meet Whisper, Frannie, Sophie, Gemma, and Zuzu, five friends from Misery Falls, Oregon. The town is abuzz as the 100th anniversary of the electrocution of Misery Falls’ most infamous killer, Silas Hoke, approaches. When a mysterious text message leads the girls to the cemetery—where Silas Hoke is buried!—life can’t get any creepier. Except, yes, it can thanks to the surprise storyteller who meets them at the cemetery, inspires the first-ever meeting of the Graveyard Girls, and sets the stage for a terrifying tale from Whisper that they’ll never forget.

The story of the Graveyard Girls was very nostalgic. Originally, I expected something more fantasy, but then I was pleasantly surprised that this book was about growing up with a friend group. I had a group of friends myself: we would have a lot of sleepovers, tell scary stories and do some spooky dares on a cemetery. So, I really could see myself in these girls. Over the years, we grew apart and went in different directions. This book shows this development perfectly. Around the age of twelve, we start finding ourselves, who we are, what we like, what we want from life, etc. Sometimes, that means finding new friends or new ways of being friends. But it often also means saying goodbye to old friends. With everything else going on, navigating friendships during this time can be extremely difficult. But in the end, it can blossom into something that lasts forever. Whisper and her friends are right in the middle of this development. They are feeling the drift and are trying to hold on, but ultimately, they figure out that showing up for each other and adapting their friendship is what they need most to get through puberty. Thus, the Graveyard Girls are born.

I expected to be more scared, but seeing that this isn’t a fantasy but a contemporary middle-grade novel, this scariness felt real and perfectly suited for the story unfolding.

I’m excited to read book 2 next and can’t wait to see what the Graveyard Girls are up to next.