Grave Cold
By Shannon Knight
Grave Cold is the story of how Cait, a beautician/necromancer helps a psychopomp unravel a plot to use the souls of the dead as a power source.
We’ve got a dystopian post-disaster, post-revolution society where people mostly live in walled city states, and where the fear of disease, mutants, and mutations both force people together and drive them apart.
Our main character, Cait, has always been able to see the dead, but when she encounters Nyle, a raven (psychopomp), she begins to learn how that’s not all there is to it.
The story paints a bleak but plausible picture of the future. The fantastic elements aside, there’s no reason to doubt our world could look like this under the right (or wrong, as it were) conditions. Secret police, shady government practices, mad scientists, and corporate greed – you know what I mean.
On the whole, the setting makes for a great place to tell the kind of story that this is. What we have here is a kind of dystopian urban fantasy action thriller, with just a dash of romance on the side. It’s tightly plotted, well written, and immersive. The characters are relatable and engaging.
I particularly enjoyed how Cait’s role as a beautician is worked into the story. It helps identify her social standing, but it also gives her skills that are useful to the story in ways one might immediately consider.
What I’ll whine about
Theme. Maybe it’s me, but I didn’t find a strong, central message to the story. That doesn’t mean the book doesn’t have a thing or two to say about people and the world (it definitely has opinions), but there’s no distinct main theme to tie it together.
What I’ll gush about
Consent. The romance slowly growing between Cait and Nyle is an important but relatively small part of the story, but it’s made to shine bright in the way both of them ask for consent. “May I touch you?” “May I kiss you?”
Questions like that have been rare in books I’ve read in the past, and they stand out to me here. To me, these questions make the relationship more tender, more vulnerable, and more worth cherishing. It hints at a deeper connection than mere stolen kisses, and I love that.
Final Words
Grave Cold is a fast-paced, dystopian, fantasy thriller, with interesting characters and great world building.
