My Three Favourite Aspects of These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

What: These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Who: Hot Key Books

When: November 2015

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Hot Key Books for review.

Josephine Montfort is from one of New York’s oldest, most respected, and wealthiest families. Like most well-off girls of the era her future looks set—after a finishing school education, she will be favourably married off to a handsome wealthy gentleman. But Jo wants a more meaningful and exciting life: she wants to be an investigative journalist like her heroine Nellie Bly.

But when Jo’s father dies after an alleged accident, she begins to investigate his death with the help of a young reporter, Eddie Gallagher. It quickly becomes clear he was murdered, and in their race against time to discover the culprit and his motive, Jo and Eddie find themselves not only battling dark characters of the violent and gritty streets of New York, but also their growing feelings for each other.

I was in a MASSIVE book slump where I wasn’t really enjoying anything I was reading. I knew I had to read These Shallow Graves because I had requested it, and its publication date was in November. Fear enveloped me, I have to say. I liked the sound of the book so much, and I didn’t want my slump to influence it.

Well. These Shallow Graves squashed my slump with its massive weight (seriously, this book is BIG), and triumphed with a four star rating.

These Shallow Graves completely exceeded my expectations. I was expecting a good book about a girl in ye olden times wanting to be a reporter and trying to solve her father’s possible murder. Whilst all of these aspects are actually in the novel, there was also a lot more to it than just those aspects.

My favourite aspect of this book would have to be our heroine, Jo. She was just AWESOME. In a time when women were pretty much just trophies who weren’t allowed opinions or emotions, Jo went against the grain almost all of the time. She was a nineteenth century feminist of the best kind. Now I mentioned “almost all of the time” because there was this one part where she just kind of complied with her family’s wishes and I was super disappointed. Although it came at an emotionally rough time for her so I was able to forgive her that one thing. Jo was just all ‘round fabulous, and you need to meet her.

My second favourite aspect of These Shallow Graves was Jo and Eddie’s relationship. Whilst Eddie was protective of Jo, he never tried to stop her from doing anything. Sure he’d be all: no, Jo, that’s dangerous, stay here. But he never forced her to do anything, or try to hold her back, either. Their relationship was seriously ON POINT. This book could have almost been five stars, had it not been for the ending in terms of Eddie and Jo. I just … really wanted more from that ending, and to be honest it left me really disappointed, which was sad because I enjoyed every single second that I spend reading These Shallow Graves.

My third favourite aspect of These Shallow Graves was definitely the writing style. It was incredibly engaging, and I would pick the book up and then stop some time after and find that hours had passed, and I’d read a lot. I love it when books can completely captivate me like this. It means that they are good.

I have to say that some aspects were a little predictable in terms of the mystery, but because there were so many layers to it, there was still a lot to uncover. All of the characters seemed to have motive when it came to the crimes committed.

One last thing to mention, because I think it deserves it: the characters were so well fleshed out. Not just Jo and Eddie, but everyone. Even characters that were in the book for, like, five minutes. Everyone was their own person (you know what I mean), and it’s just great to read a book where nothing is glossed over.

All in all, These Shallow Graves was an excellent book, and I thank it wholeheartedly for bringing me out of my cursed reading slump!

© 2015, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning: murder, assault, abduction, involuntary incarceration, forced prostitution, and slavery in this novel