Review: These Shallow Graves

From Jennifer Donnelly, the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Northern Light and Revolution, comes a mystery about dark secrets, dirty truths, and the lengths to which people will go for love and revenge. For fans of Elizabeth George and Libba Bray, These Shallow Graves is the story of how much a young woman is willing to risk and lose in order to find the truth.    Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.    Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his pistol. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was a partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun.     The more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. Suicide is the only logical explanation, and of course people have started talking, but Jo’s father would never have resorted to that. And then she meets Eddie—a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop.     The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all.Praise for These Shallow Graves:

I just want to say how much I love the cover of this book. The spookiness that it emits can just allow the reader to imagine what this book might be about. The book pulled me to the end of my seat multiple times and although I am not a fan of history, I was thoroughly pleased with the historical aspect that the book brought.

The story focuses on a murder that takes place but as you keep reading, more and more murders keep happening. We turn to Jo Monfort, a girl who is aspiring to become a journalist. We follow her as she goes on an adventure through New York. Getting help from multiple people, can she solve the murder before death comes knocking on her door.

There is something I loved about reading this book and that is although you are reading a great read, you learn. We get a glimpse of, the class system, how the rich is seen from the poor, and the gender roles in the sense of how women were looked at when aspiring to become someone in the working field.

I love Jo. I thought she was a strong women figure that fought for what she believed in, even though it meant that she would be putting herself in danger. I felt she grew in the book, not a lot, but enough for her to make a life changing decision at the end. I think that sometimes there are events in our lives that trigger us to make decisions we think about but are too scared to chance.

Overall this was a wonderful read. I encourage everyone to check out this book and see where it will lead you. I want people to try this book out and see where it leads them. It may seem slow at the beginning but once you hit the middle, it is hard to put down.

Happy Reading!