| Title | : | Make Me No Grave |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 319 |
| Publication | : | First published November 20, 2018 |
Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but U.S. Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn't decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice--and receives a bullet for his trouble. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him.
Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she's spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down.
Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn't try, she'll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.
And if Apostle isn't careful, he'll end up joining her.
Make Me No Grave Reviews
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Marketed as “Weird West” this takes a page from Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series with an alternate history West with magic.
Hayley Stone’s 2018 publication keeps the magic on the down low and delivers a minimalistic tale of western themes, romance, and revenge.
I was first struck by her talent. Stone is good writer and her ability shines through in every page, she knows how to describe a scene and turn a phrase. Told from the first person narrative of Marshall “Apostle” Richardson, this follows Richardson’s pursuit and later friendship with noted outlaw Almena Guillory, the Grizzly Queen of the West, who also has some magic up her sleeve. Guillory also has some secrets in her past and she’s not as bad as we would first believe.
Stone sets the tone and conveys an entertaining western fantasy.
*** A free copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review
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“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised…” “Proverbs 31.”
I admit I haven’t read much westerns, movies yes, but this book has been an atypical western and magic laced story worth reading! The first person is superbly managed. The characters are very well described and realistic. The protagonist-Apostle- a down to earth Marshall with his own personal demons. An alleged criminal, The Grissly Queen with strange powers. A cross country ride, full of intrigue, bank robbers, criminals, I could hear the typical western music in the background whilst reading! The writing is an excellent prose, easy to read. And yet, it holds a wealth of profoundness in its simplicity. The eternal internal debate of good versus bad, moments of faith and morality taken to its very limits. A unique concept of the Wild West merged with gifted powers seen from a religious point of view. This story has both, the thought provoking situations and moments, and a fun action/adventure. Gritty and tension filled scenes, I was hooked from the beginning!
I received an early version of this book from the publisher and my review is entirely voluntary. -
Make Me No Grave by Harley Stone and narrated by Oliver Wyman is a western with a bit of supernatural added to it. A strong female lead as the bad guy and a true good sheriff in a land where even that is unique. The story is about how they end up riding together despite there differences and each growing emotional while together. She also has a special gift.
Very action packed and made me feel like I was in the dusty, crude Midwest in a very lawless time.
The narration was performed brilliantly! -
I wrote this book. I had a lot of fun with this story, and hope you enjoy it, too!
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Damn this was good!!!
This right here is the book I never knew I needed
Ever have a book call to you? Especially a book that is so far out of your comfort zone that you're thrown into a loop. Well this book wasn't just calling to me it was screaming "READ ME!" and the truth is I still don't why. Because me and westerns usually don't happen, but damn I glad I listened! I was entirely engrossed! This is the type of book that makes you impatient to see what happens next! Because it just keeps getting better and better! What also makes this book so great is the characters.
First off Apostle Richardson
Cowboys are so not my type but Apostle won my heart! So damn charming I just can't...
As for Almena
I loved her to pieces!
This is so not a romance but oh and how I shipped those two I kept telling myself
and when I got "THAT MOMENT" well let's just say nobody could wipe the stupid smile off my face.
All and all if you're looking for a great read look no further than
Make Me No Grave -
3.5 Stars
Nathan or "Apostle" as he's nicknamed is the U.S. Marshall tasked with apprehending Almena "The Grizzly Queen". Liked the slow friendship, and romance formed between these two, bringing out the unexpected in each other. I'd love more, but it ended in a great place, too. Enjoyed the bit of supernatural element.
Oliver Wyman's narration was excellent, made me feel like I was watching an old Western! -
This is the book you didn't know you needed. But you do. You really do.
I came to this book in an interesting way. The publisher is new and I was looking at their page, kind of checking them out and saw this book and thought to myself that it wasn't my normal thing, but that it looked interesting. I reached out to see if they'd give me an early copy so I could check it out. They did.
I put the short version of what I thought into a blurb: Combines the best elements of western and fantasy for a thrilling ride that won't let you go.
The longer version is this:
You probably aren't sitting there thinking 'Hey, I need a fantasy-western mashup.' And that's what this is. Calling it a flintlock fantasy isn't really accurate, because it doesn't feel like a fantasy. It feels like a western. Except there's a super-cool, original magic element to it. But even that isn't enough to explain what makes it so good.
This is an exceptional story. The characters are superbly drawn, well rounded, and make you want to follow them. It's very well written. The pace is outstanding and the prose crisp. And there's a depth and themes to the writing that you might not expect from what, on the surface, looks like a pulpy, fun romp. The book delves into religion and how it drives a man (The main character is a religious man, and how he deals with that in conjunction with the difficult things he has to do is fascinating), attraction, love, and a lot of other things that will make you think. Or, alternately, you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the careening ride. I love books that work in multiple ways like this one does.
If you're a fan of westerns, if you're a fan of fantasy, or if you're just a fan of great writing and superb story, I strongly recommend you check this book out. It's a small press book and it's very reasonably priced on kindle. -
I won a copy of the audiobook version and I'm counting myself lucky because Makes Me No Grave was superb. It's primarily a western with some supernatural and alternate history mixed in. All of this falls outside of what I would normally read but Stone does a great job of balancing each element and making the story feel authentic. To add to that, Oliver Wyman absolutely nailed it as the voice narration on the audiobook, sounding exactly what I think a gritty and worn lawman would be like. From what I understand, the publisher, Aethon Books, is a brand new publisher of sci fi and this is their first offering. Based on the story here and the quality of the audiobook, they have a new fan.
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I'm DNF'ing this at 52% but still rounding up from 2.5 to 3 stars. It's not a bad read, and the audio is great, it's just not my cup of tea. I was expecting something less Western-y I think, which was dumb, coz, you know what? It's a Western. With a (tiny) bit of a supernatural twist.
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I was surprised and delighted by Hayley's previous hard SF novels. I jumped at a chance to get my hands on a review copy of Make Me No Grave. To be honest, I haven't read that many true Westerns in my life--the only one I can recall was in middle school, for English class. But I enjoy a good fantasy and a good trip through Westworld, so why NOT enjoy a fantasy set in the Wild West?
Deep, well-written characters are the beating heart of this novel, as they are in all the best stories. This is an adventure tale about the strongest idealist in the West, and a hard-riding criminal who knows that everything isn't always as ideal as it seems. The biggest outlaw in the West has a heart and the best of reasons for what she does, they don't always align neatly with black and white defintions of good and evil defined by law and religion. Add in some bank robbers, steam engines, and frontier-style justice, and you're going to be in for a really good adventure.
Well-paced and well-written, with an original magic system, this is the fresh fantasy novel you don't know you've been waiting for. -
A western with elements of romance, supernatural, and alternate history too. I picked this up on Audible's Daily Deal, not knowing anything about it, and I'm so glad I did! Wow! It's an action-filled story with lots of heart, and an amazing cast of characters that will keep you turning pages. The story focuses on lawman Apostle Richardson, and his encounters with 'notorious female outlaw' Almena Guillory, whose actions eventually lead him to question his moral code of justice and right and wrong.
This western has all the action and adventure you'd expect, but it's sweetened with charm, wit, and attraction of the two MC's, Apostle and Alamena. Their characters have a lot of depth and background to them, and although they start out on opposite sides of the law, the lines are quickly blurred, and you'll soon be rooting for them both!
The audio narration by Oliver Wyman was brilliant, most especially for Apostle, with his gritty western drawl, but for all the other characters too! I highly recommend this book on audio for the full western experience. -
For the most part, this was the story of Federal Marshal Apostle Richardson's journey from moral certainty and scrupulous rule-following to a world-view that accommodates moral ambiguity and the need to act in accordance with his conscience even if that means not following the law to the letter.
Two things drive this journey. The first is his encounter with a notorious outlaw who turns out not to be who he expected her to be. The second is his recognition that his rigid rule-following is partly attributable to his determination not to be like his violent and often drunken father. He begins to wonder if he follows the rules not because he believes in them but because he worries that if he stops his true nature will emerge and he will become his father.
I know, I know. This is a Weird West story, filled with outlaws, bank robberies, lynchings, lawless towns, vengeful posses, gunfights, knife fights, murders, attacks on stagecoaches and locomotives and the occasional miraculous healing, and I'm making it sound very dry. It's not that dry, but it's not a wild tale of derring-do either. This is, at its heart, a morality tale.
I had a good time with it. Apostle Richardson is an easy man to travel with. He's passionate and action-oriented but he punctuates that with moments of reflection. He has a likely-to-be-fatal need to be heroic and stand up for what's right even in the face of overwhelming odds but at least he recognises that compulsion as an aberration worthy of analysis.
The outlaw Almena Guillory is nicely-drawn and cliché-free. Accepting her miraculous power to heal other people's wounds by taking them onto herself and or passing them on to others is no more of a stretch than being asked to accept the reality of vampires or werewolves in an Urban Fantasy novel. I had to work a little harder to suspend my disbelief enough to accept that she passed as a male officer in the Union Arm, saw combat in the War Between The States and that she was part of Abraham Lincoln's entourage.
What I had no difficulty in believing was the way in which she dealt with Richardson. She saw him clearly and knew exactly which buttons to press. The relationship between the two of them is not a romance so much as a continuous reassessment of each other and themselves.
There were a couple of times when what seem to me to be anachronisms jarred me out of the story: the use by both Guillory and Richardson of twenty-first-century gender pronouns when describing someone who didn't self-identify as male or female seemed unlikely in Kansas in the late nineteenth-century (especially given the ongoing hostility to trans people in modern day Kansas); and having one of the few female characters explain to Guillory that she wanted to 'change the narrative' around the opportunities open to women felt totally out of place.
Still, the plot was clever. It propelled the action forward and kept me guessing at the outcome and made the whole story more entertaining. I found the resolution quite pleasing, partly because it side-stepped convention and remained true to the natures of Richardson and Guillory. -
Wow, round this up to 4.5 stars. I never expect anything I get recommended for free on Bookbub to be, well, decent, but this was a marvelous surprise, a western (which I love) fused with some lite!fantasy and magic elements, WRITTEN BY A WOMEN. Now the latter is essential to note, because everything you might regret about typical westerns (if you're me at least) is the horrible treatment of women and minorities, most often in the form of sexual assault or outright violence. Nah, this book turns all that on its head.
The protagonist, a blonde white guy who nevertheless manages some good, open-minded thinking and acting that would never, EVER fly in a real western, really takes the backseat to Almena Guillory, the Lady Outlaw/HBIC/sorta witch he's supposed to arrest in the beginning. The final showdown is between her and another lady, which was very cool too. I found myself highlighting several great lines by the protagonist, but again, some of it almost felt shoe-horned in because the typical dude-in-a-western is a misogynist, arrogant prick who loves bloodletting shootouts. Not Apostle Richardson, which even if implausible, I enjoyed immensely.
A few random notes. One, this book has a HILARIOUS preoccupation with the evacuation of one's bladder immediately post-mortem. There were at least three cases where the author went out of her way to mention a "dark stain that wasn't blood" spreading beneath dying victims, and I dunno, my mind clung to these things. LOL.
Two, the unique magic in this book. I am always on the lookout for unique magic forms, and Almena's fleshmagic is super cool.
Three, the diverse range of characters we come across/the sort of mental reparations & apolgoies Apostle tries to make for his fellow white countrymen. Almena, badass lady villain that she supposedly is, has a cool scene where she's using her magic to heal Osage tribe members who were attacked by white settlers. She also has an Asian nonbinary friend they need help from at one point, and crossdressed herself, pretending to be a man in the Civil War.
Overall, much more and much BETTER than I expected from a free book! -
SUPER FAST REVIEW:
I love fantasy and I love westerns. I expected to be more into this.
Don’t get me wrong, there is stuff I liked. Almena is a very interesting character, the narrative is well written, there are some emotional bits and it has an interesting tone overall.
Unfortunately it is slower paced than I would have liked, it’s a bit predictable and I wasn’t really able to get into the story and I didn’t care for the ending.
That being said I wasn’t sure whether or not to give this 2 or 3 stars. I decided 3 because I wouldn’t consider it bad and things got a little more intense at the end.
That being said, would I recommend it? No. Would I read a sequel? Nah. Would I say it’s bad though? Nope. Does this author have potential? Yeah.
3/5 -
Apostle Richardson is the quintessential good guy, who thinks right and wrong is generally a straightforward distinction. But when he encounters Almena Guillory, a notorious yet beguiling outlaw who saves his life with flesh magic despite knowing he intends to arrest her, his moral code is thrown for a loop. When she escapes his custody and goes on the run, Richardson’s pursuit of her becomes all-consuming—and not just because he wants to catch a wanted criminal. There’s a lot to love here, but my favorite part was the setting—southeast Kansas, where much of my husband’s family is from. It was a hoot to hear familiar names like Cherryvale, Coffeyville, and Baxter Springs called out. I listened to the audio version, and narrator Oliver Wyman is fantastic—he nails Richardson’s gravelly twang.
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I think I’m being generous with three stars here. Maybe more like 2 ½ stars. Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to like about this book. The idea is kind of cool and there’s some fine writing, but the characters are a bit on the shallow side and the plot is poorly executed and that’s disappointing. This could've been so much better and Haley Stone seems like a talented writer.
I did like Apostle and Almena, they had a lot of potential but I felt like I had their measure at the end of the first chapter and the rest was filling in the details and waiting for them to fall into each other’s arms. Maybe this would make a good script for a movie, but it kind of falls a little flat for me as a book. I honestly think this book had the makings of a masterpiece if the author had spent more time polishing it. I wish she had.
Many of the plot twists were telegraphed and kind of clichéd. Also, there were events missing from the story early on that were referred to later, making me wonder if they had been edited out. One thing that annoyed me was
Another thing that bugged me was
There were some anachronisms in this book that bugged me. I guess I can’t prove that the expression “body count” wasn’t in use in 1873, but I doubt it. I think it’s theoretically possible that you could have found a man in that time period who is accepting of a gender-neutral person, but what I really have a problem with is that anyone back then would refer to such a person in the plural. That’s not 1873. It’s barely 2019. I guess since this is a parallel world with magic, it’s not technically our past. Still, things like that yank me out of the story.
All in all, the most disappointing thing about this book is that I liked the main characters and I thought the concept was great but the execution wasn’t so good. I suspect the author is capable of doing better. There is a setup for a sequel here. I’m not sure if I would be interested. -
This is a powerful western about a rigidly proper lawman and a lady bandit known as the bloodthirsty “Grizzly Queen”. The story opens with the lawman having captured the bandit queen and having troubles with a local sheriff and his mob who want to lynch her rather than bringing her to trial. Matters get bloody and the lawman’s life is saved by his prisoner, embarking the reader on a strange journey in which I rarely had any idea where the story was going, but still found totally compelling.
So there’s a little magic, a dead president, an assassins, murdered civilians, violent posses, native peoples in need of help, and rival gangs. Through it all, this strange relationship between the lawman and the most notorious woman in the west where moral lines continue to become blurred as we try to figure out if this a tale of justice or a tale of redemption or something else entirely. Whatever it ultimately is (and we do find out by the end of the novel) it’s a tremendously interesting novel.
If you liked this review, you can find more at
www.gilbertstack.com/reviews. -
From beginning to end, Apostle, the main character struck me as female. Too chatty or reflective in a way that didn't sound male, much less a western he-man gun-slinging type of guy. Made me wonder why. Can't men be chatty and self-reflective? They can certainly have a moral code, like the John Wayne type character. Westerns are famous for the guys who don't want to kill, but will do so when the killing is called for. The outward characteristics weren't telling, it must have been something about the voice. For me, every scene, despite the author writing otherwise, Apostle, a Federal Marshall, sounded like a woman. Weird.
Could it be that the cool cover featuring a woman set expectations for a female hero? Maybe.
The story would have been more interesting, I think, if it were about two woman on opposite sides of the law. The romance part was unnecessary. Issues of friendship, compassion, respect and morality would have been strong enough to carry the tale. That would have been a turn on the man-bro buddy films. I'm not a romantic so that part doesn't interest me.
My last nits are about the "weird" and alternative history parts. They seemed tacked on, not cohesive with any theme. Not that such things are absolutely necessary, but their irrelevance to the story stood out. They were attention seeking fringes tacked on for no good reason.
I don't mean to make the book sound bad. I had no problem finishing it. Some of the dialogue was witty. The writing was good, and in some places quite good. Could be a good start for a series. -
Make Me No Grave engages on every level - in Stone's atmospheric descriptions, constantly moving plotlines, and pitch-perfect character voices. A lightly enchanted tale of the Old West, it has everything its setting demands: outlaws, gunfire, frontier country. Supernaturally tinged though it is, though, the story is also refreshing in its realism, with a cast of characters as diverse as humanity always has been, especially as free from the trappings of polite society as in this novel. Well-paced and expertly written, Make Me No Grave is definitely the kind of book that makes you stay up past midnight so that you can read "just one more chapter" until the very end. I speak from very firsthand experience.
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Weird West, a hint of magic, dangerous romance. Reasonably good, just not as gripping as I hoped it to be.
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Despite my personal rating of this book, I can see it garnering a strong base of fans: namely those who enjoyed the Netflix show Godless and did not notice (or were unbothered by) its philosophical anachronisms. In fact, if you enjoyed that show, you ought to snatch this book up immediately, because you'll love it. The irreparable break between my enjoyment and this intriguing "Weird Western" is the same break that happened when I watched Godless. I couldn't stop cringing at how far outside history everyone was behaving. So if, like me, you expect characters in a Western not to think and act like citizens of the 21st century, then I suggest you pass on this book.
If that had been my only point of contention, I'd have given the book three stars for being "good but not my thing." The fantasy element of "flesh magic," downplayed as it is (this is a Western first and a fantasy second), really intrigued me. I wanted to like Almena Guillory; or more accurately, I wanted to understand her better in order to like her. But I can't round up my 2.5 star rating for three reasons.
One, the writing jarred me entirely out of the story. That sounds as if Ms. Stone isn't a good writer. She is. Her wordsmithing is excellent. The problem is unfettered wordsmithing, specifically similes. Oh. My. Word. So many similes. If I had a nickel for every like and as in this book, I could buy my entire Amazon wishlist. Individually they're great, but in every paragraph they're maddening. And yes, they are in every paragraph. I was exhausted with them well before the halfway point in the book and just wanted Marshal Richardson to stop painting pictures with his every thought.
Which brings me to the second reason I can't round this up to 3 stars. Marshal Apostle Richardson at no time convinces me he's male. I would not be shocked to discover this book was originally supposed to be about the blossoming relationship between a female marshal and a female outlaw, but the publisher decided to go a bit more mainstream and asked the author to make her marshal a guy. . . . without making any actual changes to the character.
The third reason: wobbly character motivations. I loved the contrast between the two protagonists' driving principles, but then said principles seem to fizzle without explanation and I looked back to realize a lot of things they'd been doing lately didn't make complete sense. I tried to stay in the story anyway until Apostle , and after that I was pretty much done with him.
Another review states this feels like an early draft rather than a fully crafted, finished work, and I agree. Slaying some (most) of the similes, hammering out more consistency and logic in character motivations, and reworking Apostle so he rings true as a man of the West--any or all of these probably would have caused me to up this rating at least a whole star despite the fact I'm not into postmodern Westerns like this and Godless. I wanted to love a fantasy/Western mashup because I love the genres individually, and maybe there are some out there I'll love when I discover them, but this one isn't for me. -
A Kindle bargain book that turned out not bad. A quick light read. A western gal and a Federal Marshal. The gal has "a gift." A little fantasy tossed into the U. S. wild west.
Thought I'd try another short read by the same author. Price is right. I'm sort of in a 'what's next' reading mood. No decisions yet.
On to
Machinations. Oops! Amazon says not until September 8th. Hmmmmmmm...... -
This book reminded me of
The Sisters Brothers with a little bit of magic thrown in. I understand it's called "weird western". It wasn't any weirder than urban fantasy. The only thing supernatural about it was that Almena had a healing power called "bruising".
Oliver Wyman was the perfect narrator for this book. I thoroughly enjoyed his husky voice. -
Not exactly weird west. Very light on the weird, heavy on the west. The fantasy aspects are barely there. The story focuses on the romance between a scarred, good-hearted outlaw and a marshal. Not what I expected, but a good read nonetheless.
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Solid writing but I was hoping for a bit more weirdness.
6/10 -
Filled with morally grey characters this story has it all; mistaken identities, bank heists, mayhem and magic. Stone’s storytelling is in turn lean and lush, as this adventure of violence and revenge is played out through the eyes of Apostle, a marshal fighting his demons while trying to be the last decent man in the West. Tough as nails, flesh magic wielding,anti-heroine, Almena, gives Apostle a run for his money as the unlikely pair get thrown together in an attempt to enact their own ideas of justice. Apostle’s moral judgment is challenged every step of the way as he begins to realize that doing what’s right and obeying the law isn’t always the same thing.
Make Me No Grave is a rollicking Wild Weird West adventure perfect for fans of Red Dead Redemption, the Quick and the Dead and Wynonna Earp. -
Make Me No Grave is a well craft western with a magical twist. The story flows well and kept me engaged the whole time. If you like western, this book is highly recommended.
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Read it or Delete Challenge: Delete It
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I recently came across a “weird west” novel called Make Me No Grave by Hayley Stone.
I feel stupid for asking but, why hadn’t anyone told me we could combine fantasy and western genres before?! I already love sci-fi westerns like Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun, but mixing paranormal/fantasy with western? Ho boy, what an idea! So I marked the book as “to read” on my Goodreads list and kept it in the fringes of my memory as I requested that my local library order a copy.
Because my library is awesome, they ordered a copy of Stone’s book and reserved it for me, sending me a text to say it was in. Having just finished the sixth Dresden files book, I put the series down for a week to start this weird west novel.
It took a couple chapters for my brain to get into the mood for a western. I’ve been so hooked on Dresden, that my brain treated anything other than urban fantasy with contempt. Even though this was a book I’d been waiting for, Jim Butcher’s series had my attention hogtied.
Still, I started Stone’s book. And about the start of chapter three, the gears in my stubborn mind ground and shifted into western mode. I love westerns, both movies and books. But my pool of western reads is shallow, mostly Louis L’Amour novels (the Hopalong Cassidy novels being my favorite), True Grit, and The Sisters Brothers.
At chapter three, I started liking this book. And at chapter 10 when Apostle and Almena reunited, I started to love Make Me No Grave.
For those unfamiliar, the story follows a U.S. Marshal named Apostle Richardson, a real white knight who thankfully comes into some harsh reality and character development throughout the book. The other main character is that of Almena Guillory, the “Grizzly Queen of the West,” and my favorite part of this story.
Fortunately for me, the book is written in first person, which I prefer to third person, both in writing and reading. And that helped the transition from Dresden, which is also written in first person. I like to be in the head of the narrator. It helps me focus on the parts of any story I love best, the characters.
I will happily take a character-driven story over a narrative-driven story any day. Because at its worst, a character-driven story can have the most boring plot, but if I love the characters, I’ll stick along for the ride. If a story is great but has dull characters, let me off the ride.
Also fortunate for me, this seems to be a largely character-driven story. And I what I love most about it is the evolving relationship between Almena and Apostle. The murderer with traces of mercy keeps telling the Marshal, “Come down here.” And the Marshal who has traces of a temper keeps telling the criminal to rejoin him up here. It’s their tango that moved me through this story of “Will she pull him to her?” or “Will he pull her to him?”
It was irresistible. And it generates the same admiration for a good Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne relationship I love to devour.
The other characters in the story I could take or leave. We’re supposed to have some sort of build-up between Almena and the man that abandons her, but that goes nowhere. Maybe it’ll be addressed in a further book. The marshals that ride with Apostle for a time seem like they’ll be bigger characters than they end up, but they get swallowed by the gravity of attention drawn to Almena and Apostle. In the end, they become nothing more than punching bags for the plot.
The story’s villain is interesting enough, I guess. But I would have liked just a little more development for them to really shine, ya know?
Speaking of them, kudos for inserting a non-binary individual in a western story without it feeling hokey or forced. Song was a wonderful character. And this brings me to the magic of the story.
When an author introduces magic into a story, it’s a really powerful detail that can make or break the story. Do the rules make sense? Is the magic used as a deus ex machina?
The magic in Stone’s book is written well, mostly as a welcome undertone or sleight of hand detail. This isn’t Harry Potter where magic is being flung every which way, thankfully. Almena can absorb other people’s injuries and heal them. She can also dispense her injuries to others. It’s called “flesh magic,” and I’m perfectly fine with the magic never being 100 percent explained or given an origin.
Magic shows up in some parts of the story, sure. And when it does, it’s interesting how Stone weaves magic in and around her characters. But this story is much more of a western tale of frontier justice/romance with just a little magic sprinkled in, rather than A Wizard of Earthsea meets The First Fast Draw. And I enjoyed that.
The more an author introduces magic into their story, the more careful they have to be to keep it all in balance. The author is responsible for explaining the system, extra details, making sure it’s not overused/underused.
But with the level of magic that Stone inserts into her story, that one of the characters has some healing abilities (with limits), and there are a few others scattered through the country who can do similar things, the details never get out of hand. And I welcome that, gratefully. I’m glad Almena isn’t some Wolverine-esque character that can just charge into a barrage of bullets and sweat it off.
Another thing I love about this story is its length. I’m a lazy reader. Before Dresden, I used to finish about one book a month. My happy range for a book is about 200-400 pages, and Make Me No Grave clocks in around 330-ish. Call me a happy gal.
With my Dresden addiction, I’ve been driven to finish a book every week, reading about 50 pages on my lunch break at work every day and then finishing up the remnants on the weekends (because I’m exciting like that). And so I took that pace with this book, finishing it on a cooler fall day in Northwest Arkansas.
Aside from doing my morning run and a trip to Chipotle, reading this book on my couch curled up with a blanket is all I’ve done today. And I have zero regrets.
And if I’m ever graced with a sequel from Stone, I’ll happily read that as well. The ending to this book left me squinting and going, “Okaaaaaaay. . . fine,” while screaming on the inside for more Apostle and Almena.
Their evolving relationship and dance of will they or won’t they? It’s enough to drive me mad (in a good way) and leave me wanting more. That’s what I’d want in a sequel, more. I need another story with these two trying to figure out if they love each other enough to overcome some ethical differences.
I’ll say right here and now, I’m biased as all get-out. I loved Almena’s character. Apostle was a good foil, but I’d want the sequel to be written from the Almena’s perspective. The way she took this white knight and bent him just enough to her will for him to see some real changes in his philosophy is at the core of what I love about their relationship.
Toward the end of the book, maybe within the last 50 pages, I was screaming at Apostle, “Shred your morals! Just go with her, and be happy, dangit!”
But Stone is an author made of sterner stuff. And Apostle is no pushover. Almena doesn’t need to snap the bars in the jail cell window. She just needs to bend them ever so slightly.
Make Me No Grave has an entertaining enough plot, even if it weaves in some curious directions at time. I definitely didn’t expect a storyline sprinkled with Abraham Lincoln, but I’m certainly not complaining either.
Stone writes a good western. I didn’t question the whole thing took place in Kansas. But with characters as mesmerizing as Almena and Apostle? The story could have taken place in any location and any time. I still would have loved it. The weaker parts of the story are those few parts lacking Almena, but again, I’m biased.
