Buried is a well-written, very original young adult urban fantasy, and is far better than some of the offerings from much larger publishing houses (this is from Curiosity Quills Press). It is well thought-out, well finished and very streamlined. Nothing necessary is missed and nothing is overdone. It flows well, unravelling the mystery at just the right pace, and the plot has enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes.
The story is about two teens. The boy, Grey, has just arrived in Cadence’s town. Yes, he’s the new boy in school, and, yes, he is cute, but that’s as far as the cliched YA beginning goes. The story soon became unique; Cadence is barely aware of his cuteness, what bugs her about him is that he is not remotely perturbed by the strange poltergeist activities in the town. The town has always been like that, but someone from outside should be freaked out by dusters flying, unthrown by human hands, at a teacher, and other such things.
So Cadence makes up a reason to talk to him and so the fun begins. Grey has lived with such strange goings-on his whole life. They follow his family around and he’s here to find out what happened to one of his ancestors in the hope that he can get the hauntings to stop. Apparently this is his thing and is of no interest to his parents who have the absent parent syndrome often found in YA books. (I get the impression that the current thinking for some is that you want to cut the number of words down, or save parental complications in the plot, just write the parents out of it.) For me, it’s the weakest part of this story. Parents always being somewhere else is less believable to me than the supernatural aspect.
Cadence doesn’t want to be his girlfriend, but Grey is clearly interested in her and despite Cae’s reticence their relationship meanders into romance as they set out to solve the mystery of Grey’s lost ancestor.
The main characters are well-drawn and likeable, and Cae is not unlike my own heroine of the Diamond Peak Series, Ariel, in her reticence to get all girly giggly over a guy and her courage in facing the unknown.
It’s a solid YA fantasy that reads more like contemporary fiction for much of the book, the withy demon stuff only coming in at the end. The end is unexpected and I presume there will be a follow-up because something fairly major has happened which warrants some further exploration.
I received this book free from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Links
Buried on Curiosity Quills
Buried on Goodreads
US Kindle store
UK Kindle store
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