The Boy In The Cemetery

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Back of the book :

This is the story of a girl who lived but was not alive ....

Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone ....

.... and a boy who was dead, but could not die.

The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead or alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has a visitor he's been waiting for ....

What I think :

The Boy's Mother takes her own life by jumping into the river, she had 'The Consumption' and her mind had been turned by it. His father isn't a very nice person, he's a drunk and makes the boy work after dark as a grave robber. One night whilst robbing a grave the boy notices a white stone angel that is guarding a baby's grave. It reminds him of his mother and feels comforted by it. On the same night his father is attacked, and dies. The boy returns to the cemetery and there he meets a bad ghoul/spirit that turns him. The boy becomes 'not alive but not dead'

Fast forward two hundred years, we meet Carrie Anne. Her father is abusing her and she's very unhappy. To avoid prosecution her father moves them to a different town. When they arrive at the new house, Carrie Anne is interested to find out that there is a cemetery at the end of the garden. After an especially awful day, Carrie Anne ends up in the cemetery. Here she meets The Boy .....

When I decided to read this book I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as it's not my usual type of book. However I was pleasantly surprised, Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing in an afternoon and evening !

This book goes under the heading of 'Young Adult', however I think it's maybe a more adult book as it did creep me out in a few places. Its very dark and quite sinister right from the start, and tells of poverty and hardship, especially when you find out that the boy is only twelve years old when he 'dies'.

I didn't Carrie Anne's mother very much, I found her a very weak character and I really took an instant dislike to Carrie Anne's father, he deserved everything he got. However I did myself feeling very sorry for Carrie Anne, and I found myself wanting to help her.

I really did like this book even although I did find it slightly odd in a couple of places ! It reminded me of Tim Burton's 'The Corpse Bride' and 'The Nightmare before Christmas' which I really loved.

I give this book 9/10.

published by Carina on 29 October 2014.

Thank you to the publisher Carina and NetGalley for the digital copy of the book to read and review.

I love horror / creepy books, and with Halloween approaching it seemed the perfect time to read The Boy in the Cemetery. Firstly I loved the cover which totally drew me in. It has an eerie look about it, but also reminded me a bit of a Tim Burton film. Then when I read the synopsis, I was ready to download and get started.

We are initially transported back in time to meet 'the boy' who lived in London many years ago. There is talk of the consumption which once it took hold inevitably led to your death. The boy lives a life of poverty and has to watch his Mum get ill and die from the consumption. His father, a crook, takes care of the boy and teaches him to rob graves in the local cemetery to try and earn money. His father is caught and attacked and also meets his death. Left to fend for himself the boy returns to the cemetery to try and get some stuff to make money. Whilst there he meets an untimely end at the hands of a gruesome man who is already dead.

From then on we meet Carrie Anne whose family are also dysfunctional. Her father is not a decent man, and her mother is a coward. Carrie Anne is very unhappy and we learn just how unhappy when she tries to take her own life. They move house to a new area to start over. This house backs on to the cemetery and Carrie Anne becomes fascinated.

We see Carrie Anne start at a new school and quickly becomes the victim of bullies. In her haste to escape she runs to seek solace in the cemetery, the bullies follow and attack her. However the boy comes to her rescue and they strike up a friendship.

Together Carrie Anne and the boy seek retribution for the things Carrie Anne has suffered during her life. This involves the police investigating the goings on, whilst Carrie Anne pretends not to remember in order to protect the boy. I don't want to tell you any more or I will give away the ending!!

I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. When I started reading I realised it isn't the usual form of horror I tend to read, as there was less gore and more of a developing storyline. However, as the book went on the gore began (which I love), but there was also a strong plot that added another dimension to my reading.

I really felt for Carrie Anne. She had suffered some horrible things in her life at the hands of her father and he always seemed to get away with it. When she started being bullied at the new school I hated it. I was actually pleased to see the boy look out for her, even if it does up the gore levels!!!

I also liked the way the character of the boy was written. I got a real sense for who he was at the start of the book and whilst he is dead and carries out some horrible attacks, I couldn't bring myself to dislike him or wish him ill.

From a horror perspective the last third of the book was when it all comes together. Some of the descriptions are pretty graphic, and I built up a strong image of being in the cemetery, or at the house when some of the action is taking place.

The author has written this book in a clever manner, combining a strong story with just enough action and death. The book just flowed with the characters and I definitely built up allegiances with the 'goodies' versus the 'baddies'. I really enjoyed the ending and can see another book featuring Carrie Anne following in the future.

A well written Halloween read with a strong storyline and some macabre scenes for lovers of death and gore.

Thank you to Carina for providing a copy in return for an honest review.

I don't read horror books for one reason: I scare easily, plus I don't like -more like hate- spiders, rats, snakes or anything half terrifying). So when I decided to pick this book I was worried that I would have to leave it unfinished or that I would just not enjoy it. And nothing further from the truth. This story is just beautiful. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are rats, decomposing corpses and gore a plenty but the story of the boy and the girl is so uniquely beautiful that I just couldn't stop reading.

Sebastian Gregory's style is very unique too. His descriptions are vivid and he transports you to another time and another place easily with his words. And his characters, even if the main ones are just kids, are really deep and complex and awaken really strong emotions in oneself. I instantly felt for the two kids, surrounded by detestable humans and an unfair world. I hated with all my heart the girl's parents though.

This is the perfect Halloween read, not only does it have all the death and gore details but it also has a strong beautiful story that will have you gripped to its pages. Even if I could have done with less rats, I really enjoying this book more than I expected and I will be checking for sure Sebastian's other books as I found his writting very enthralling. So if you have a couple of hours this weekend, go and get this book, totally worth it!

Carrie Anne and her family are on the run. Hiding dark secrets and even darker shame, they move to a new town where she's told by her parents - act normal. But nothing is normal in her live. She looks for comfort in the cemetery behind her house. But secrets don't hide in the shadows for long. Something else is in that cemetery…and it's been waiting for someone like her.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

With The Boy in the Cemetery, Sebastian Gregory proves that he isn't just a one trick pony. This book is creepy, macabre, and heartbreaking.

Like his very sucessful The Asylum for Fairy-Tale Creatures, The Boy in the Cemetery has a very fable like quality to it. But the issues the story deals with are anything but fairy tales. The sub-plot is disturbing, heartrending, and all too real. And Gregory proves he has the chops to deal with it.

The story is violent and gruesome, but stops short of being terribly graphic - a good thing as the atmosphere is eerie enough as it is.

And though it's a short work, the characterization is spot on. Your heart bleeds for Carrie Anne, even as you are horrified by what happens.

This is a macabrely beautiful work and well worth the read.

*ARC Provided by Publisher for review purposes.

This a book that I do not usually read, but as a participant in #sundaychallenge hosted by me and my blog buddy Ananda on This Chick Reads, I decided to give it a try. The week's challenge was to read a book from an unknown author for me. I tried and I didn't regret.

With Halloween around the corner, the spooky stories are the most popular in this part of the year. The story starts about two hundred years ago, with a boy who loses his mother and is forced by his father to steel from corpses. But at the cemetery lives a creature that takes his soul and possesses his body.

More than two hundred years later, Carrie Anne lives a life that no child should ever live. She is abused by her own father. Her mother knows that and she does nothing to stop him. "Family is important" both parents say to Carrie Anne, "if you tell, the family would be separated". What family?!? A child should be child and live the life of a child! But running away "to keep the family together", Carrie Anne's father moves the family in a small neglected house, with a cemetery in the backyard. A cemetery that Carrie Anne sees as a sanctuary, where she notices a pair of strange eyes that are watching her. But nothing is more scary than her father in her room, on her bed. Carrie Anne meets the boy.

Wow, I'm not even sure in what genre to sort this book. It's spooky, scary and very emotional. The stories that involve molested children are very hard for reading. This story connects two molested children from different centuries. They both share same destiny. They both want their childhood back. Both of their characters are so well described, it is very emotional to see the world from their point of view.

I've found Carrie Anne's mum very weak as a character. What kind of mother lets her husband sexually to abuse her child and say nothing "in the name of family"? There were moments when I literally wanted to kill her, as much as I wanted to kill that monster of a father.

The Boy in the Cemetery is well-written and captivating Halloween story, that reminds us that monsters are real. The monsters don't live in the Underworld, but here on Earth, inside of us. Carrie Anne's father is a living proof of that.

My opinion: 4.5 / 5

Delectably creepy, spooky, dark and enticing. I absolutely adored this book, absolutely one of my most memorable reads of 2014. A proper little dark surprise package. With atmospheric settings, ghoulish happenings, emotions stirred and the mind stretched, this was one hell of a satisfying and enjoyable read. Did I say I loved it? I did. I really did.

This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…

Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone…

…and a boy who cannot die.

The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…

We meet "Boy" at the beginning of the book, living a miserable life long ago, in poverty beyond belief with his loving but struggling mother and ever absent father. All around him people are fighting The Consumption, the sickness that sucks the very marrow from your bones, grabs hold of you and heads you on a few weeks of hell before letting you die and finally be at peace. These are not happy times for Boy, not at all. He hurts inside.

Book Quote: As she smiled her thin smile, the river lapped behind her. "My angel," she said. "You are the most wonderful thing that I have ever done in my life. My angel, there are no words for how much I love you. You are so strong and brave. You need to be strong and brave." Tears ran from her bloodshot eyes and turned to dust on her cheeks. Such was the strength of The Consumption.

Boy one day encounters a Cemetery, a Graveyard and decides to explore, his encounter there will change his life forever. Boy will never be the same again. Never ever. It's his new home, always and forever more.

We fast forward to the modern day to meet sad and neglected, invisible and broken Carrie Anne. A girl who is living in her own personal hell with a father who abuses her at night in her bed (it's not graphic but it is mentioned) and a mother who turns her cheek the other way.

Carrie Anne is broken inside and wants to die.

They move to a new house and much to Carrie Anne's delight there is an ancient graveyard at the back of their new home. She feels drawn to this spooky place, the neglected headstones, the place nobody goes. As if life is not bad enough for this dear girl she is bullied in school on her very first day, she stands out as a misfit. But on that day, for Carrie Ann everything changes...

She meets Boy...and Boy meets Carrie Anne.

Oh, but oh! The circumstances of their meeting is bizarre and gave me the first real taste of the ghoulish wonder of this book. Magnificently written, every word is like magic, dripping with darkness and delight all at the same time. I was mesmerised reading this book, completely lost in this dark tale.

You see, boy can't die, he's been around for a very long time and now he has a new friend, and Carrie Ann has a new friend, let the fun begin.

Book Quote: He wore clothes that at one time may have been a dark suit of some kind, but now his attire was threadbare, moth-eaten rags. His body was dried sinew and bone, with pieces of one-time flesh dripping bones like a burnt candle the colour of tripe. He wore no shoes or skin on his feet. His head was swollen and oversized, a patchwork of tears and fissures. His one blue eye regarded Carrie Anne deeply. He was indeed, as she had thought when she first met him, a young boy in an old used body.

Good isn't it? This book has stunning and dark imagery all the way through it, I felt everything from pity to disgust, smiles to shock, it gave me the whole package, a new world within the pages of this book. I was sucked in and suitably impressed with the creep factor, the chill factor and the heart factor.

Carrie Anne and Boy seek solace and friendship in each other in the most unusual of ways and places. It's a beautiful yet disturbing friendship, the book has a darkness that weaves amongst it's sweet parts, like a nice cake where you don't see the mouldy bits until you take a bite. He shows her a world she has never seen before.

The storytelling is stunning, the plot fantastic, it's intriguing from the onset, the characters are so darn flawed, I felt so much for many of them, so real, so tangible, so good. Their pain draws them together and holds them dear to each other. A Young Adult book that anyone can read, of any age, without a doubt.

The ending left me speechless and breathless, I had to gather my thoughts for a while on how I felt about the ending. I was kind of numb. Oh Lord, what was I meant to feel? I didn't know! I still don't. I do know this..

I loved this book! I recommend to anyone that fancies a journey to this special place of grim tales and rats tails, sadness and pity, joy and delight, shock and sadness. It's all here. Absolutely loved it. Five easy stars from me. I could read it again and again.

This was not what I was expecting. I thought I was about to read a story about a boy and a girl helping each other, work through some issues and becoming strong loving friends. It was in a way but a little darker and a lot more scary. The story starts with the Boys life and everything he is going through, then it goes to the Girl, Carrie Ann, and the awful life she has. Both characters broke my heart, I cared about them and the story was scary, emotional and fascinating.

I haven't read a book like this before it was scary and terrifying but emotional and heartbreaking the characters tug at your heart and they don't have it easy but you are happy they have each other. The ending was amazing and I hope there will be another. The Author Sebastian Gregory is very new to me but one that I plan to read again. I liked his writing style and he can really tell an amazingly scare but heart felt story. This story touches on some sensitive subjects and things that happen in the book are unexpected and horrific and should be read with caution.

Recommend: This book is just wow and needs to be read by many.

Review for this book will be posted on my blog Dec 1st www.becausereading.com

Earlier this year I read another of Sebastian’s books ‘Asylum of the Fairy-tale Creatures’, which I really enjoyed. So I expected another fantastically creepy read from this one and I wasn't disappointed.

This book starts in the 1800’s and we learn of ‘Boy’ and how he came to be ‘The Boy in the Cemetery’. This was really fascinating, and really drew me into the book. Reading about the consumption and his mother was really touching. The book then fast forwards to a time when a family move in to a house that overlooks boy’s cemetery and the Carrie-Anne is instantly fascinated by it.

I really felt for Carrie-Anne, her father was a terrible person and the people she encountered at school weren't much better. Then she meets Boy. I adored their friendship, it was really sweet and charming, despite the unusualness of Boy and the circumstances in which they meet and spend time together.

This book took the awesome creepiness from ‘Asylum’ and raised it to another level. The description of where Boy lives is outstanding and incredibly visual, as is the rest of the book. However the rat eating scene stays with me to this day, gruesome! Of course this is exactly what I was expecting and it is the perfect read for someone who is after a new good—kind of creepy fairy tale.

There is a boy that goes by the name Boy because he cannot remember his name, was an abused child from the 1800's that ended up alone and then went to a graveyard to find the dead's secrets.

In present day, there is a girl, Carrie Anne, who is an abused child that wants to sleep in death. Her family moves to a new town with a graveyard behind their home. As she tries to hide her family secrets, her macrabe fascination shines through and makes her stand out and she becomes a target.

This story is creepy, macrabe and downright gross at times and should please any reader that enjoys that kind of a story. This story is not full of fun and games but takes on some serious issues like child abuse, attempted suicide and sexual abuse. With those issues, I'm not sure how to approach where to categorize the genre. It has a child main character so I would lean that way, but at the same time the abuse and suicide issue is touchy. I would suggest an adult read this book before handing it to their child to make sure they are mature enough for the subjects.

With that said, I was entranced by the whole story and enjoyed it throughout. The ending was one that I didn't totally see coming but looking back it made sense and seems there would be nothing that would be more appropriate. I love the characters and wanted to rescue both and became quite involved with the story because of this.

This is one story that I won't be forgetting for quite a while. I recommend it to all that love horror and enjoy children as main characters. This is truly perfect for those that like Tim Burton's and possibly even Neil Gaiman's style. Not sure I'd recommend it for young adults because of the subject matter and feel that it needs to be a parental decision.