Title: The Curse of Tenth Grave
Author: Darynda Jones
Series: Charley Davidson #10
Had to dig deep for flaws
To prepare for the release of Summoned to Thirteenth Grave in January, I started re-listening to the Grave series audiobooks a couple of months ago (Lorelei King is AMAZING). I got through Nine and needed a breather…then I received an invitation to participate in a blog tour for Thirteen beginning on Halloween, and part of the deal is to review one of the previous books in the series. I requested Ten and Eleven, since I had already reread One through Nine and reviewed Twelve last year. I haven’t received my materials yet, but I have the audiobooks and I’m so excited for Thirteen that I decided to get a head start. Plus I’d just finished Sunshine and needed something else to listen to.
The first time I read through the series, I went through them so fast back-to-back that they all blurred together, so it’s been nice getting them sorted out in my head during this second pass. For instance, one favorite moment that always stuck out in my memory is when Charley forces Osh to consume her soul so she can go around incognito. I used to think that was part of Twelve, but now I know it actually occurred here in Ten.
Here’s the gist of what else happened in Ten:
Central plot: Charley and the gang need to defeat the gods of Uzan without incurring the wrath of the angels, and move one step closer to bringing her daughter home.
Subplot 1: A video of Charley performing an exorcism has believers in the supernatural on her tail.
Subplot 2: Charley and her husband, Reyes, are keeping secrets from each other.
Subplot 3: Far too many children are dying at one particular kids’ home.
Subplot 4: An innocent young man is being framed for his girlfriend’s murder.
Subplot 5: Agent Carson’s coworker is being haunted.
All this and more is packed into a funny, fast-paced story. How Jones does it, I simply cannot fathom. I said something akin to this in my review for Twelve because I treated that as a review for the series as a whole (so I apologize if I’m being redundant), but it astounds me that she can interweave all of these plots and yet not confuse me—at least not plot-wise; mythology-wise she loses me a couple times, but in those instances I usually get the general idea and remain enveloped in the story.
All that plot, and it wasn’t even that long of a book. Every word is important and relevant—well, for the most part. The sex sequence with Reyes might be debatable; the bit with the champagne—while hot as hell—was pretty gratuitous. A good number of the sex scenes in the series are; I skip most of them because Reyes and Charley have so much scorching chemistry that I don’t need them; also, they’re written a bit too explicitly for my taste. Nothing really wrong with them, I just don’t need them.
My thoughts on the characters haven’t changed. Charley is 100% entertaining, and though her smartass comments and ADHD tangents can try my patience once in a while, she is the very life of this series. Reyes can be an ass—I wanted to smack him when he wouldn’t talk to Charley and more or less encouraged her to stay at Cookie’s; sure, she was keeping secrets too, but she was at least making an effort to bridge the gap that had formed between them—but I understand that’s his personality. His insecurities tend to manifest as assholery, and his fear manifests as anger. He makes up for that character flaw with complete and unconditional love for his family.
Ubie, Cookie, Amber, Quentin, Peri, and Garrett are their usual quirky, likable selves. And Osh. *dreamy sigh* I don’t know what it is about that boy, but somehow he’s my favorite. We see him for a lamentably short amount of time.
If I were forced to pick one thing that took me out of the story, it would be Reyes talking about wills and what-if arrangements. I understand why it was there, but it was a bit too real for such an outlandish story. Also, I get that having uber-intelligent and rich characters can be convenient, but 30 billion? I mean, come on. That amount of money is so unreal to me that he might as well have said 200 trillion-gazillion times infinity. I knew they were rich enough to make their lives a lot easier; I didn’t need a number.
Overall, I liked this book as much as I’ve liked the others—which is to say, I will be rereading them again and again and again and again…
I’ll listen to and review Eleventh Grave in Moonlight within the next week, probably. Then I’ll listen to Twelve again, though I won’t review it. And when I get my hands on Thirteen… *shivers in excitement* God, I hope that book doesn’t break my heart. I have a bad feeling it will, though.
