Graverobber Blues by AM Kelly is the first in a series that follows Will Ashton, a necromage (aka necromancer) in South Carolina who has a place at a magic school, a beautiful girlfriend, and a very big secret—that “Will” is secretly short for Wilhelmina. In order to prove to herself, her school, and her lover’s uncle that she is talented and worthy, Ashton attempts to undertake an audacious heist-slash-experiment that would elevate her reputation. Her plans are foiled by an even more audacious and talented necromage with ambitions that run counter to her own, and they go head-to-head against each other in a battle to see who can get there first that takes place entirely over the course of one South Carolina night.
This comment doesn’t really fit into the 5P structure below, but I do want to muse on it a little. Ashton is such an interesting character to me because despite being someone who is somewhat on the outskirts of society herself—in particular, being a woman who loves another woman, and being someone who has had to disguise herself as a man in order to achieve anything academically—she is so extremely dedicated to upholding and adhering to the social structures that have forced her into that position. She hates the way her lover, Rosheen, is spoken to and treated as a woman and a healer, but then turns around and admonishes Dirty Henry for behaving rudely to his social betters. Even when things start to really break bad in the story, Ashton seems convinced that she can just go to the dean of the university and tell him and he’ll take care of everything, seemingly without considering that the dean of the university represents the exact academic system that rewards the privilege of money and gender. Another character in the story, J.P., is a former Underground Railroad participant, and Dirty Henry’s wife is Black and his son is biracial, and Ashton does seem to understand that racism is a symptom of a fucked-up society. But also, Ashton is a white woman pretending to be a man in pursuit of academia, and because her race and her (assumed) gender grant her the privilege of chasing that goal, she seems unwilling to really do anything to challenge the status quo and in fact devotes quite a bit of time to trying to convince people who are decidedly below her on the social pecking order that they should fall in line too. This could honestly be a really interesting angle for Ashton’s character development, as it becomes increasingly apparent to her that continuing to adhere to these social mores is not only not going to have the outcome she wants, but will also be actively damaging to the people she’s growing to care about, so I’m interested in seeing where AM Kelly will take it in future books.
Pleasure (my enjoyment of the read): ★★★★☆ For the straightforward pleasure of reading this book I give it 4 out of 5 stars. There were a couple of things that I would have liked to see expanded or handled differently, but overall I enjoyed my reading experience. The magical heist-y nature of the story as well as the tight timeline makes for a compelling and well-paced read (I think it only took me like 4 hours total to read through), and also makes some elements of the story more believable when they’re placed so close together. The level of damage done around the town going unnoticed is much more believable when it’s all happening in a night and the events are taking place at like 4:00AM.
Purpose (how well I think the book succeeded at what it set out to do): ★★★☆☆ This is a book that positions itself as a sapphic magical heist novel, and for its success at achieving that purpose I give it 3 out of 5 stars. It is definitely sapphic, in that the main character is a woman (albeit a woman living as a man) and she’s in courting another woman, but the book doesn’t really delve very deep into that relationship—I would have loved to know more about how Ashton and Rosheen met, for instance, or even some reflection on why they’re compatible, what they like about each other, and so forth. They’re shown to be very much in love but there’s a sense of being told, not shown, so I wish that we’d gotten a little bit more there.
Additionally, although the book is ostensibly about magic—and Ashton herself is a necromage—we actually don’t see Ashton herself doing all that much magic on-page. She does some magic at the very beginning of the book when things are kicking off, and she does a little more magic later on toward the climax of the story, but between those two points almost all the magic that happens on-page is done by people other than Ashton (and often with more skill than Ashton is described as having). This paints a picture overall as Ashton as sort of… mid as a necromage. Or maybe her being mid as a necromage is the point? At any rate, I would have liked more detail about how magic works and to see Ashton herself doing more of it throughout the story.
Prose (the writing on a technical level): ★★★★☆ For the actual writing itself, I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars. There isn’t a ton of figurative language or flowery descriptions, but in my opinion the tightness and sparseness of the prose actually contributes to the overall pacing of the story. Things move really quickly in this book, and the language the author uses to describe things as they happen makes it easy to follow the story progression and to understand what’s happening. I particularly noticed this in the fight scenes—written combat can sometimes be difficult for me to follow but I almost never found myself confused or having to reread to understand who was supposed to be where.
Plot (the story itself): ★★★☆☆ For the plot structure and the story itself, I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. Some of my quibbles with the plot are outlined in the “Purpose” section above so I won’t get too deep into them again. In summary, even though I enjoyed the book and felt that the short timeline and quick pacing served the story well, the result is that things happen so fast that we don’t really get time to explore the characters’ backgrounds, relationships, and motivations. I think this could be rectified by breaking up the back-to-back action with moments of quiet and reflection that let us delve a little deeper into the characters’ internal worlds and build those connective aspects out a bit.
Personal (the certain je ne sais quoi that makes me love a book): ★★★★☆ For me personally the “je ne sais quoi” of this book is 4 out of 5 stars. I love fantasy, I love sapphic stories, I love a heist novel, and this book wrapped all of those things neatly together into one fast-paced package. Despite the small critiques I have for the purpose and plot, overall I really liked reading this and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the same!
Total: ★★★★☆ 4 out of 5 stars.