Cemetery Girl
(Book 1: The Pretenders)
by Christopher Golden
& Charlaine Harris
InkLit, 2014
128 Pages
Young Adult
When the author’s name is emblazoned on the cover even larger than the title of a book, we expect it to be good, the fruits of a master. Cemetery Girl has promise, a graphic novel penned by Christopher Golden (Baltimore) and Charlaine Harris (True Blood’s Sookie Stackhouse series). The first installment of the dark thriller introduces us to an unnamed protagonist, but the story is To Be Continued…
A girl wakes up in a graveyard and her only memory is of dying. She is a victim of amnesia, but she can sense something quite bad has happened. Memory flashes ensue of her being injected with something horrible by an intruder, but she has no idea who it was, why, or even who she is. Nonetheless, she realizes that if whoever dumped her in the cemetery discovers she is still walking, they will likely return to finish the job. She steals a name from those surrounding her: Calexa Rose Dunhill.
The caretaker of the cemetery starts referring to the girl as his “little ghost” as he notices food missing from his kitchen. The girl also makes an ally in a lady who catches Calexa red-handed in her fridge one night. The story picks up when a group of rowdy teens breaks into the cemetery to practice a magickal ritual. When they return for the real deal, a death occurs, and Calexa is thrown between a rock and a hard place. If she reports what she has witnessed, she will be discovered hiding out in the cemetery. Throwing a real twist into the mystery are the ghosts of the cemetery’s inhabitants, who she can now see. A stolen smart phone is a key component of this noir adventure, which is a welcome, modern angle.
The mix of adventure and supernatural is spot on, just enough to leave you hanging for the over-arching storyline while the intense drama of Book One is brought to a fulfilling close. The artwork is good, not artsy, but realistic with nice dark, autumn shades of color. It smells distinctly like a Vertigo title, though it is published by Penguin’s InkLit imprint. I am waiting anxiously for the next chapter, since this introduction to the mystery girl Calexa passed quickly, inviting a re-read.
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