"Grave Talk" Review

Grave Talk by Nick Spalding

Amazon First Reads October 2024

Pages: 304 Genre: literary fiction

Rating: 3.5 Star

Kindle Highlights

Alice is at the graveyard to be with her husband, who died a few months earlier, for his birthday. The last thing she expected as to be met with Kermit the Frog. Except Kermit is actually Ben, who is there to see his brother. Except his brother has decided that Ben needs to visit every year on the same day for three minutes wearing progressively more usual costumes. Alice and Ben's loved ones just happen to be neighbors in the cemetery. Though they have little in common, Alice and Ben form an unlikely friendship by meeting in the same place on the same day every year.

I enjoyed this book, which is probably not a surprise to many people. I'm a well-known sucker for books talking about death and grief. But the concept of "Grave Talk" was what drew me in, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it was executed. It wasn't perfect (and we'll get into that), but it was emotional and funny and I enjoyed it.

The idea of a book told over a series of years is interesting, and while "Grave Talk" does it well, I think it comes with some inherent flaws. The main issue is that this set up really lends itself to telling instead of showing. It sort of becomes "Exposition Dump: The Novel," because instead of seeing the characters grow and change gradually over time, we are just getting updated yearly. Overall, though, I think Spalding did a good job of managing this. Although it made the narration a little strange sometimes, each character's perspective would put us in the past to live through moments with them, which worked.

My other main problem with the concept was about Ben and his yearly costumes. I was expecting this unusual last request to be ultimately leading towards something, rather than Harry (that's Ben's brother's name) to just expect Ben to follow through on this tradition for his entire life, presumably. Like, maybe after x many years, he gets a letter that Harry wrote before he died. Or once Ben stops doing it, the lawyer gets to pass along some hidden inheritance thing. I don't know, but the way it was just felt very random. I get it, Harry's funny. But really it's just a plot device, which is boring.

Ben and Alice were both pretty interesting characters. Although, Ben was clearly the author's favorite. He had a lot more going on, and there was a lot more time dedicated to his healing journey. I thought he ended up coming across as pretty flat, though. A lot of his conflict, particularly around the middle/later half of the book, felt very contrived. It's not that the things happening were inaccurate, but they felt as though they were happening because Ben needed more going on (because he was the favorite). And Ben's reaction to the conflict depended entirely on what the plot needed. I would've liked for the author to commit a lot more to a total breakdown, because it felt more like he was waffling between "this kind of sucks" and "generally depressed."

I found Alice's healing journey to be a lot more engaging, although it felt incredibly elongated for the sake of the book. I'm not saying people can't take a long time to heal, but I listened to her make the same excuses for 10 years just for it to ultimately end with "things are better because Ben (the favorite) said so/the book is about to end." Her story would've benefitted from more intention on the author's part. Instead, she sort of felt like a background character for Ben. She also instigated the emotional climax, which was entirely random and stupid and almost ruined the whole book for me. So part of me doesn't forgive her for it.

"Grave Talk" worked really hard to establish a funny-yet-contemplative tone, and for the most part it worked really well. The situations these two characters found themselves in were really funny. I wish the book relied on being naturally funny, though. Instead, we got a fair bit of silly juvenile butt/sex jokes thrown in that didn't match the overall vibe (and would've fit better if the characters weren't in their 30s/40s). I also liked the book's reflections on grief, although it did a disservice to the characters. Ben and Alice were meant to be struggling to heal for pretty much the entire plot, but then they'd say something that felt too self aware and educated on their feelings. It just felt like it was trying too hard, when I thought the atmosphere was otherwise well-established.

Goodreads refers to this book as a romance, and I'm very pleased to say it's not. Alice and Ben do not fall in love. Their relationship is purely platonic, familial even. Which worked so much better. Their connection was the best part of the book, and the whole thing would've been cheapened by turning it into a romance.

Overall, this book was good. It made me laugh, it made me cry, but it also made me roll my eyes at some less-than-ideal writing choices. It's not perfect, but it's good. It was a sweet story about love and grief and healing, and while it has its fair share of flaws, I enjoyed my experience with it.