A Graveyard Visible by Steve Conoboy is one of the first books I received via NetGalley, here we are 4 years later and I’m finally leaving my review after reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc I received.

I know what attracted me to this book was the very creepy and well done cover. But I wish I could say the same for the story inside. Caleb is grieving his mom and goes to the cemetery often to visit her grave. He notices out his window the same group of “mourners” at the same gravesites. Misha is the cemetery keepers grand daughter who gets picked on for her grandfathers job. Caleb gets too close one day and discovers something creepy is happening, but honestly this book was sooo confusing I’m not entirely sure what was going on except **spoiler alert** zombies are unleashed at the end and Caleb is mad his Mom isn’t one of them.

This book had a lot of potential but it’s really rather dreadful, so glad I did not buy it!

Cute middle grade. I liked the spooky atmosphere and the character building. Overall I would recommend to younger readers

I tried to finish this book but I just couldn’t make it through. The slow start with minimal dialogue , lots of showing and not telling and the dated voices of the characters turned me off and I decided not to continue on after the halfway point. I was hoping for something broody and atmospheric and this did not hit the mark.

It was just trying really hard to be like the Graveyard Book. And I just didn't feel like re-reading a book that is trying to imitate another one.

A refreshing horror story that introduces the idea of an expanding cemetery. 

Caleb can see an old graveyard from his bedroom window and it seems to grow bigger every day. Even though funerals take place there every night, no one in their town is dying. As Caleb takes it upon himself to measure the graveyard, he meets Misha, a strange girl that lives in the graveyard with her grandfather. The two form a peculiar relationship and Caleb, still reeling from the death of his mother, is dragged into a world of secrets, shadow and death. Once he’s in, will he be able to get out?

The plot is great and well developed. It’s original and explores the character’s in detail making them the central piece of the story. The pace is very slow and repetitive in the beginning but as you reach the middle, it changes at a fast pace. You just need to know what happens next. There are predictable twists to the story but other revelations are quite surprising and unexpected. However, I found that some questions were left unanswered when it comes to the graveyard secrets. I felt the author wanted to keep some mystery in the story but it was a bit too much. If more details were revealed, I would have connected more with the story and feel satisfied knowing the whole picture. 

The style of writing is simple, easy to understand and follow. Steve Conoboy takes a leap into a new and dark world, using a descriptive and gothic style that pulled me in from the very beginning.  IT gets a bit confusing at times when the author voices Caleb’s thoughts, he does it very well, but it did get a bit confusing at times. Even so, the way Conoboy writes reflects the main character perfectly and digs deep into the mind of this 12-year boy.

The main characters are well developed and explored. The main male character Caleb is completely alone after losing his mother. The relationship with his father implodes as he blames Caleb for the death of his wife and belittles him at every chance he gets. Even with the presence of his grandfather, Caleb tries to deal in his own way with the disintegration of his family. In the end, Caleb ends up losing both of his parents. Caleb’s sad story brings out compassion and empathy and you really feel for him throughout the novel. His development throughout the story is very well described; he starts as a scared boy, timid and lonely to a brave young man that is able to put others before himself. It’s very rewarding to see Caleb discover a reason to exist, to live and even if it’s dark, he uses it to move forward and to grow.

Misha, the main female character is also a crucial part of the puzzle. Even though she is a bit strange, Misha lives a hard life also. She lives with a grandfather, an overbearing man that controls her life at every turn. Whenever her parents are dead or alive is left unknown.  She’s tormented by a bully called Vic and, much like Caleb, she feels alone in the world. Their friendship develops slowly throughout the plot and I enjoyed reading/seeing its growth. They support each other and more than that, they become a part of each other’s’ lives.

Another thing they have in common is the grandfather figure. Caleb ‘s grandfather is the opposite of Misha’s. He’s a strong male character that truly cares of the well-being of his grandson and does his best to protect him from the graveyard.

In general, a refreshing plot with interesting and peculiar characters. I recommend this book to fans of middle-grade horror stories.

Thank you NetGalley, Pushkin Children's and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

I was hoping for more from this book. They were some supernatural and creepy things about this book and I loved that part of it. The story was a little sad, but I know all about losing a parent. I think this story was a little about dealing with the sadness that comes with that. The author had a great way of describing things in this book, for me.

This book started off a little slow and was a little confusing at first. However, I was determined to not give up on the book and I kept reading. After the author got you all caught up on the main characters and got you up to speed in understanding everything the book picked up. I would say at about the third or fourth chapter this book took such a surprising turn I got to the point where it was hard to put the book down. I must say this was an interesting book that really kept my attention once it got going. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a suspense and halfway thriller with a lot of twists and turns to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would read more from this author.

An odd duck of a book. Every time I thought I knew where it was headed it changed directions on me. Technically horror, it's more "existential crisis" than 'that monster wants to eat me." In spite of having what are essentially zombie vampires.

I really struggled to get through this book. The premise was good and similar in many ways to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which I loved, but I just couldn't follow parts of the story. I found the plot confusing and it was just missing something for me.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book. I did not finish at about 20%. The names were really hard for me to read, and the story was just too strange for me to get into.
I think it would have been better if the names were ones I could actually pronounce. But because I had gotten so caught up in trying to read the names, I just could not focus on the rest of the book.

I got a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Being brought in by the cover I couldn't wait to read this.



This book is about a boy called Caleb who when he sees men up at the graveyard near his house starts to become interested in what is happening up there and ends up mixed up in a paranormal horror story he doesn't know how to stop.



This book was a great read and I found myself getting chills at points and needing to put it down so I could get back to my normality which I loved about this book. I also thought that this book had enough horror in it which I don't find in many books I have read of this style.



I do however feel that there was issues with this book such as not saying who was speaking in chapters which did leave me confused at points about who the story was following. Not only this but the ending does not make this book feel finished and like it has just been stopped, this did frustrate me as I wanted to know how the story ends. As it doesn't feel like it has been done deliberately either it did put my rating of this book down.

A Graveyard Visible is a YA fantasy novel with a pretty cool premise: main character Caleb lives next to a graveyard which is growing each day, seemingly with the same mourners at every grave and no new deaths occurring in the community. Caleb, who watches these happenings through his windows, spends his time almost obsessively measuring and exploring the graveyard. He runs into a young girl named Misha who lives in the graveyard with her grandfather, and who he believes is being forced into rituals by the “mourners” in the graveyard.

I usually love anything and everything spooky and am a sucker for the supernatural, so this book had me super intrigued and I was really excited to read it. Even that cover art—I mean, dang, this seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t work out for me. It just didn’t interest me. It was really difficult for the storyline to keep my interest, and the characters didn’t feel like people I could really get to know beyond the surface level and almost stereotypical qualities they possessed. (For example, the “token weird girl” vibe, or the bullies which seemed almost like caricatures of themselves.)

There was never a time when I felt compelled to come back to this book because I had to find out what happens next and in fact I didn’t have a very good time reading it at all. The writing, while it didn’t stand out to me in any particular way, was fine. It was just the story and the characters that were not compelling for me personally. Reading the description of the book, I almost got The Graveyard Book vibes—or maybe hoped for Graveyard Book vibes. Of course, we can’t all be Neil Gaiman, and I’m sure we’re all painfully aware of that, but I thought it might have a similar vibe or appeal to me in a similar way. I was disappointed to find out that it didn’t.

Additionally, though this is marketed as YA, to me, it read more like middle grade. It certainly explores some common YA themes of coming of age or finding oneself, but it felt very juvenile to me. I don’t know, something about the way the characters spoke to each other and interacted—in what could perhaps be considered an overly simplistic way—felt like they were younger than they were meant to be. It didn’t read like most YA and I really feel like it might better suit a middle grade classification, but that’s just me.

On the upside, it does have an overall spooky vibe and takes place mostly in a graveyard, if that appeals to you (which for me, of course it does). There are some nice moments and a few good quotes scattered throughout, particularly some of the advice from Caleb’s grandma, like when he tells him not to announce himself by saying “it’s just me”:

“Why do you say that every time? Just. It’s just me. Like you’re nothing to be excited about…Make people think that maybe you are exciting. It’s me. I’m here…You use the word just, you allow people to adopt the position of disappointment.”

Unfortunately, these few and far between moments were not redeeming enough to make the book truly enjoyable or particularly interesting for me. I’m sad to say it because I had hoped to be blown away, but I would probably give this one two of five stars. I really wish I had liked it better, but this one just did not work for me.

I was really excited to read A Graveyard Visible based on the cover and description, but once I started reading that excitement waned. The plot is very confusing, making it a difficult book to read. There is a lot of tell, but little show, and even the information that is told is incomplete and left me feeling frustrated. I am not a big fan of this story, unfortunately. I think if the plot was further developed and the characters were slightly more likable, it would be a better read. I really didn't care much for the characters, and instead of being the spooky story I thought I was getting, it was a super depressing storyline. I do appreciate the opportunity to read the advanced copy, though.

Review: A GRAVEYARD VISIBLE by Steve Conoboy

A GRAVEYARD VISIBLE is a literate horror story, a surreal portrait of coming of age, pariah status, and intellect. It is also the story of a tiny depressing town, and of a strange--even bizarre--cemetery, where the impossible occurs. Young Caleb lives in a house overlooking that graveyard, with a psychologically and verbally abusive father, grieving his late mother. Mischa is the highly intelligent but much maligned granddaughter of the cemetery keeper. And the cemetery itself? Growing, literally. New funerals almost every night. New burials under antique headstones. A few mourners. And the cemetery just keeps expanding, measurably... A supernatural suspense in a setting that should be impossible..

**I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

It was a good book but a little different than what I expected.

I...what did I just read? I liked the sound of this book, and it started off really interesting, and then took a sudden turn, and left me with a lot of unanswered questions, and not much to show for it.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "A Graveyard Visible"
by Steve Conoboy. This story centers around a boy named Caleb who lives next to a graveyard, He continues to see a girl named Misha and notices weird things taking place right next door. Caleb is grieving for his mother who had recently passed. This book was pretty average. It wasn't terrible but it did have some confusing moments.

I wanted to like this book, so, so much. To be fair, I didn’t hate it. It started off so interesting, and I was instantly hooked into the story. And then it just sort of…stalled. As I read on, the story became more difficult to follow, and frankly I didn’t find myself really caring to try. There were parts that I’m sure I skipped full paragraphs. The most frustrating part for me was that things were brought up that were never really touched upon again, and I feel that there were so many things left unanswered.

A Graveyard Visible by Steve Conoboy is a very promising story to start off. I liked the author's gothic and descriptive writing style. The first twenty to thirty percent were actually pretty fantastic that really had me hooked. However, the further I read through the story the more my interest waned. I was most interested in what was going on with the graveyard, but we never really get any real answers about it. Plus, the more I read the more difficult it became to follow the course of events. In the beginning, Conoboy does a brilliant job of building and creating that sense of suspense and tension. Unfortunately, by the end of this story I was close to DNF'ing this one. Most of the questions I was interested in are never answered and sometimes the shifts in perspective and formatting could be a bit confusing.

Caleb can see an ancient graveyard from his bedroom window and he's certain that it's a just a little bigger every time he looks at it. There are funerals there every night, but no one in his town seems to be dying. Misha, the odd girl who lives at the cemetery with her grandfather, is interested in Caleb and no matter what Caleb does he can't get rid of her. He's sure those creepy graveside mourners that are at every funeral are forcing her into strange rituals against her will. Caleb, who is still reeling from the death of his mother, has found himself pulled into the world of the dead and it may be too late to pull himself back out.

A Graveyard Visible by Steve Conoboy is a very promising story to start off. I liked the author's gothic and descriptive writing style. The first twenty to thirty percent were actually pretty fantastic that really had me hooked. However, the further I read through the story the more my interest waned. I was most interested in what was going on with the graveyard, but we never really get any real answers about it. Plus, the more I read the more difficult it became to follow the course of events. In the beginning, Conoboy does a brilliant job of building and creating that sense of suspense and tension. Unfortunately, by the end of this story I was close to DNF'ing this one. Most of the questions I was interested in are never answered and sometimes the shifts in perspective and formatting could be a bit confusing.

Overall, I really wanted to like A Graveyard Visible by Steve Conoboy much more than I did. It has a lot of potential and it started off well. By the end, though, it just wasn't for me. I felt like I was left hanging on the elements that intrigued me the most.