How would I describe this book? Creative and entertaining are the first two words that come to mind. I would recommend this book to middle graders looking for a chilling form of entertainment. Grab a hot drink and your favorite blanket; cuddle into your safe zone and enjoy this exceptional book.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley in return for my honest review.

The Grave Digger was an amazing read though it was pretty creepy if you actually imagined the scenes coming to live. Who wouldn’t be creeped out by the dead suddenly coming to life or the dead being chopped up?

This book was set in the 1875 where there were social issues like calling the people of African descent, “colored” and people of different races did not attend school together. Women, at that time, did not have rights to vote and hence, were not accepted into professional fields of study.

Besides that, body snatching was a real thing back then to supply medical schools with human specimens for dissection. And in this book, we get to see how that works.

I’ve never really read any other historical fiction books before but after reading this book, I felt like it was a great start for me into the genre. I really enjoyed understanding the real struggles that existed from back then.

With a perfect plot flow and writing style and also character development, it made this book even more enjoyable for me. There were many suspenseful moments and plot twists that were unexpected. All the characters were created really well too.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to others too. It was very informative in presenting the social issues of those times with an exciting plot.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Amberjack Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Good
-The second half of the book was really good! I breezed through it.
-I wasn’t the intended audience for this yet I still enjoyed it.
-I was surprised at how dark it is
-I figured out the mastermind before it was revealed but before I realized who it is, I had no idea at all so, I was really shocked!
-Good ending!

The Not-So-Good
-I didn’t find the first half of the book interesting. In fact, I felt like nothing much really happened that first half
-Awww… I thought it was going towards a fantasy setting
-Story needs more fleshing out. There were just a couple of side stories(?)/sub-plots(?) that weren’t resolved or I felt wasn’t necessary

Overall

If I was the intended audience for this, I definitely think it’ll creep me out. Since I’ve read creepier and more eerie novels compared to this, this book didn’t really affect me. Although I found the first half slow and dragging, the last half made up for it and I ended up enjoying this!

I was attracted by the blurb and can say that this novel didn't disappoint me.
The cast of characters is well written, the historical background is well researched, and the plot is engrossing and entertaining.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

A middle grade historical mystery with a creepy vibe, the Grave DIgger by Rebecca Bischoff tackles a dark historical practice and gives it an exciting and mysterious spin, while walking the fine line of also highlighting its social impact. Our protagonist, Cap, is an aspiring inventor who has reluctantly been roped into the grave robbing business by his father, in order to pay for the medicine his mother needs. When Cap's first attempts have some unexpected and strange consequences, it leads him to uncover a deadly conspiracy involving some very unexpected local characters. The subject may be dark, but it is very capably handled, however my main complaint about the book is the characters, they felt a little one dimensional, and never really developed over hte course of the book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The Grave Digger is a somewhat dark and macabre book, but nontheless very interesting. It's part a social commentary on a range of topics from the 1800's, such as grave digging, race and gender issues and prostitution. All of this is dealt with in a nice way in this book. I also liked several of the characters in this book, Cap inlcuded.

What would you do to raise money to help your sick, pregnant mother? Would you raise the dead for her? Cap Cooper is put in a very tough predicament when his father tells him he needs his help to get money to pay the doctors. Cap loves his mother and will do just about anything to help. When Cap's father gets mixed up with the low-down, scum of the earth Lum to dig up dead bodies to sell to the local universities for medial research, he should have never involved his son, Cap... but he does. Cap hates doing this, especially when he sees how it affects the loved ones of the deceased. One night Cap is shocked when he realizes that one of the bodies he is digging up is a girl from his school. He is even more shocked when he touches her and she comes back to life. Cap remembers hearing the story of his own birth - about how he died shortly after birth but a stranger put his hands on him and brought him back to life. Did this stranger pass on powers that Cap didn't even realize he had? He is convinced that he does have these powers when the next two bodies that he brings out of the ground wake up as well. Cap is now determined to help these people, not let their dead bodies continue to be stolen. However, as Cap digs deeper into the body snatching business, it may be his own life that is jeopardy. As Cap begins to untangle the mysteries behind the people that Lum is working for, he is shocked! These people are well respected members of the community, so when they begin to spread the unimaginable tale of the grave-robbing boy who, not only steals dead bodies but is a kidnapper and a murderer himself, will Cap be able to dig his way out of this? Will his town turn on him or will he be the one who now gets buried alive? Read this fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat book to find out!!

Holy cow!!! This is a good one!! The setting of this book is back in 1875 when grave robbers were a real thing. Rebecca Bischoff does a fantastic of weaving this story so that you feel like you are back in time and right there next to Cap. With every revelation that Cap discovered, my heart froze and I gasped out loud. The scare factor was very high and the anticipation of what would happen next was out the roof. I loved everything about this story and I cannot wait to get several copies of this in my library. Once I book talk this one and show the book trailer they won't stay on the shelf!!! Don't miss this one!!!

This is a fun read perfect for the fall season.
Cap is a young boy who helps his father and his father’s business partner steal bodies from graves to sell for medical schools. Cap feels this is wrong and sets out to set things right.
Good historical read for children covering loss, race issues, and gender issues of the 1800s.

This was a cute middle grade book with a slightly spooky vibe, but I think it's a little bit simplistic for adult readers. Still, it's an interesting concept and I'm always here for stories about grave-robbers. The protagonists are fun and I like how it works in commentary on race and gender as well. Overall it's a book that has a bit of a spooky edge but is ultimately not very heavy in that area and focuses more on relationships between family and community. Would probably be a good book for children who like historical fiction but want a low scare-factor.

Pleasantly surprised a middle grade could turn out to be so dark and macabre. A story set in the late 1800s about a 12 year old, Cap Cooper, that finds himself helping his dad rob corpses by grave digging. He does not want to participate in this dirty business but he knows this is a way to help paying for his mother's medical bills.

A great dark story about something that did happen in the 1800s when many body robbers tried to sell the corpses they stole to universities for practising purposes.

Do you know what a grave digger is? Of course you do — someone who digs in a cemetery to bury someone. The novel is about a father and son digging up graves to take the corpse to doctors for money. In the past these people would be called grave robbers. The doctors would use the dead bodies to learn more about how the human body worked. Cap Cooper and his dad, Noah became involved in this work as Noah thought it was a way to earn some extra money to help pay for the medicine and doctor’s care for Cap’s sick mother and his wife. Cap would crawl into the coffin after it was opened but still in the dirt and tie a rope around the body. He didn’t want to do it but had to obey his father. When someone comes alive during is procedure the second time Cap thinks he was the one that has brought him back to life. Is Cap able to do that? Why are people coming back to life?

There is so much more in this novel than I have told you. It is a novel that is based on history. It is also a mystery, romance and family relationships. I enjoyed reading this intriguing, plotted novel. It was interesting to see Cap’s thoughts and reactions to bullying and grave digging. The final scene surprised me in more ways than one. I liked that too!

The Grave Digger  by Rebecca Bischoff

Amberjack Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1948705523

Available: Pre-order, hardcover and Kindle edition



It's 1875 in Circleville, Ohio. Captain Cooper's mother is ill,  and the doctor has to be paid. Although Cap is not yet thirteen, his father has decided it's time for him to join him and his partner Lum as a "resurrectionist", a person who digs up dead bodies in order to sell them to medical schools for dissection. The plan is to dig up the bodies of those who won't be missed (mostly "colored" people), but the dead don't appear to be staying dead. Cap's classmate Jessamyn comes back to life after he touches her, and the next body wakes up while they are actually digging. The secret activities of the grave diggers are out, and they have to cover them up and find other ways to acquire the bodies. Cap is spooked, but his mother's medical bills still have to be paid, and his father insists this is the only way they can raise the money. Beyond acquiring the bodies, Cap realizes that there is a larger conspiracy at work, involving not just unsavory characters, but also some of the most respected individuals in town. While the newspaper stirs up the town, it is mainly the "colored" people who are affected, and their demands for a cemetery guard are left unanswered. We can all be grateful that this is a middle-grade novel and that, while a book about grave robbing, burying people alive, and human dissection will obviously have some disturbing moments, it doesn't get gratuitously gruesome.

Racism in Circleville's general population doesn't rear its head in overtly violent ways, but in white people's daily choices and conversations, like the Coopers' housekeeper's resentment of and unwillingness to interact with Jardine, an African-American woman who is a friend and hear of Cap's mother, comments about "those people", and the choice to zero in on body-snatching the African-Americans in the cemetery.  It intersects with sexism as well, with Jessamyn's mother feeling that the only choice she has to support her child is sex work (it's referred to indirectly), and Jardine's daughter Delphia, after telling Cap of her ambition to be a doctor, bracing herself for the expected comment "but you're a colored girl!" and laughing when he says "but you're a girl!" instead (either way, in 1875, ten years after the Civil War ended, she'd be unlikely to get into medical school, but the book treats it like it's a real possibility-- props to Bischoff for that).  It is noticeable (and relevant to the present day) that there are so few consequences for anyone who participated in the grave-robbing scheme and lived to tell about it.  That's probably realistic, and in a middle-grade novel you want things to turn out for the protagonist, but I think this ending requires a conversation. There is a myth in the Midwest that because the Underground Railroad had a strong presence that there must not have been other race-baced issues (I can't tell you about Ohio specifically, but it's definitely the case in Indiana), and this book exposes that.

There are a lot of schools that can't officially celebrate Halloween (my district doesn't allow it) but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to celebrate the season. The Grave Digger is a great historical fiction choice with a macabre touch to promote to the right elementary and middle-schoolers at this time of year.  Highly recommended.

A mere twenty percent into the book apart from the first page, it was creeping me out!!!
What would you do if a dead body suddenly starts fluttering the eyes and open them all of a sudden?

I read the whole book dreading the darkness and all the creepiness and the uncertainty of it all. It made me really anxious about this poor kid, Cap (short for Captain Cooper).

He is a boy who has a secret job of being a grave digger alongside his father and another man named Lum. His family needs the money. His mother is heavily pregnant and needs attention and care. It all started well. But things turned bizarre for Cap when he discovers something about himself in one of those nights where he was digging the grave of a particular dead orphan girl he used to know.

And similar things kept happening. And yes, it dragged a lot in between....I became bored but I still continued reading....I missed coffee this whole time...yes, the writing became like this in between. It started out so good even though I wasn't happy with the grave digging theme for a boy his age and the not-too-engaging characters. I cannot believe the mother is so conveniently unaware that both her husband and her small son were missing for hours at dead night. Some heavy sleeper or negligent mother she was.
And then, I still continued reading the book. Actually nothing much was happening in between except the anticipation that something was going to happen. A number of characters were introduced in between.

Cap knew he had a power. But he wasn't able to direct it on his own will. Things kept happening and all Cap got into was one rotten incident into the next and the next.
The villain and his role was so predictable. And rest assured, the characters end up so not convincing till the end.

The ending was hopeful. But why has it to be so predictable.

I would like to say that it wasn't an interesting read given the premise and the plot that would have made the read a really spooky and gruesome read.

Sadly, it did not work for me. The first few chapters were really good. They were fast paced and I appreciate how the characters were introduced. The parts that didn't make me like this read were: lack of chemistry between the characters and lack of special moments where it was supposed to be, and weak representation of the personalities of the characters.

Thank you #NetGalley for providing me with a copy of #TheGraveDigger

This book had a very convoluted plot that fell short for me in almost every aspect. It was difficult for me to read as an adult and I'm not sure I would even consider handing it to a young reader. I can understand the story that the author wanted to tell but I think it could have been executed quite differently. There were also a lot of out there 1800's "slang" or wording that seemed to just be thrown around to try and cement the time period. It felt like it was reaching.
Also, I don't want to make comments about this, but I feel like it has to be said. I appreciate the author's note about using the term "colored" throughout this story but that doesn't make up for the fact that through the entire book the victims were almost exclusively black. This put a really bad taste in my mouth and things like the outright racist comments made by multiple characters was off-putting to say the least. I personally do not want to hand this book to any young reader.

I wanted a spooooooooky read. And I got a slooooooow spooooooky read.

I picked up Cap Cooper’s story because my interest was piqued at reluctant graverobber. Especially in a middle-grade title, that’s a lot of dead bodies. And Bischoff’s descriptions were appropriate for the age range but there was something about a twelve year handling a naked dead body that just put me off.

In an early scene, Cap realizes they are digging up the grave of one of his recently deceased classmates and she comes to life at his touch. He follows her home and freaks out, not because of the walking dead, but because he cost his father money.

Don’t get me wrong. I was always afraid of angering my parents–but uhh–I think I’d be more afraid of a dead body.

Unfortunately, I did not finish reading The Grave Digger. It moved slowly after that and my interest waned too far.

Set in the late 1800s, Cap Cooper is roped into grave digging by his father as a means to pay for his mother's medical bills. Cap has no interest in grave robbing and is absolutely horrified when his touch appears to bring the corpses back to life, leading to him discovering dark secrets in his sleepy town...

While the plot mostly revolved around grave robbing, there were a lot of sub-plots that were never resolved and added very little to the overall novel. The sub-plots were mentioned maybe once or twice, there was a lot going on plot-wise and the ideas presented in the sub-plots were never fully addressed. Also, most of the characters were a bit under-developed and had maybe one or two defining personality trait that made them stand out. Cap made a decent MC but he experienced very little growth that he fell flat as an MC, though I did like Delphia.

However, I did like the unique historical setting this novel is set in but I think that it could've been utilized better to add depth to the story (such as explain the significance of Delphia's dreams of becoming a doctor despite living in a time when African American were typically excluded from intellectual and scientific pursuits). Events and actions were depicted but never fully explained in historical context.

Not a great book, but not the worst one either. A solid 3 stars.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Amberjack Publishing for providing a free ARC

An excellent book to connect readers to 19th century history. This book is a quick read and perfect for middle schoolers. I will be purchasing this book for my library.

Cap Cooper is an aspiring inventor living in 1875 Ohio. Unfortunately, he is also his dad's helper in the scary job of grave robber to help pay for his mother's medical expenses. When one of the bodies they are robbing comes back to life at Cap's touch, it sets off a series of mysteries that will test Cap's morals.
I enjoyed this middle grade historical fiction. I think students will enjoy learning about the history of grave robbing.

I love the title of this book -- it's what pulled me in to read it. The plot is interesting and I love a mystery, and though it was a bit slow in spots it was still a great story.

❓What's the most scariest story that happened at the Grave?⁣
⁣
When the dead body back alive! This middle grade ebook took place in 1875. I've got this ebook from @netgalley in exchange for an honest review.⁣
⁣
Cap Cooper is twelve years old boy that live in Ohio. In that time, most of colour people were buried near the orphanage. Cap is a quite boy that often gets bullied at school. Every night, he helps his father's works.⁣
⁣
They're digger the fresh tomb. Stole the dead body. Get them naked and sell their stuffs. The news spread faster than Cap expected. People asked the police to find the suspect and get them to the jail.⁣
⁣
One thing that Cap wonders is who's person behind the business that pays for the dead body? And is it true that someone could bring dead person back alive? Only Cap knows the truth.⁣
⁣
I liked the story. If you like reading Jonathan Stroud's books, you might like it as well. The plot is simple yet entertaining. I enjoyed it until the last pages. Even though the story's pace was a bit slowly. I still couldn't put it down before it's finished.⁣
⁣
Middle grade books always gives entertaining story. And this is why I like reading it.⁣
⁣
🔹The Grave Digger by Rebecca Biscoff 🔹192 pages🔹Read on Kindle⁣
⁣
#thegravedigger #Netgalley #rebeccabiscoff #kindlebooks #igbookreview #bookreviewersofinstagram #ebookreader #netgalleyreads #booksofinstagram #oneweekonebook #alenaslibrary #middlegradebooks #bookrecomendations #bookrecommendations