Release-Day Review: Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones (Charley Davidson #11)

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11)
Darynda Jones
Published: Jan. 24, 2017 (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, First Grave on the Right.

The Curse of Tenth Grave left Charley with a lot on her plate, as per usual. Yes, she banished one rogue god to the god-glass necklace, but she still has one at large and needs to figure out how to take care of him, as Beep’s survival is on the line. Then, there’s the fact that she’s still trying to come to terms with her own godhood, her beef with Jehovah over which has caused his ever-vigilant angels to follow Charley around wherever she goes, plus the fact that Uncle Bob’s life may still be in danger despite having saved him from his foreseen death previously.

To top it all off, though, Charley is officially hired by Reyes’ sorta-kinda-in-a-way-brother Shaun to look into his adoptive parents the Fosters, and to find his real parents. Just a reminder: the Fosters are the people who stole Reyes from his birth parents and eventually sold him to the evil Earl Walker. Of course Reyes wants Charley to drop the investigation, but, come on; this is Charley Davidson we’re talking about. The moment she backs away from anything is the moment hell freezes over….oh wait.

I always love being back in Charley’s world and Eleventh Grave is certainly on par with all the wit and humor we’ve come to know and love from our grim reaper/god.

I’ve felt that ever since she had Beep, subsequently lost then regained her memories, and learned she is a god, there’s been an increased level of maturity to Charley, which is a nice element of growth to her character. Probably one of my favorite things about Eleventh Grave is that we get to see Charley really learn about and start to hone her powers, with Reyes acting as Charley’s Yoda/Obi-Wan—albeit with a bit more sexytimes however. Constantly, people are telling her what she’s able (or should be able) to do with her powers and she’s always been clueless. So it was really nice to see Charley gain some perspective on who she is because she still equates herself as human and it just isn’t true. But I do like the fact that Charley hangs on to her humanity, especially in the face of what we learn about her history.

Having said that, what really kept Eleventh Grave from being a five-star rating was the fact that I felt as though it was too jam-packed full of varying leftover storylines. I felt like all the open story threads from Tenth Grave were kind of just check-marked off the list to clear the way for what is happening in the next book, which is all set-up within the last maybe five to ten percent of the book. Unfortunately, I felt like a few scenes could have been throwaways because the resolution was just so quick.

That’s not to say Eleventh Grave wasn’t an enjoyable read. It certainly was. It just felt more transitory for me than revelatory. There’s a certain point towards the end where you get a definite feel of where the story will be heading in the next book, and I just wanted to tell Charley: “No! Bad Idea!” But alas, this is not a Choose Your Own Adventure book. So we’ll have to wait until fall to find out The Trouble with Twelfth Grave.

Sexual content: sex