Grave Matters

Sam Beauvoir is aged seventeen and filled with grief. His girlfriend Eliza, also seventeen, has died in a car crash. He was the driver, driving on a dangerously snowy road. Sam emerges physically unscathed from the crash. This books deals with how Sam copes or fails to cope with her death and his grief and guilt.

In his grief, Sam turns to necromancy. He becomes determined to bring Eliza back from the dead. The mysterious Milk Man will be his helper. Does he succeed? What are the consequences of success or failure? The tension is heightened because Sam’s father is a vicar and Sam may now be tampering with the divine will.

Eliza returns in a fashion. Sam finds himself in an alternate world where he is badly injured but Eliza survives. In this alternate world Sam’s mother is also seriously ill. The idea of an alternate world between the living and the dead is a very ancient concept. It occurs in Greek mythology and tragedy. It is also used, in the form of an ethereal Kings Cross station, for the last meeting place between Harry Potter and deceased Albus Dumbledore. Sam must now decide which of these two worlds is the more tolerable to inhabit.

One point rang a false note with this reviewer. The Milk Man, a satanic figure, is described as being an albino. That pale image fits well with a Gothic trope, this text reflects negatively on people with this kind of complexion, an example of unintentional disablism.

Dawson deals very deftly with powerful issues of life, religion and death. The emotions felt by Sam and his circle are highly nuanced, despite the brevity of the book. Smith’s monochrome illustrations, particularly of snow, are highly evocative of Sam’s bleak mood.