The book was nowhere on my radar until it was an ALC option from Libro.fm. And really I haven't seen too many reviews for it around, so I am not sure it was (is) really on many other people's radars either. Regardless, the mood reader in me decided on this one over the Winter Holiday time off, so I jumped into it. A side note here, the Author Bio on the inside jacket says the author's dog is named Karate Valentino and that is just...awesome. (As is the rest of his bio - what an amazing list of places he has grown up and lived in!) 

 

The Ballad of Perilous Graves takes place in a magical New Orleans...or really, two parallel magical New Orleans'. When nine powerful songs that are the lifeblood of Nola escape, and are being picked off one by one by a dangerous Haint, young Perry and his sister, Brendy are tasked with finding and recapturing the songs to save the city. They team up with their neighbor, Peaches, who is blessed with super-strength and who Perry maybe (definitely) has a crush on. And as they travel through their quest, they are helped along the way by a trans artist named Casey, whose graffiti comes to life, advice and guidance from the ghost of their grandmother, and a few magical family heirlooms from the days when their ancestors were trafficked from Africa and enslaved. Can they save New Orleans from the storm(s) brewing?! 

 

Whoa - this was an overload of paranormal southern urban fantasy - with haints and ghostly music (and ghosts!) and graffiti that comes alive and parallel cities and magic sacks and stones and more. In these pages, all the magic and fantasy of New Orleans are brought to life in a tangible way. I mean, songs gone rogue (escaped into the city!), graffiti that works on people like drugs, historical haints trying to bring the city down, ghosts and traveling between the parallel Nola's. I love it! Plus, the weaving of historical and Nola-based cultural ghosts/haints/zombies and more is so well done. And the integration of post Katrina loss is poignant. In general, it's just absurd, disquieting, chimeric, ominous, and absolutely, totally entertaining. I was head over heels into the story very quickly. I do feel it's important to note here that the narration of the audiobook definitely had a role in that. Gralen Bryant Banks does a phenomenal job, phenomenal, and there is music and other sounds/voice effects that just add to what is a true listening experience. 

 

As far as the plot...I am not sure I really followed it all. Like I said, I was all in on the atmospheric aspects and voice and characters from the beginning, but the further into it I got, the less I felt like I knew what was going on. I think, at a point around halfway in, there were too many characters and time frames and simultaneous stories and I got lost in the muddle of how we were tossed from one scene/character POV to another without (at least for me) enough differentiation. Which is too bad because I was so into it and dearly wanted to love it and be understanding everything. (On this note, please share any explanations or clarifications you have with me - I still want to grasp what I read!) Other than that there were aspects I was into all the way through. Peaches' (and Brendy's, honestly) childlike logic that is flawed, but also impossible to argue with is just, so endearing to read. And both their voices were fantastically written. This was such a uniquely magical coming of age. And though plot details may have escaped me, the general themes of both physical and mental strengths playing important roles in coming of age and how it happens earlier for some than in others (and that's ok!). Also, the exploration of becoming an adult and being treated as an adult, when you reach a point in life when you can no longer be protected (as a child), and everyone must recognize that new level of responsibility no matter how much they are scared or wish it was otherwise, was very affecting. I also have to mention one more time the concept of art taking on a life of its own (both visual and audio), and the way it endures past the existence of its creator, but in a very real way, as opposed to metaphorical, was so cool. 

 

Overall, this was a completely dreamy and phantasmagorical and sinister story. I was vivid and alive and energetic in every moment, but meandering/scattered to an extreme that lost me. All "vibes for days," atmosphere you can almost feel and definitely lose yourself in...but caution that you may also lose the thread of the plot. 

 

“There ain’t no such thing as normal people. Anybody paying attention to anything know that.” 

 

“How could a thing be itself - tangible, factual, of-the-world, but at the same time more?” 

 

“There are thoughts so powerful, so freighted with meaning, that the moment one thinks them, one is forever changed. Sometimes a man or a woman - even a boy or a girl - can sense themselves on the verge of one of these changing thoughts, and on rare occasions, can try not to think them. (Which never, ever works).” 

 

“You don’t make music, you ax it to come on through.” 

 

“You searched in vain for a way to free yourself. You schemed and lied. You did everything but try. Nothing and no one can make you free.”