Gravemaidens has an amazing premise, but an unfortunately frustrating heroine

Kelly Coon’s Gravemaidens is one of the most intriguing and original YA stories you’ll read this year – but the series’  frustrating heroine is difficult to love.

Kelly Coon’s Gravemaidens is a YA historical fiction/fantasy novel with a wonderfully original premise and setting. In fact, it’s one of the best conceptualized novels you’re likely to find this year. It’s dark, realistic tone is compelling, and it’s fast pace means it feel like big twists lurk on almost every page.

On the whole, Gravemaidens is a worthwhile read and something most YA fans who like similar historical fantasy stories will really enjoy. That said, the novel has an issue that keeps it from being the book I personally hoped it could be, and that’s the fact that its heroine can be frustrating, difficult and downright hard to root for at times.

But more on that in a moment.

Gravemaidens follows the story of sixteen-year-old Kammani, who wants nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of her father, who was once the greatest healer in all of Alu. Women aren’t necessarily particularly valued in this kingdom – which seems to draw a lot of inspiration from ancient Sumerian and Egyptian culture – but Kammani is determined to prove everyone wrong.

Her family has suffered greatly in recent years due to her father’s inability to heal the king’s son the previous year, which caused their wealth and status to be stripped away. As a result, they now live in new poverty, Kammani’s mother is dead from childbirth complications, and her father has lost himself in the bottom of a bottle.

When her sister is unexpectedly chosen to become a Sacred Maiden, Kammani’s world crumples. These are three young women who are chosen to be killed and buried with a dead king upon his passing, and the tradition is seen by most in Alu as a great honor. Kammani doesn’t think so, however, and is determined to save her sister from a fate she sees as little more than a government enforced death sentence.

In a desperate attempt to save her sister, Kammani manages to get herself invited to the palace as the Lugal (a.k.a. the king)’s new healer, in order to try and save his life and prevent Nanaea from needing to die at his side.

Coons builds out the world of Alu in great detail, creating a culture that feels both rich and vibrant. (For what it’s worth, I’d read an entire book about the Alu before this, and how the idea of Gravemaidens came about in the first place.) Readers are largely dropped into the center of this world and left to figure out its rules and traditions on their own. Which is, for the most part, a captivating experience. Unfortunately, as a character, Kammani doesn’t get quite the same level of depth.

As a heroine, she’s surprisingly frustrating. She’s strong-willed and stubborn to a fault. She refuses to listen to anyone else’s opinions or suggestions and immediately assumes that her choices are not only right, but superior and necessary.

The thing is, her feelings are largely understandable. Kammani has been through a lot in her short life. Her mother’s dead, her father’s a mess, and the family’s lost everything. She’s got so much responsibility on her young shoulders. Of course, she’s going to be something of a control freak with a complex about failure. She should be.

But the problem is that we never see another side to her thinking. She’s 100% convinced she’s right, at all times, and never wavers from that. The novel does its best to show us other perspectives – including why Nanaea wants to be a Sacred Maiden so badly. (Spoiler: It’s not for the reason Kammani assumes.) But Kammani’s position almost never changes –  or even wavers at any point. From insisting she knows better than her sister does, to misjudging the intentions of almost everyone around her to vacillating between disinterest and jealousy over her sort of maybe boyfriend.

In short, it kind of gets real tired, real quick.

Gravemaidens is the first book in a duology, and the events at the end of the novel mean that its sequel will naturally look quite different than its predecessor. Here’s hoping that whatever the second half of this story includes, it takes a more balanced approach to its primary heroine, a character I desperately wanted to love, and could only begrudgingly respect by the end of the story.

Gravemaidens is available now.