This book was fine. There were a few creepy moments and it only starts to get interesting a little before the 50% mark. I feel like it would have hit differently if I either had kids or wanted kids. But then, I also feel like a good book will make you understand/feel for perspectives other than your own, and this book didn’t do that. ( )

Graveyard of Lost Children is about two mothers and their infant daughters, one being the mother of the other. There is Olivia, the contemporary mother, who has recently given birth to a daughter, but something is off. The baby doesn’t smell right, she doesn’t seem right, as though she is a changeling. Olivia begins to hear voices and is haunted by the story of the woman in the well.

Shannon is Olivia’s mother who thought Olivia was a changeling and nearly drowned her a generation earlier. She is institutionalized and keeps a journal that gives us insight into her story.

So, today we know what post-partum depression is and could do something about it, but Olivia is too ashamed to ask for the help she needs, instead she seems ready to repeat her mother’s horrific act.

Graveyard of Lost Children begins with an excellent premise that would make a great film mainly because to finish with the obligatory two hours, a lot of unnecessary repetition would be cut. I confess I had to put this book down several times and, incredibly, because I was bored. The premise is full of tension and at times the book set my teeth on edge from the horror of what I suspected might happen. But it was repetitive and tired me out.

In the end, I felt there was a fabulous book that was about sixty pages shorter. What is sad, though, in spite of all the pages and pages of narrative, the ending felt rushed.

I received an e-galley of Graveyard of Lost Children from the publisher through NetGalley

Graveyard of Lost Children at Poisoned Pen Press | Sourcebooks
Katrina Monroe author website

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/graveyard-of-lost-childre... ( )

The narrative is told through two different perspectives. The first is that of Olivia, a new mother to baby, Flora, whose own family history involved her mother trying to kill her when she was four months old, by throwing her down a well. No Mother of The Year Award being given out here! Olivia has had no contact with Shannon and has found herself now in a loving marriage to her wife, Kris....but Flora’s birth brings up a lot of fears and anxieties. The first perspective is that of Shannon and follows her pregnancy and the months leading up to Olivia’s attempted murder. Throughout these timelines both women are seeing and hearing visions of a "Black Haired Woman", which gives them feelings of self-loathing, paranoia, and delusions about themselves and their babies. By the time the two storylines came together they melded very well and seemed to be fairly believable. The "Black Haired Woman" started coming back again with whispers and intuition that evolved into something more visceral and terrifying. This part of the story was done so well that it could hold its own with any ghost story ever written. The author really knew how to create not only a very unsettling ghostly supernatural being, but also how to create very real human characters who have loads of baggage, and many complex sides. Eventually, it’s the little things that turn into very big things. We see the new mother experiences of Olivia and Shannon as the story goes on. We also see that the two women are not faultless, and it ISN’T always the "Black-Haired Woman" doing the damage. With Olivia, it’s the constant comparison between her experience and the experiences of other new mothers. For her the whole motherhood deal is difficult and exhausting. How can it possibly seem so easy for others? She thinks that maybe it’s the fact that while her wife Kris is trying to be loving and supportive, she still has to prioritize her job, thanks to a less than understanding family leave policy where she works, Kis is also gone a lot, so she just doesn’t "GET it". Olivia feels like a failure, and everything becomes too much. Her medical professionals are dismissive and flippant when she raises concerns. I'm not at all unsympathetic, but by this point I was pretty much willing to drop her back into that well that her own mother had tried for all those years ago. All these people going on with their lives and simply ignoring her was also a bit unrealistic...maybe some would... but certainly not all of them.??) The "Black-Haired Woman" was the supposed villainess in this story, but there were other villains as well. Mostly the people that were supposed to support her and see that she was calling for help...although I admit some of it was way "over-the -top"...but I believe that was the entire point that the author was trying to make. Beware, that while this is in its own way, an interesting story, it's going to be absolutely gut-wrenching horror for many. ( )