The Other Half of the Grave (Night Huntress, #1.1)

by Jeaniene Frost

• ISBN10: 1641971983
• ISBN13: 9781641971980
• Publish Date: 26 April 2022 (first published 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Nancy Yost Literary Agency, Inc
• Edition: Is Pod ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 408
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains blood, gore, death, murder, mind control, suicide, human trafficking, and mentions of child prostitution and rape.

The Basics:

The Other Half of the Grave is Halfway to the Grave from Bones' perspective. It starts with him first laying eyes on Cat while she was out hunting vampires and goes all the way up to their reunion at Denise and Randy's wedding. I would definitely recommend having read at least those two books before jumping into this one.

My Thoughts:

I was so excited to finally get into Bones' head! But The Other Half of the Grave isn't really in his head at all. Yes, it's technically from his perspective, but it's in third person, so I felt a huge disconnect. We don't really get his inner thoughts. It's mainly just the events of the first book, but through his eyes rather than Cat's.

In fact, most of the book is just Bones' observations of Cat. He was totally obsessed from the moment he met her and realized what she was. Unfortunately, the further I read, the more annoyed with him I got. He's always saying how stubborn and frustrating she is, which made me wonder how he was so in love with her?! I much preferred Cat's side of the story, since she had to overcome some major prejudices and self-loathing in order to develop feelings for him.

We do get a bit more about Bones and his relationships outside of Cat and bits of their history, but for the most part this is just a retelling of Halfway to the Grave, since Cat and Bones are together for 90% of it. Even when Bones does go off without her to do something (like tracking down those assclowns from the club), it's completely skipped over and we're just back to Cat and Bones. Such a missed opportunity.

I'm conflicted on my feelings for The Other Half of the Grave. I wanted to love it, but it just wasn't what I was expecting. It's not bad, since it does a good job of telling us the other side of the story. But at the same time, it's too close to the original story and not as interesting. I think it would have been stronger if it had gone into the time Bones was looking for Cat. Probably not the whole five years, but at least the start of it.

[Berls]

I was so excited to read this and the timing could not be better, since I'm (re)reading the series for Anne's Readalong this year. It was really great to get the story from Bone's perspective. Funny enough, even though I had JUST read the book from Cat's POV just a few month's ago, there were still details I had forgotten! My memory was quickly jogged though, as opposed to when I was utterly shocked about things with my reread, so that's something.

I think there are two great things about getting the story from Bone's POV.

One: you have access to understanding the paranormal world so much more thouroughly and earlier than in Cat's POV. I don't know how much good it did me, since I've read the oher books. But if you were a new reader to the series and read this directly after reading the first book, that could be a real treat.

Two: You get to see his impressions of Cat. I wonder if the Cat haters would be softened by his impressions? IDK, I'm not a Cat hater, as I've always been a lot like Bones in loving her BECAUSE of her flaws, rather than despite them. And he sees her so clearly. His patience with her, his compassion and understanding... whoa. They just make you fall even harder for him.

I did have two disappointments:

1- since we're getting things from Bone's POV I was really hoping to see some filling in of gaps from the end of book 1 / start of book 2 and that was glossed over (maybe it's coming in a future book?)

2 - If you were reading the series for the first time and decided to read this book after book 1 (which you would expect to make sense with the numbering as well as content), the end of this book would really spoil a part of book 2 that doesn't happen for quite a ways in. I don't know how that would have impacted my reading of book 2.

Perhaps the BEST part of this book was the change in narrators! I do not enjoy Tavia Gilbert's narration for Bones in the series -- so much so that I really avoid listening all together. But I am a SLOW reader and that makes getting these books read very challenging for me. Thankfully this book was narrated by Will M. Watt and he delivered a very solid Bones. Such a different personality comes through with his voice in comparison. I hope he continues to narrate (as I understand there will be a book 2 from Bones's POV as well).