What could be worse than going home?
Maybe I should ask what would be worse than going home where you’re not welcome?
That’s the question Jayne finds out in Graveyard Child. As we’ve learned from the first four books, Jayne Heller, the middle child and only girl, broke from her family when she moved to Arizona and went to ASU. ASU being a secular college and not what her father approved of his only girl leaving home to attend. After years of being away from home she’s now coming full circle and heading back to where her life started. She wants answers, moreover she needs answers, and there’s only one place she can get them. The one place she dreads – home to her parents in Witchita, Kanasas.
Since Darker Angels we’ve know Jayne’s family has some hidden secrets. It was within these pages we learn along with Jayne that her mother had had an affair, yet we didn’t know who the affair had been with. In Vicious Grace we learn how much of a bastrad Jayne’s uncle Eric was, still no one knew what Eric had planned for Jayne. Now at book five we still don’t know what Eric’s plan had been but we do know at some point in Jayne’s life a rider had attached itself to her. From Killing Rites we know the rider is The Black Sun’s Daughter, yet we still don’t know if the rider was part of Eric’s plan or if there was something more going on.
Jayne is still coming to terms with having a rider inside her but she’s more accepting of the Black Sun then she had been before. Jayne’s been growing as a characher since we first saw the twenty something in Unclean Spirits, yet she still has some growth to do and we see that in this book. Jayne’s growth in Graveyard Child may seem a little off at first, and I say this because when she’s with her family she doesn’t always seem as strong and in controlas we’ve see her in previous books. However when she’s away from her father, and not feeling like a child, we see the woman that Jayne is becoming. Besides its not like the rest of us haven’t been in her shoes when going home, wanting our parents approval, granted most of us probably have it whereas Jayne does not and I can see how defieing him and turning away from his values broke something between them. Though I don’t get the open hatred and aggression he has toward her even as the family skeletons come to light.
As Jayne arrives in the town she brew up in she’s now questioning all of Eric’s actions as she tries not to follow in his footsteps any longer. Nonetheless she does want answers and she’ll stop at almost nothing to get them. Jayne subjects herself to mental and sometimes physical pain to learn the truth about her family history, her mothers affair and Uncle Eric. Dark secrets come to light and Jayne’s world gets turned upside down again. Thankfully she has her friends/ new family by her side, and as always they are there to protect and comfort her.
At the end of Killing Rites when Jayne made the decision to go home she was on somewhat unsteading ground with Ex and Chogyi Jake. Ex because of what happened with his friends and former priest and Chogyi Jake because he left him in Chicage to recoup and hadn’t called him to meet up with them until she was in trouble. As they’ve been driving to Witchita, Kanasas things have gotten better, though she still feels like shit for leaving Chogyi Jake. Now however its not just the three of them, no Aubrey didn’t return he’s still in Chicago with Kim, but they do have Ozzie, the dog Median Clark had been taking care of in Killing Rites.
For Jayne coming home is truly the old coliding with the new. Jayne’s new life and family meets the new, and it doesn’t mesh the way one would hope. Ex and Chogyi Jake meet Jayne’s older brother Jay, and her little brother Kurt along with her mother and father. And the three of them met Carla for the first time. Carla is Jay’s pregnat girlfriend, he met in Flordia. In Graveyard Child the family is preparing for the “shot gun” wedding Jay has to have since getting Carla pregnat. So it’s not like the family isn’t stressed already when Jayne arrives, and then there are the unseen forces that have popped their ugly head s up.
Upon arriving home Jayne not only has to fight with her father about the choices she has made, she also has internal struggles she’s dealing with when the Invisible College and Graveyard Child make their move. The Invisible College turns out to be the easiest problem she has to face. Between her parents and the remaining parties of the Invisible College Jayne, Ex and Chogyi Jake learn the truth about that happened to Jayne when she was sixteen, how long the rider has been in her and how long members of her family have known about riders. You’ll be amazed to learn the truth just as the gang was.
With all this new information you gotta wonder what comes next. What can and will M.L.N. Hanover do to Jayne. The series didn’t seem like it was ending but one can never tell. I can see two possibly three more books come before the end.
Jayne seems like she’s in a better place at the end of Graveyard Child. She’s learned who/what she is, she’s now moved past all her family issues and is ready to make her own way with her friends in tow. This was a truly growth book for Jayne. She’s no longer the scared twenty something now she knows whats out there and is still scared but knows how to handle herself and the things that go bump in the night. Instead of wondering if Eric would have done something this way or that she doesn’t care because she is making her own decisions and not following blindly after her deceased uncle.
We see a little growth in Ex but I’d like to see more. I’m ready to hear what he has to tell Jayne that he wouldn’t say in Killing Rites. He needs to ge over the fact that Jayne’s being ridden and speak his mind/heart. As cor Chogyi Jake I’m not sure what growth he needs, when we first met him he was a pretty well arounded character. Maybe his thing is the need to be there as a protector, friend, and educator cor Jayne. The one person that grounds everyone else. I’d like to see a little more from the Aubrey and Kim relationship with Jayne. We actually talk with them in Graveyard Child but Jayne is still feeling guilty for what Eric did to them when she had nothing to do with it. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens between the Invisible College and Jayne now. This book was a real eye opener and there are so many things that can be explored. Lastly we have the status of Jayne and the Black Sun’s Daughter and what’s going to happen with it. Well Jayne get read of her or will something else happen. The new dynamics are going to be interesting and fun to watch.
I hope you enjoy this latest installment as much as I did.
