The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After the doozy of the prior book, it's not so surprising that Charley needed to hit the reset button. OR that Darynda had to hit the reset button.

This is a light-ish UF even though we deal with the dead and ghosts wanting to get closure and Satan's son is a big squeeze, etc., but when you tip over into the OP category, there has to be some kind of counterbalance.

As long as I don't come across THIS particular counterbalance *coughamnesiacough* too often in my reading, I let it slide because it IS awfully convenient and it CAN be an interesting track to take as we find out all the things about our favorite characters all over again.

Or just plain START AGAIN.

And this is where we are in this book. I've seen this trope done dozens of times -- or more, if you include all the movies and tv shows -- and I've seen it done BETTER than this.

And yet, I'm not playing a comparison game. Did THIS book manage to entertain me?

Yes, yes, and yes. All the snark is here and the slow reveals are all fully expected and comfortable as hell. Even the *deep and abiding sadness* is all just a silly joke to the reader because... let's face it: we know things turn out well in the end.

This is comfort food. There's no other way to describe it.

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