by Melissa Marr
Thor’s Serpents (2014)
Co-Edited with Kelley Armstrong (with HarperTeen)
Enthralled
Shards & Ashes
Co-Edited with Tim Pratt (with Little, Brown)
Rags & Bones
About the Author
Melissa Marr is a former university literature instructor who writes fiction for adults, teens, and children. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have been bestsellers internationally (Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, et. al.) as well as domestically. She is best known for the Wicked Lovely series for teens, Graveminder for adults, and her debut picture book Bunny Roo, I Love You.
In her free time, she practices medieval swordfighting, kayaks, hikes, and raises kids in the Arizona desert.
Praise for Melissa Marr’s books:
Praise for the WICKED LOVELY series:
“Marr offers readers a fully imagined faery world that runs alongside an everyday world, which even non-fantasy (or faerie) lovers will want to delve into” --Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“This is a magical novel… the first book in a trilogy that will guarantee to have you itching for the next installment.” Bliss
“Fans of the fey world will devour this sequel to Wicked Lovely. Marr has created a world both harsh and lush, at once urban and natural.” --School Library Journal
“Complex and involving.” -New York Times Book Review
Praise for GRAVEMINDER:
“If anyone can put the goth in Southern Gothic, it’s Melissa Marr. . . . She’s also careful to ensure that the book’s wider themes —how and if we accept the roles life assigns us, and what happens to us when we refuse them—matter to us as much as the multiple cases of heebie-jeebies she doles out...” —NPR.org
“Spooky enough to please but not too disturbing to read in bed.”—Washington Post
“Dark and dreamy. . . . Rod Serling would have loved Graveminder. . . . Marr is not tapping into the latest horde of zombie novels, she’s created a new kind of undead creature. . . . A creatively creepy gothic tale for grown-ups.”—USA Today
“Plan ahead to read this one, because you won’t be able to put it down! Haunting, captivating, brilliant!” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Marr serves up a quirky dark fantasy fashioned around themes of fate, free will—and zombies. . . . Well-drawn characters and their dramatic interactions keep the tale loose and lively.” —Publishers Weekly
“The emotional dance between Rebekkah and Byron will captivate female readers. . . . Fantasy-horror fans will demand more.” —Kirkus Reviews
“No one builds worlds like Melissa Marr.” —Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series
“Welcome to the return of the great American gothic.” —Del Howison, Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of Dark Delicacies
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the rattlesnake. No, really. If that snake hadn’t rolled under my kayak with me, the book wouldn’t exist. Realizing you have a snake in your hair? Bad. Realizing it was a rattlesnake? Worse. Getting bitten when you shove it away from your face? No. Words. Left.
The resulting insomnia led me to cope as I always do: writing. So, this book is dedicated to “Darius” the Diamondback Rattlesnake. (And no, of course, he didn’t tell me his name. Ours was but a brief encounter, and the resulting “child” is this book.)
I rarely write with this side of my voice in a book. So, thank you to Molly Harper & Jeanette Battista for telling me it was okay to sound more smart-assed than normal. It took four years since that conversation when we were all jet-lagged in France headed to a writing colony with a disco ball shower, exploding faucets, and a nearly naked guy in a robe—but I let my smart-assed voice out finally.
Thank you to Kelley Armstrong, Jeaniene Frost, Jeanette Battista, Jennifer Windrow, and Sera Lewis for reading. (Yes, Sera is named after her. Sera, you & your family are and will always be dear to me.)
Thank you to my daughter, Asia, and my partner, Amber, for reading, edit notes, feeding me, and dawn “pandemic exercise” adventures to hike or kayak when I wasn’t exposed to any other humans.
Thank also to Yasmine Galenorn, Anthea Sharp, Kate Danley, Diana Pharaoh Francis. Kasey Mckenzie, Dannika Dark, Debra Dunbar, Annie Bellet, and Jeffe Kennedy. So much wisdom you’ve shared! And books to keep me sane-is during quarantine.
Thank you to everyone who beta read, especially Janae Chapman, Kismet Scott, Cassie Christensen, Amanda Gibson, Brooke Brennan, and Shannon Johnson!
