49 pages • 1 hour read
Beautiful Graves
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Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Everlynne “Ever” Lawson attends a funeral for Dominic “Dom” Graves, the fiancé she loved. She is devastated and unwilling to say goodbye, and she plans to be gone before the casket enters the ground. The arrival of Joseph “Joe” Graves, Dom’s brother and the man she loved first, devastates her further.
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
The narrative shifts six years into the past. Eighteen-year-old Ever enjoys a girls’ trip to Barcelona, Spain, with her best friend, Pippa. They are in a pharmacy, buying toiletries, when they meet a fellow American—an attractive 19-year-old who introduces himself as Joe. Although Joe and Ever immediately connect, she worries that he will take an interest in Pippa instead. Her fear causes her to flee the store with Pippa. She immediately regrets leaving without getting his contact information, but when she reenters the store, she discovers that he has already left.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
For the next week and a half, Ever and Pippa continue to embrace life to the fullest in Spain. Meanwhile, Ever’s mind stays occupied with thoughts of Joe, whom she hasn’t seen since their chance meeting. Four days before they’re scheduled to return to the States, they fly to Gran Canaria. They make friends with a group of American girls on the plane and are invited to a beach party on the night before they’re scheduled to fly back home. On the night of the party, they attend a bonfire with 100 people in attendance. While Pippa plays party games with a group of people, the introverted Ever sits alone on the outskirts. When she notices a black backpack at her feet with a notebook poking out, Ever becomes curious and flips it open. She begins reading what she believes is the beginning of an intriguing short story and wonders who the author is.
Afterward, Ever notices the famous Neptune de Melenara statue in the sea, approximately 100 feet offshore. She makes the decision to swim for it but gets caught in a powerful riptide and is saved by two men, one of whom she recognizes as Joe. Once alone, the two are naturally flirtatious. She learns that Joe is the author of the short story from the notebook. Joe tells her about his plan to backpack through Europe for the next four months in hopes of finding the inspiration to finish his book. Feeling the desire to be more candid with Joe than with anyone else, Ever admits that she likes art—and specifically does art for headstones. Joe is intrigued rather than disturbed by this. Their romantic connection intensifies, and they have sex on the beach. Afterward, they exchange numbers. Joe jokingly considers her his girlfriend already. Ever accepts this, and they agree to meet up after he has finished backpacking across Europe.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Six years later, Ever lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her cat, Loki, and her friend Nora. Loki and Nora are the extent of Ever’s social life, and she prefers it this way. However, Nora is in a serious relationship with her boyfriend, Colt, who desperately wants her to move in with him. Their relationship sustains regular fights about this topic, as Nora is too concerned for Ever’s mental and emotional well-being to abandon her friend.
When Loki goes missing, Ever worries that he is dead, but Nora suggests that she post about him on Facebook and Craigslist. While waiting for a response, Ever receives a text from Pippa. Ever ignores the message and leaves for work; she has been ignoring Pippa’s messages for the past six years. These days, Ever gives tours around Salem. She dislikes her job but views it as a just punishment for the harm she believes she has caused her family. Ever is consumed by her guilt over the role she played in her mother’s accidental death, which occurred just after she returned to San Francisco from Spain six years ago.
The following morning, Ever receives a message on Craigslist from a user named “DominicG.” He claims to have found her cat on an apartment balcony in downtown Salem. He sends a picture, which confirms that it is Loki. After some flirtatious banter, Ever arranges to pick Loki up at Dominic’s apartment.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Ever arrives at Dominic’s apartment and finds him in green hospital scrubs. She retrieves Loki and chats with Dominic, or “Dom.” She learns that he is 29 and works as a nurse partitioner in the local pediatric oncology clinic. Though they are complete opposites, Ever is intrigued by him. However, when he expresses romantic interest and asks for her number, Ever rejects him, claiming that she is still hung up on an ex-boyfriend. Even though the relationship between her and Joe ended six years ago, she is still very emotionally invested in him.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Ever works a shift at a witchcraft-themed store and returns home, where Nora asks her about retrieving Loki. Ever tells Nora about Dom and his romantic interest in her. Nora expresses excitement but is disappointed to hear that Ever rejected Dom for the sake of the mysterious Joe, whom Ever hasn’t seen or spoken to in years.
The narrative reveals that when Ever returned home from Spain, her mother tragically died within days. While she and her mother were at a train station, Ever was distracted while texting Joe and fell from the train platform. Her mother fell in after rushing to pull Ever to safety and was hit by the oncoming train. After deleting Joe’s contact information in her grief, Ever was never able to find a trace of him, even though she did search. Without his last name, it has proven impossible to find him online.
After another night of running Salem tours, Ever receives a rare call from her dad. Consumed with guilt over her mother’s death, she seldom speaks to her father or to her brother, Renn, fearing that they blame her for what happened. Now, Ever answers the call, and when her dad invites her home for Thanksgiving to discuss something important, she makes up an excuse to refuse, claiming that she cannot get time off work. When he expresses his usual disappointment, Ever promises to visit for Christmas instead.
After the phone call, Ever stops at a local gas station for fuel and snacks. Inside, she runs into Dom, who is irritable and dressed in scrubs. When she asks about his well-being, he admits to feeling devastated about losing a patient. She invites him to come with her and drives them to Wendy’s, where she buys them both food. He confides the details of the case, and the conversation eventually turns to his own tough childhood. Dom admits to being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia first as a child and again in his early twenties. Though he defeated the disease both times, it has had a lasting impact on his life and has compelled him to pursue a career in medicine. When Dom asks why Ever was at the gas station so late at night, Ever admits to the tense phone call with her father and briefly mentions their distance since her mother’s death. After the meal, she and Dom part on amiable terms.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
Two weeks pass, and Ever does not see Dom. One day, she can’t find Loki. After briefly searching the house, she texts Dom, asking about Loki’s whereabouts. Soon afterward, Loki appears, but Dom has already texted her back. She mentions that she found Loki, and after reconsideration, she decides that maybe she is interested in dating Dom after all. Dom asks to meet that evening following Ever’s tour shift.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 6 Analysis
The dramatic Prologue of the novel departs from the conventions of typical contemporary romances, as rather than engaging in the obligatory meet-cute, the introductory chapter instead delivers a barrage of intrigue that falls more closely in line with the subgenres of romantic suspense or dark romance. The setting of the Prologue—which takes place at a funeral of one of Ever’s love interests—also foreshadows the novel’s thematic focus on The Complexities of Grief, especially given that Ever struggles to break free of her own devastating emotions in the wake of losing her mother and then Dom. However, despite these initial differences, Beautiful Graves nonetheless conforms to the romance genre’s traditions by featuring a protagonist who remains deeply resistant to the prospect of new romantic relationships and holds false beliefs that inhibit her progress in this area. As the opening chapters aptly demonstrate, Ever systematically avoids love—even the love of her own remaining family—because she labors under the misguided conviction that she is metaphorically cursed. Haunted by the fact that her love for Joe distracted her at a crucial moment and indirectly led to her mother’s accidental death, she is already primed to blame herself when a random errand on her behalf eventually sends Dom to a similarly unfortunate end. While the details of Dom’s death will not be revealed until much later in the novel, it is already clear that Ever deliberately avoids love, and these early indicators of her inhibitions will serve to explain her reticence around Joe as the novel unfolds.
While the Prologue strikes a rather dire note, the flashbacks in Chapters 1 and 2 focus on Ever’s life before the tragedy of her mother’s death, establishing her youthful demeanor as a blend of caution and enthusiasm. These scenes provide a sharp contrast with the traumatized person she will soon become. Although the young Ever has a normal fear of spontaneity, she is still open to living an active life and seizing new opportunities. Within this context, it is clear that Ever’s encounter with Joe at the Gran Canaria beach party marks the beginning of a relationship that encapsulates Embracing Life and Releasing Fear. Joe’s backpacking aspirations and creative pursuits indicate his innate zest for life, and his outgoing approach to the world will continue to serve as a counterpoint to Ever’s cautious demeanor throughout the novel. Their impromptu intimacy on the beach, a defining moment of their initial connection, stands as an uncharacteristically spur-of-the-moment decision on Ever’s part—one of the few points at which she seizes life’s pleasures rather than letting them pass her by.
With these expository scenes logged, the author then shifts forward to a time frame closer to the narrative present but well before Dom’s death; this new setting creates another stark contrast as the once-carefree Ever finds herself still Running From Guilt and Shame, even years after her mother’s demise. She initially refuses to date Dom because she feels as though she is “not worthy of good things happening in [her] life” (60). This is only one of many ways in which Ever deliberately sabotages her own happiness, denying herself the possibility of new connections due to her guilt over past mistakes and mishaps. Rather than confronting her unprocessed grief head-on, she consistently punishes herself for perceived wrongs that she has committed, when in reality, the misfortunes that have visited her family were never her fault. As these chapters showcase Ever’s transformation from a bright, adventurous teenager into an emotionally distant and traumatized adult, the author indicates that Ever’s life in Salem, Massachusetts, is dominated by isolation, grief, and self-imposed punishment. These early chapters heavily imply that she still carries unresolved guilt over her mother’s death, and this inhibiting emotion bleeds into every other aspect of her life as well, from her strained relationships with her family and friends to her menial job as a tour guide. In Ever’s case, The Complexities of Grief have combined to illustrate that unprocessed emotions can cause a person’s growth to stagnate.
As a counterpoint to Ever’s unexpressed inner turmoil, Dom embodies a spirit of stability and optimism, standing in stark contrast to Ever’s self-destructive tendencies. Their initial meeting—catalyzed by Loki’s disappearance—sparks the first connection that Ever has permitted since her brief connection with Joe years ago. Dom’s position as a foil is further strengthened by the fact that he, like Ever, has experienced his fair share of grief and personal hardship but has not allowed these things to dampen his enthusiasm for life. For example, he boldly pursues a profession as a pediatric oncology nurse, and his own battles with leukemia add considerable depth to his character, positioning him as someone who understands the fragility of life. Yet, unlike Ever, who avoids living her life to the fullest, he chooses to embrace the world in spite of its risks.
As Shen delves further into Ever’s backstory, revealing the traumatic circumstances of her mother’s death and her resulting sense of guilt, the author’s decision to juxtapose Ever’s avoidance of her family with her budding connection to Dom highlights the internal conflict between her desire for atonement and her fear of rejection. Thus, the growing romance with Dom is facilitated through opportunities in which the two coincidentally meet, and in this regard, the novel lives up to the expected meet-cute trope that often characterizes such novels. However, because this well-worn plot pattern is ensconced within deeper discussions of life, misfortune, and mortality, the entire narrative gains a tone of gravity that subverts expectations and hints at deeper developments to come.
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