The Ballad of Perilous Graves
#6413.55 of 664 ranked universes · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2022 Reading commitment Low Alex Jennings Last reviewed 2026-09-02
Overview
Alex Jennings' standalone urban fantasy set in a magical alternate New Orleans ("Nola") where songs are alive; a group of children must recover a set of escaped, sentient songs before the city's music-based magic collapses (2022).
Urban fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The Ballad of Perilous Graves (2022) core · 3.55 (3,245 ratings); Standalone novel; no sequel published or announced.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Ballad of Perilous Graves? The Ballad of Perilous Graves's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The Ballad of Perilous Graves finished? Complete (2022).
- How much reading does The Ballad of Perilous Graves take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~450 pages).
- How is The Ballad of Perilous Graves ranked? #641 of 664 ranked universes on this site, based on 3,245 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #641?
Ranked #641 of 664 ranked universes.
- Average reader rating of 3.55 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (3,245 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.01 behind #640, The Dark Star Trilogy.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 1 book · Complete · 3k ratings · Ranks #641 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment urban fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- Mythopoeic Award (Adult Literature), 2023: nominated: The Ballad of Perilous Graves; Finalist, did not win. Sourced via File 770's report of the Mythopoeic Society's own May 17, 2023 announcement; the Society's live finalists page itself could not be directly fetched (robots.txt), so this is a well-corroborated secondary source, not a first-party fetch.
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Suggestions computed from what The Ballad of Perilous Graves and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World Urban fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.66
- Ysabel Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.63
- David Mogo, Godhunter Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.60
- All the Birds in the Sky Urban fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.59
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.55 across 3,245 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Alex Jennings) accepted 2026-09-02
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alex-jennings/the-ballad-of-perilous-graves/9780759557215/
- https://file770.com/2023-mythopoeic-award-finalists/
- https://www.mythsoc.org/awards.htm
Last reviewed: 2026-09-02
Rule: New universe, Alex Jennings' The Ballad of Perilous Graves. Core = the standalone novel (2022). A 2023 Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature finalist (did not win); sourced via a genre-press report of the Mythopoeic Society's own announcement, corroborated by the Society's own news-archive index. No sequel published or announced as of this admission.