After inadvertently starting rumors of a haunted cemetery, a teen befriends a ghost in this brand-new young adult novel exploring Indigenous identity from the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Marrow Thieves series.
Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother's grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack.
Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It's welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father's job being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father's job and the only home she's ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.
Title : Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
Author : Cherie Dimaline
Format : eARC
Page Count : 280
Genre : YA paranormal fantasy
Publisher : Tundra Books
Release Date : April 4, 2023
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis' 2 star review
Unfortunately, here is another book that was more exciting in concept than execution.
Full disclosure, I have never read the author's beloved other work, The Marrow Thieves. But I was excited to experience their writing with this new novel that sounded a little dark, maybe even spooky, with a bit of magic thrown in. Featuring both Indigenous characters and identity, and set in my hometown, it seemed like it was all lining up to be a new favourite. And I'll admit, the early few chapters, seemed to solidify that belief.
But some of the lovely writing and turns of phrase.. well they quickly felt less present as the story went on. The characters had never really hooked me and I grew increasingly disconnected from them as time went on -- most are really unlikeable, or maybe just the loudest personas are, so it just feels like more than it is? And while somewhere amongst these two hundred-and-some pages there is an exploration of mourning and grief and moving forward.. I don't know if I actually saw the journey. There were too many distractions about sex and the best friend who didn't actually feel like a best friend (so why did I care when they had a falling out) and the shitty cousin (being consistently shitty) and overall I just don't know what I should be left feeling. On the whole, it felt unbalanced and uncertain of its own tone or vibe -- never sitting too long in the humour, the valid anger, or the horror, but flipping between each too quickly to land on anything that felt solid or impactful -- and the fact that the young characters felt too old and too not-childlike didn't help matters.
The one true highlight of the story for me was Winnifred's relationship with her aunt. I really enjoyed those moments and was always looking forward to the next.
I really wish I had enjoyed this more and hope that other readers will feel for it what I wasn't able to. I will definitely be giving this author another try though because it may just have been that this story wasn't the one for me.
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
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