Great concept, but not as great execution.

Perhaps younger readers will find it more enjoyable than I did.

Win was raised in the cemetery where her mom is buried. Her dad is a cremator, and they live in an apartment over his office at the graveyard. While the location has always provided Win with a measure of closeness to the mother she never knew, it's also made her a target for peers once the awkwardness and cruelty of adolescence brought her home into a new light. Beyond these exterior markers that earn her ridicule, a neurospicy brain seems to add to Win's distance from peers who don't need symmetry and counting and the comfort of specific sounds.

The fantasy element of the book doesn't become prominent until the latter half, after Win's first ghost sighting. As she gets to know the ghostly Phil, she finds herself torn between saving her home and protecting the girl she's falling for, beyond the grave or not. The only thing that might be able to turn around the cemetery's dwindling funds is a new opportunity to become a stop on a ghost tour. Now that Win has found an actual ghost, the tour is sure to be a success. But it pains Phil to be seen, and she's not a freak show for the curious tourists, besides. Win finds herself facing a losing battle to try and save it all.

I think there are important topics in the book that are handled thoughtfully-- from grief to identity to letting go. The story circles death throughout, but it also considers the life in front of Win and what she might make of it. In both her and Phil's backstories, we see girls with different relationships to their queerness and their Indigenous roots, shaped by history and by the way the hard social years of teenagedom came at them. For Win's part, she's often felt not native enough being raised by her white dad. Growing up in the eighties, Phil's lesbianism was a source of taunts at school that Win can relate to from her own negative school experience. Both girls have found themselves lonely, slipping through the cracks until they are drawn to one another.

This is a YA book that doesn't always feel YA. And maybe I'm doing the genre a disservice to say so, or it reflects the limits of what I've read from the genre, but this feels heavy. Maybe because the whole first part of the book is Win looking back on her growing-up years, it has the feeling of experience and even adulthood rather than youth. Obviously, teens have depth and aren't out there having sunshine and rainbows all the time, so I'm not sure how to put my misgivings into words. Maybe it's just that this is more of a literary take than I'd typically want to pick up. Like the awkwardness and mismatches of sexual awakenings are not a topic I love to read about, as just one example.

I take some level of comfort and embarrassment from the fact that my taste hasn't changed much from my own teenage years. I wouldn't have enjoyed it then, and I didn't have a fun time reading it now. The difference is that I can appreciate what the book has to say all the same, and I think this one has a lot of value to impart. It's worth sitting with and thinking about. Thanks to Tundra Books for my copy to read and review!

Really wanted to love this one, but the writing just wasn't for me. On my list as a secondary purchase if funds allow.

2.75

I read Empire of Wild a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it and I think I’ve been chasing that high with Dimaline’s books ever since. Funeral Somgs for Dying Girls is hard to place because genre wise it’s a bit fantasy, a bit contemporary and there’s a con element to it and a protagonist coming of age, but then tonally its about grief with some spooky scenes and some lighter moments. I had a hard time getting into this book and then I finished it and it immediately left my brain other than lingering confusion over what exactly this book was meant to be. I do like the way Dimaline crafts sentences but I think I need to be a bit pickier about which of her works I pick up in the future.

Sadly, I went on too many requesting sprees when first starting out on NetGalley and it has tanked my ratio. Now that I’m taking my role as a reviewer more seriously, I’m being more intentional with the books I request and clearing out my shelves of books that I’m no longer interested in.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. When I finally read it, I will come back and write a review.

This book sounded good and interesting, but trying to get into it just felt like a slog. I think this is a case of me being the wrong audience for this book.

I thought this was a slow burn but it was worth it. I loved the chemistry and the characters felt relatable in the best ways.

First of all I loved Winifred and her aunt. Those moments were the best parts of the book for me. Everything else felt rushed or too brief to really grip on to. I understand using humor as part of coping with grief or horror but it felt like it just bounced around in time so much I couldn’t decide how I was feeling or meant to be feeling.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.

I missed the window to download this before the archive date so I borrowed this through my local library and decided to dnf 10% in. The writing style is really nice, I loved the perspective so far and the set up that's happening for the ghost situation. However, I couldn't get myself to really focus on the 1st POV writing especially with the dialogue, it works well together but the way it's formatting makes it a little hard for me to concentrate and stay present as things happened. So instead of pushing through, I decided to call it for now.

DNFing this one 37%. I find that I often don't gel with Dimaline's writing style, and I'm sad to say that is the case with this one. Also the fatphobia is just not it. I think there will be lots of readers for this book, but it wasn't for me.

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is the most recent young adult novel by Métis author Cherie Dimaline. Dimaline is most known for her young adult novel The Marrow Thieves, featuring a dystopian future in which indigenous people are hunted for their ability to dream, and has written a bunch of other adult and YA novels, all of which feature indigenous protagonists of some sort. I've really enjoyed at least parts of all of Dimaline's works - they're often powerful in themes, rarely subtle, and even when I think they miss they do so in interesting ways. So I was very interested to try this latest YA novel of hers, which sounded in description like a bit more small scale YA novel than some of her other works.

The good news is that Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is a well crafted young adult novel, which will certainly work for a lot of the young adult audience. The novel follows Winifred, a 16 year old half-Métis girl who lives in an apartment above the cemetery office where her father works, as she deals with both the normal struggles with growing up as a girl who doesn't quite fit in, has OCD, feels pressure to have sex, and struggles severely with loneliness....as well as the more particular struggles of living in a cemetery with a father who hasn't gotten over the woman who died birthing her. Oh and in the process of it all, Winifred both prompts a con artist ghost tour company to come to the cemeteryand meets a real ghost in Phil, a girl she grows more and more to care about. It's a story that deals with YA themes even as it gets very tropey at times, but it's also one that well, wasn't one that quite matched my own experiences as a teen and thus wasn't quite FOR this adult reader. That's not necessarily a problem with the book of course - as I'll detail below, that's part of the peril of being an adult reading YA.

Plot Summary:
Winifred Blight has lived her whole sixteen years with her father in an apartment that sits above the office of a local cemetery. Her mother died in childbirth, and as such she's grown up with no one other than her white father and her beloved Métis aunt Roberta as family...except her aunt passed away a few years ago and her father has always seemed to be grieving and praying for the ghost of Winifred's mother to come back. Meanwhile, Winifred has largely been an outcast among her school classmates ever since they learned she lived in the cemetery...and her one friend, a geeky boy named Jack, is suddenly growing more mature and appealing looking...and is gaining the attention of other girls. And so when an attempt to use Jack to lose her virginity at 16 goes awry, Winifred feels lost and alone...a feeling that is only made worse by the news that her father and her may soon have to leave the only home she's ever known as the cemetery is losing too much business to keep her father on as an employee.

But then something unthinkable happens: Winifred encounters a real ghost, an indigenous girl named Phil, in a ravine inside the cemetery. And Phil keeps appearing to Winifred...and soon becomes able to converse with her and tell her story, and soon Winifred doesn't feel quite so alone. But when several sightings of Winifred in distress in the cemetery make people believe that the cemetery is haunted, the cemetery becomes host to a con-artist's ghost tour scheme...one which is latched onto by Winifred's jerk of a cousin Penny. And while the ghost tours might help the cemetery and save Winifred and her father's chances of staying in the only place she's ever known, it soon becomes clear that the presence of so many people will only hurt Phil...and Winifred is soon forced to choose between the unthinkable: the only "home" she's ever known or the dead girl who's the only one who can help cure her loneliness.....

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is told from the first person perspective of Winifred, with the story jumping back and forth in time at times as Winifred flashes back to her past, largely the stories she heard from her Aunt, and on occasion to the story of the ghost girl Phil's life as she tells in it parts to Winifred. The story is, to some extent, pretty YA tropey in a certain stereotypical way - Winifred is ostracized by cliqs at school, she makes friends with the geeky outsider boy as a young girl only for that boy to grow into a handsome and now non-outcast who doesn't realize he's leaving her behind, and feels pressure to lose her virginity upon her 16th Birthday, etc. It's the type of Young Adult tropeyness that may appeal to young adult teen readers who have gone through similar circumstances, but to be honest, it's so much so in a way that never really would've spoken to me, who didn't really feel any pressure to have sex as a kid or teen (and yes I realize that's probably more unusual on my part, but it affects my perspective here). Add in the awkwardness when Winifred is rejected by that geeky friend Jack, and well, it's a lot of stuff that makes me cringe and makes this book not quite for me, even if there's nothing wrong with it and it will work for other actual young adult readers.

That said, there's a lot here despite that that really works with both Winifred as a character and the book's themes of grief, loneliness, and what really makes a "home." Even ignoring the YA tropeyness I mentioned above, Winifred is an easy person to care for as she deals with a whole host of problems - she has to deal with being only half-Métis and not really having an indigenous community to call home (she lives with her White dad and her beloved indigenous Aunt died a few years back), she has to deal with being outcast from school just for not fitting in and for the random circumstance of living above a cemetery, and has to deal with her father being too absorbed in his grief a lot of the time to seemingly help and care for her. She's got OCD tendencies that have her count whenever she's in discomfort, which is done well here, and well, she feels tremendously alone. And so when the last thing she thinks she has, the ties to the cemetery she grew up in and kind of plays in, is in jeopardy, she takes a desperate action at making a dumb deal with her cousin Penny to try and use the ghost tours to save those ties and what she thinks is a home. It almost leads to disaster when those same tours and cousin almost jeopardize a new relationship (with Phil) that provides her with much needed warmth, but it's an understandable disaster.

And the book touches on some very solid YA and non-YA themes in terms of family, grief, and what it means for something to be a home. Winifred's whole life has been overshadowed by her mother's death - not only do they live in a cemetery that contains half her ashes, but Winifred's birth resulted in her mom's death and her father has clearly been grieving all this time. Her father never takes out that grief upon Winifred in anger, but it clearly distracts him from being able to pay proper attention to her, even when she's suffering, which leaves her all the more alone. And Winifred herself kind of grieves not knowing her mom, as well as the Aunt Roberta who basically served as her mother figure. The two of them being shaken by events into moving forward, through Winifred's reactions are a big part of this book and it works well. And then there's the issue of what it means to be "home", which we see through both Winifred, who thinks of the cemetery as "home" even as it really has nothing for her other than memories, and through Phil's story, and how things went so wrong as to lead to her death. Through these stories the book argues that "home" isn't necessarily a place, but rather the people whose hearts matter to us, something that leads to a change in Winifred to the better in the end.

So all in all, you have a pretty solid YA book here, albeit one whose YA tropes really didn't work for me, but for other people, especially YA readers, this may work a lot better. So worth a look for YA readers for sure.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy in exchange for an honest opinion. Review has been posted on Amazon.

Maybe more 3.5 stars. I used to have a major thing for ghost love stories, and I think I still do after reading this. I think there was entirely too much sex talk in this book. I know how teenagers can be but idk this just felt weird to me. I definitely cried twice, though. So it hit something in me.

'Funeral Songs' was a 2023 release I was highly anticipating, but unfortunately, this one fell flat for me.

I was immediately intrigued by the premise (good ghost stories are forever my favorite) and the cover, so I was immediately excited to dive into this one. Despite the relatively short length, however, it took some time for the story to get going, and the writing style was rather confusing - at times it was hard to tell whether we were in a flashback or not.

I will say that as a girl around Winifred's age, her voice and mentality were extremely relatable, and I appreciated her character immensely.

Ultimately, this just wasn't the story for me, but I think there is an audience out there for this book who will love it!

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review, especially after I heard there were fatphobic comments in this one.

This novel was just okay for me. I was intrigued by the cover and the premise. I thought parts of the novel was moving, but the whole ghost part, I didn't think was done well. The writing was great!

I received a free copy of Funeral Songs for Dying Girls from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.
Winifred lives in a cemetery with her father, who works in the crematorium. She has many strange adventures in the cemetery, not the least of which is when she meets the ghost of a teen girl named Phil.
Love, death, and life become complicated as Winifred’s world is threatening to turn upside down and leave her and her father no choice but to leave the cemetery. And leave the spot where her mother is buried. Grief and love are main themes in this beautiful novel by Cherie Dimaline.
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is a short read, but a deep and echoing one. Its beautiful in its haunting nature, and it’s no doubt the perfect read for spooky season. Queer, indigenous, and haunting, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is sure to be beloved.

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is one of those books that understands what it means to be a teenage girl.

Like many other novels by Dimaline, this story brilliantly weaves Indigenous personality into an otherwise grim story. From the first page, I loved Winifred, and her cemetery. She felt very familiar to me, and I feel like I was able to connect with the story more because of this. As the story progresses, we learn more about her and her family, and how she wants to be so many things, and can’t find ways to do them all.

Phil is another wonderful character, and adds into the amazing Indigenous representation, as well as the history behind many missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and the US.

While this is a teen novel, there are a few trigger warnings to look up beforehand, but otherwise this is a phenomenal book. Thank you to NetGalley, Tundra Books and the author for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

As my fifth outing with Dimaline’s work, with unfortunately declining enjoyment of the last few, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls had a lot of pressure going in, and it did not disappoint. There’s something so fascinating about seeing the world through the eyes of a teenager written by Dimaline. There was also something innately nostalgic about this particular book for me, maybe it’s the lightly magical YA vibe had diminishing returns with over the last few years, finally connecting with me again through this hopelessly romantic but unflinching sensible protagonist, vaguely reminiscent of Blue Sargent from the Raven Cycle (extremely high praise coming from me). I loved getting to read a sapphic story from Dimaline, and hope for more from her in the future. After tackling ghosts here, witches in VenCo, and the werewolf adjacent rugaroo in Empire of Wild, my only question is, Cherie Dimaline vampire book when? Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Funeral Songs for Dying Girls" by Cherie Dimaline is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of life, loss, and the human experience. Dimaline's prose resonates with deep emotion and a poetic touch, enveloping readers in a world of raw feelings and introspection. The book's intricate narrative weaves together the stories of its characters, creating a tapestry of shared pain and interconnectedness. Dimaline's ability to delve into profound themes while maintaining a compelling plot is commendable. "Funeral Songs for Dying Girls" is a powerful and evocative read that lingers in the mind, reminding us of the fragile beauty and resilience that exists within the human spirit.