This book was a quite unique and skin-crawling exploration of grief through the eyes of a girl who grew up in a funeral home. At times heartwarming and others deeply unsettling, Funeral Girl is an incredibly compelling young adult thriller that also addresses important themes such as mental illness, gender and sexuality (with the main character being asexual!)

In my opinion, Funeral Girl is a strong debut novel. I'll be looking out for what Emma K. Ohland does next.

Stars: 3.75
Format: audio
Representation: Asexual main character

Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager who is queer, lives in a funeral home, and speaks to the dead?... Well, that's even harder.

When Georgia Richter's grandmother dies, Georgia learns that she has the ability to wake a dead person with her touch. With a second touch, that person goes back to sleep forever. She uses this ability to speak with the recently deceased, learn about them, and add these memories to her special binder, all in an attempt to help her cope with her anxiety around death and dying.

Georgia has had anxiety around death for most of her young life, but it begins to really spiral when one of her classmates, Milo, dies in an accident. She didn't know him well while he was alive, so she decides to wake him up. Her plan was to ask him some questions and then put him back to sleep. But once awake, Milo didn't want to go back and he asks Georgia to help his parents.

I think some YA books work really well for that audience and less so for an older audience. This is one of those books. While I still enjoyed listening to this Funeral Girl, I think I would have like it more had I read it about 10-15 years ago. Georgia definitely wasn't my favorite person and I think her age has a lot to do with that. I mean, who really likes a 16 year old girl?

I really enjoyed the representation in this book. Georgia is asexual, and it's not just a throw away fact. Her queerness heavily plays into the storyline, and her best friend is non-binary (Amy is a pretty cool character)

This narrator was good. There wasn't anything particularly great about her but also nothing bad -- she just wasn't captivating.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media, LLC for this advanced audiobook copy.

Georgia is a teen growing up in a funeral home and with that comes responsibilities, though, her responsibilities run deep with those who have passed on.

The dark overlay of this book doesn’t take away from the sometimes equally dark moments of teen life. Betrayal, love, bullying, friendship and trust are all tapped in this novel on a very familiar and authentic to teen life way.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC, This book is beautiful, young adult novel. It's a bit dark, and I absolutely loved it!

4.5 Funeral Girl is a book about grief, understanding of death, and hope.
Georgia is a young 16-year-old who lives with her family at a funeral home. She is acutely aware of death and dying, and that knowledge brings her more anxiety than peace. Also, with each death Georgia can summon the spirits/ghosts and help them go to the unknown.
Meanwhile, Georgia is also grieving her grandma and it becomes harder and harder to understand death and where we go afterward. That's when she meets Milo.
Milo is a classmate who unfortunately dies from a car accident, with his death looming over his family, and community, Georgia finds herself connecting with Milo and learning about his struggles which helps him reconnect with his family one last time.
I enjoyed this book, as I too have struggled with the idea of death, and I too, had death in my life that left a huge impact on me.
This book is good for anyone who struggles with the idea of death and who has had grief hit them like a ton of bricks. It was very relatable to someone who has struggled with loss and grief.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. ARC provided by Dreamscape Media.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Richter feels conflicted about the funeral home her parents run--especially because she has the ability to summon ghosts. With one touch of any body that passes through Richter Funeral Home, she can awaken the spirit of the departed. With one more touch, she makes the spirit disappear, to a fate that remains mysterious to Georgia. To cope with her deep anxiety about death, she does her best to fulfill the final wishes of the deceased whose ghosts she briefly revives. Then her classmate Milo's body arrives at Richter--and his spirit wants help with unfinished business, forcing Georgia to reckon with her relationship to grief and mortality.

Funeral Girl is a story about grief and the fear of the unknown that awaits the human soul after death. I never really connected with any of the characters and most of the characters just felt one-dimensional. There was never any more than one characteristic given to any character, and they didn't feel like they existed outside the realm of our main character. This book really went nowhere and I felt bored most of the time. While the ending was a little heartwarming, the novel felt, overall, rather flat and one dimensional. A solid effort for a debut.

While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review, all opinions remain my own.

TW: death, grief, mentions of teenage alcohol and drug use

I found this to be a beautiful story of a teenage trying to grapple with her grief.

After her grandmother's passing, she figures out she has a gift: she can summon the spirits of the dead with a touch and then with a second touch send them away. Add in the fact that she lives and helps run the family owned funeral home? It makes things just a little more complicated.

When a classmate is killed in a hit and run, she wants to help him, help his family. But in helping is she really hurting those closest to her?

The struggles that Georgia has are much like any other teenager. I felt like I was walking right along side her. This is totally a book I would pick up for one of my kiddos to read.

This one had a lot of promise. Interesting premise and a great YA novel filled with relevant themes: fears, anxiety, friendship, family, sexuality. The novel was well written and I thought the narrator did a great job. Georgia was a good character. She was a sophomore trying to figure out her place in her family and the world. I thought her experience and confusion was age appropriate. I took away stars because I thought there was so much potential to explore more. Through her ability to wake the dead, I thought it would have been awesome to explore a whole new world only she was able to access, but in the end it was about Georgia being self-abdorbed and trying to justify her actions by telling herself what she was doing was to help, but there was really no helping. What I'm trying to say is, the whole her waking the dead fell a little flat and was made to be a big part of the story but really had nothing to do with it. She is just a young girl trying to figure out who she is and how to deal with her feelings. I guess with the whole dead people thing I was expecting more from that side. Overall good read though.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the AudioARC.

After a slow start I was drawn into the story. I appreciated the addition of a non-binary character (representation matters so much). The story was intriguing and would appeal to readers who love mystical realism.

Georgia doesn't find the meaning of life, however she does find what makes life worth living.

Georgia lives in a funeral home. Well, technically, above one. Her family owns Richter Funeral Home. Her father's father started the business in a renovated home. The main floor is for funerals, the basement is where they embalm and store the bodies and the second floor is where the family lives. Georgia has a twin brother Peter and ever since they were in middle school Georgia has always been the weird funeral girl while Peter has been seen as cool for it. Georgia was very close with her grandmother and when she passed she had a hard time getting over it. When she passed Georgia snuck down to the embalming room and snuck one last look at her grandma and discovered that when she touches dead bodies she can summon their ghosts. For three years Georgia has been summoning ghosts and asking them for a final wish before they rest. When Milo, a classmate, dies in a hit and run accident Georgia is overly anxious about the overwhelming fear of death she can't seem to manage and hopes that Milo's ghost can help answer some of her questions. It turns out that he has more questions for her than she does for him.
Georgia is an extremely flawed character. She has an almost debilitating fear of death and it affects her daily life. This was an interesting story due to how it ended. Georgia realizes her flaws and tries to right things in her life.

I'm not sure everyone would be in the right mood or frame of mind to be reading Funeral Girl but if you can dive into this book about a teenage girl facing her anxiety about death while her family run a funeral home and she possesses the the power to summon the dead I don't think you will be disappointed. Georgia Richter has never recovered from her grandmother's death when she discovered this power and since then has tried to summon the spirit of every body that has passed through her family's funeral home. This all changes when they have a funeral for Milo, a classmate of Georgia's, and unlike the others, Georgia can't seem to summon him back. This leads to Georgia stepping out of her comfort zone with Milo's grieving family and learning to see past her assumptions of people.

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I don’t normally read YA, but the premise was enough for me to make an exception. I’m so glad I did. This was a quick read with a spooky vibe but a lot of heart. Both the author and the narrator did a wonder job. I’ve already recommended it to my followers. I think it’s the first YA novel I’be ever raved about to them. Thank you so much for the advanced copy.

I was expecting something along the lines of Pushing Daisies - a little light hearted, possibly solving the mystery of a recent death that passes through the funeral home. Instead, Funeral Girl had more of a Dear Evan Hansen vibe.

Georgia's classmate Milo ends up in the funeral home, and Milo's "unfinished business" is more complicated than Georgia's other requests. I don't want to spoil anything, so that's all I'll say about that.

Funeral Girl follows Georgia as she struggles to make sense of her mysterious power, come to terms with mortality, and find her place in her family, in life, in herself. Funeral Girl was not what I initially expected, but I thought it was wonderful. Georgia felt very real, and Jess Nahikian did an excellent job with the narration of this book. It was one I didn't want to put down.

I have no doubt that Funeral Girl will end up being one of my favorite reads of 2022.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio-ARC of Funeral Girl by Emma K. Ohland, narrated by Jess Nahikian.
Funeral Girl is a story of a teen, the child of the local funeral director, who struggles with death. When a classmate from school dies, Georgia is forced to confront her feelings. Georgia has the ability to summon the ghosts of the people who pass through her family's funeral home and Milo's ghost helps her look at death from a new perspective. Well thought out and well written, Funeral Girl is a story that will resonate with teen readers. Jess Nahikian's narration is perfect for this book. Her quiet somber tone captures the melancholy of the story.

If you watched Pushing Daisies back in 2007-2008 like I did, you will love this book. Our MC Georgia's family owns a funeral home and the family's lives revolve around their line of work, including living above the funeral parlor. What we learn about Georgia is she has the ability to speak to the dead/ghosts. She has little interest in the rest of the funeral business, but wants to help the dead get their last wishes. Everything changes when a boy in Georgia's high school class dies in an accident and comes to her family's funeral home.

This story was not only adorable, but deals with deep issues like death, grief, trauma, and feelings of isolation in such a beautiful way. It also has ACE and nonbinary representation front and center in the main characters. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in picking up a great YA book.

I received this as an audiobook through #NetGalley, however, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own!

I struggled to get through this one, but for a personal reason. My grandma just passed away, so it was difficult for me to enjoy a story where the MC can speak to people that have passed away. I did really enjoy the narration and maybe I need to come back at a later time and give it a listen to see if I would have enjoyed it more. Also, I don't have any triggers, but I can see that some people may want trigger warnings for certain scenes.

Georgia can awaken and speak to the dead, and of course her family has a funeral home. It was a little too predictable but honestly a really cute story with a fun plot. I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed the story and the narrator.

What a well written story! I never even thought about what if you grew up in a funeral home. I love the diversity of the characters and the lgbtqia representation in the characters. I don’t want to give too much away with my review but it’s like My Girl meets Ghost Whisperer. And how could that be a bad thing?


I listened to the Audiobook version and really enjoyed this narrator a lot.

Georgia can talk to ghosts. Luckily she lives, and works with her family, in a funeral home. She's dealing with her ability as best she can while having a twin brother she can't talk to anymore, parents who don't understand why she's having problems, and a supportive best friend who she insists on pushing away.

Then comes Milo. Milo was a student at Georgia's school. Heck, now that she's thought about it, she sat in front of him in at least one class. She touches Milo's body to wake his ghost and tries her best to comfort him, his family, and herself.

I think there were a couple of super melodramatic points and a few plot lines that seemed to get lost, but overall I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start out by saying I liked this book, but not enough to give it five stars. I usually try to review YA keeping the audience in mind but even as a teenager when the reason behind Georgia's fight with her brother and friend is revealed I would've cringed. It was stupid even for teenagers. So, that took a whole star off for me because it was so central to the book.

With that out of the way I'll move onto what I liked about the book:

In a lot of ways this book reminded me vaguely of Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - but only vaguely and saying why would be a spoiler for both books. So, I'll keep it to myself. Though, if you loved Cemetery Boys as much as I did you might have mixed feelings about this one if you go in expecting the writing to be top notch.

Funeral Girl is a book about a teenage girl who both gains and loses the power to raise ghosts out of bodies in her family's funeral home, but it's about so much more than that. It takes a long hard look at things like grief and anxiety and does have a slightly spooky vibe at times. Only slightly, though. I wouldn't call this horror. In fact, I'd call it very very light fantasy since most of the stuff in it is day to day stuff.

I appreciated the ace and non-binary representation and how both kids' families took it without making a huge deal about it.

I loved the portrayal of Georgia and Amy's friendship and how it was a push and pull and how they communicated in the end showing healthy boundaries and communication.

Overall, I found the ghost parts of the book lackluster - with a few heartwarming moments and a few funny ones too. This lost another star for me. Funeral Girl and it's blurb just feels like a book that should be ghost-heavier.

This wasn't anything like I expected but I enjoyed it for the most part.

I'd recommend this to those who like really really light fantasy in the YA genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me an arc of this book to review!