Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline. I am a HUGE fan of The Marrow Thieves (I've also read Hunting By Stars) ... but unfortunately this book fell a bit short for me. There were some inconsistencies in the plot (not sure if this will be taken care of in the final stage of editing) and the main theme/plot line was just ... not something I could totally get behind. That's all I can really say without spoiling the book. I'm planning to check out some of Cherie's older works as well as VenCo, when it comes out.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I loved the idea of this book: Winifred, mosunderstood, literally living in a cemetary. Throw in some ghostw for good measure.

However, gad a hard time caring about the plot or what was going to unfold next.

This was everything! This was a coming of life for a sweet weird girl. She was dealing with loss, her sexuality, insecurity with her home, and a friendship that has gotten very toxic, or at least embarrassing.
It reminded me of me and my best guy friend in my teens. I loved that weird kid and then we grew up and two people have never been more different.
All of her issues are normal until she befriends a ghost. It was lovely.
I loved the ending too.

Had I read this book when I was a teen, I would have been obsessed with it for a long time. Another great YA by Charlie Dimaline (with ghosts!)

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

2.75/5 stars. Let me start off by saying there are several redeeming qualities of this book. The cover is gorgeous and the idea for the story is fun, quirky, and exciting. The problem is that the book is none of those things. If the author had taken a more comical tone with it or a much more serious/thriller vibe with it, the story could have worked. As it was, the story had a good setup and no delivery. The storyline just didn't seem to go anywhere and I found myself struggling to finish it. With a tone shift, I think the book could be great.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I kept waiting for something to happen in this book and it just didn't. We have a teenage girl, Winifred, who lives in the cemetery with her dad (he runs the crematory). This sets her up as the school pariah and earns her the nickname Wednesday Addams. No one wants to be friends with the weird kid from the cemetery. And of course, the kid with no friends ends up meeting a ghost in the cemetery. Not my cup of tea.

A girl who lives above a cemetery befriends a ghost and along the way explores her Indigenous identity. Winifred is called Wednesday Addams by her classmates, she lives above a cemetery and works in the crematorium with her dad... close to her mother’s grave. Win just wanted to relax for the summer as her sixteenth birthday is just a few days away but then she inadvertently causes rumors to spread that the Winterson Cemetery is haunted... except for the one issue that Win has actually seen and met a ghost. This new rumor also helps her father’s job since he is on the verge of foreclosure and with the ghost tours starting Win could save his job and keep the only home she’s ever known close to her mother’s grave. Throw in a con artist cousin. an actual ghost girl, and Win has her hands full of not only discovering who she is but what the future holds for her.

*Thanks Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I loved the use of Indigenous identity and the use of making friends with ghosts, it was a beautifully done story and was what I was expecting from the description. The characters were great and did everything that they should have done. That cover was beautifully done and worked with the story. I can't wait to read more from Cherie Dimaline as I really enjoyed this.

"She was growing angry, impatient with my questions. I’d finally gone too far. I really needed to slow down. But I couldn’t; everything was bubbling over. I had no idea how to adult anything. “No, it’s just, don’t people haunt the places where their bodies are?” Once more, the idea of my mother was behind my questions."