I really enjoyed this book. Lenore is a professional mourner who is hired to go to funerals and lament the deceased. When Lenore is hired to attend the funeral of wealthy businessman Elliott Brindle, she discovers that she not only is the sole attendee but that, as a result of a curious stipulation in the will, she is now the heir to his estate. But with all good things, there are strings attached. A cult type organization is involved and Lenore is confronted more than once about dead bodies and Elliott's estate. Lenore's brother, Darius, is involved because he is an actor in a weird film being filmed. A good mystery, thriller.

Tha k you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was a very different read but I enjoyed it. The story was well done with a lot of satire and dark humor. I struggled to finish but powered through and glad that did. Overall an okay read.

Lenore's Last Funeral is a darkly comedic take on grief and dying and immortality, mixed with sheer villainy. There's satire of celebrities, BDSM, and big business too.

This book won't make it on to the bestseller list- but it's not for that kind of audience. The reader who is open to Weird Things is going to love this book!

Well written book and an interesting walk in another side of mystery writing - a much newer and modern view. I liked a character development and the concept, but I m an older reader and my likes differ a great deal with this book. I did read it through and I did enjoy part of it but not for me.. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DR

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Lenore's Last Funeral is a darkly humorous and inventive mystery novel by J.M. Donellan, featuring a professional mourner, a cryonics cult, and a missing heiress. The protagonist, Lenore, is a witty and cynical woman who can see glimpses of the future, but only when someone is about to die. She makes a living by attending funerals of strangers and pretending to be a grieving friend or relative. Her life takes a strange turn when she inherits the estate of a wealthy businessman, Elliott Brindle, who has left behind a frozen corpse, a gold watch, and a mystery involving his long-lost daughter, Riley.

The novel is full of twists and turns, as Lenore teams up with her brother Darius, a film crew member, and Orin, a recently deceased man who is somehow still alive, to find out the truth about Riley and her connection to a cult of cryonics-obsessed aristocrats, led by the sinister Csaba. Along the way, they encounter bizarre characters, dangerous situations, and hilarious dialogue. The author's writing style is witty, engaging, and original, blending humor, mystery, and sci-fi elements. The plot is fast-paced and unpredictable, keeping you hooked until the end.

Lenore's Last Funeral is a novel that will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaiman, as well as anyone who enjoys a good mystery with a dose of humor and creativity. It is a fun and refreshing read that will make you laugh, gasp, and think. I highly recommend it..

I funny look into death. Lenore is a professional mourner, while her brother portrays dead bodies on film. If you to know everything there is about death, this is for you.

I kind of liked the story to start… the hired mourner. However it started narrating a partial ghost involved story and that’s not my thing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I must apologize for my delay in writing this review but it did take me quite a bit of time to get through the story. Once started, I quickly realized it was not my typical read but wanted to finish it and surely give it a fair shot. I had requested this title to review solely based on the tag line "Lenore is a professional mourner" and because of that little sentence I was intrigued. It is a story of Lenore, who is a paid professional mourner, who pretends to be mourning during working hours while attending the funerals of strangers is also struggling with mourning the death of her boyfriend. The story line is quirky and there surely are some humorous moments but the story just seemed to get lost at times for me.

My unrestrained thoughts: Good. Not bad. Too many things happened at once that it had my head spinning. May not be everyone’s cup of tea. Still not sure if it was mine.

Now, onto a little sophisticated review – it may contain tiny spoilers!


If there’s any book I like for its absolute absurdity, it’s this one. In Lenore’s Last Funeral, JM Donellan paints a macabre picture – the main character is a professional mourner (the thing that had me clicking download on NetGalley, not gonna lie) whose life changes as she is busy attending a random funeral. The man in the coffin leaves her, a practical stranger, his entire property, where secrets and deceptions lay in a loud silence.

On her journey to inherit the house, Lenore comes across a dead body in a chamber, a creepy man with a creepier agenda, and a girl ghostlier than a ghost. Somehow, these three very separate entities are connected, and now, it’s up to Lenore to solve the mystery. Helping her with it is:

• Darius, her brother who’s been acting in a movie as a dead man for a few years.
• Audrey, her best friend and mother to twins, and a dominatrix… of a different kind.
• And Orin, an actual ghost (or not?).

The novel is amazingly funny, very death-y, and just on an absurdist tangent for me. And yet, the mystery in itself was lukewarm; it didn’t have me at the edge of my seat as I had expected. It also didn’t help that the book tried to hold a lot of shoelaces to tie together. But doing so only ensured a lack of depth and focus in an otherwise really amazing idea. I have to admit it was a little bit of a disaster…


What I liked about the book:

Dark setting: One thing Donellan managed to portray successfully was the setting. I constantly had a feeling that Lenore was moving through a dark and eerie atmosphere, even if the days might have been bright and sunny. The concept of death was so predominant that I couldn’t help but imagine the climate and mood being somber and gloomy. It really helped enrich the casual approach everyone had for a heavy topic such as death.

Lenore’s personality: Despite her job, Lenore was the only likable character for me. She didn’t always come across as a strong woman but became one when the situation called for it. Her quirky nature shone through her actions and words, even though she’s the type to say cerebral instead of nerdy. She cared for people more than she let on. To be honest, she didn’t even need to help Riley or Orin, even Nero, for that matter, yet she still did. And that’s enough to make her irreplaceable in my eyes.

Kyle’s out-of-touch reality: It’s such a small thing to note, but Kyle’s nonchalance really had me in awe. His entire character gave me thoughtful himbo vibes, and that’s something rather difficult to show. I’d love to see the world from his rich, rosy lens sometimes!

Nero’s little cameos: Honestly, I love having dogs, cats, and other animals show up in a book, and having a tuatara present in the background was the best decision ever. He didn’t have his chapters, but wherever he showed, he owned it. His inner monologue was perfect – pretentious, mighty yet with a slight undertone of resignation at his fate. No wonder I was shocked and sad to see him dying right after he was freed.

Highly absurd narrative: Not to stereotype, but I have only read two books by Australian authors. And both were highly absurd. Reading this one also gave me similar vibes, but I didn’t think much about it. Which I should have. Because I found out after reading that the author is actually Australian! What are the odds?

Well, that little fact justified the chaotic points of the narrative in my head. Chaotic points being Orin’s ghostly syndrome, Riley’s medical condition, Audrey’s dominatrix persona, Csaba’s obsession with death… I could go on. All I remember thinking, is everybody collectively not normal? However, even if the author made the book absurd, I still had fun reading it.


What I wasn’t impressed with

You know the feeling when the plot builds and builds – and has a lame crash back to earth? This novel had very similar energy. Admittedly, as mentioned above, the story had a lot of potential. Yet, it ran in so many directions that I had to wait to make sense of it before reading forward. Even then, the resolution was dissatisfying – Csaba dying so easily just didn’t sit right with me. Every question it raised had a weird answer and not the one you’d think. Does that make the book successfully mysterious or plain, not-in-a-good-way unpredictable?

Another thing I was annoyed about was how the book had me bookmarking every other word. Why? Because it was peppered with so many difficult words that I had to refer to a dictionary. The author wanted the readers to know how he’s a walking thesaurus, which I understand, but it was overdone to the fullest. Almost felt like the author tried to compromise the story’s unfocused narration with smart words.


My final thoughts?
If we’re talking about the individual parts of the novel – concept, settings, characters – I’ll shower them with love. Together, though? A breezy side hug will suffice. And yet, I’d still recommend the novel!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
#netgalley #arcreview

I'm still trying to process the wild ride that Lenore took me on. Professional mourner? Check. Precognition? Sure, why not? Inheritance of a creepy estate with a frozen corpse in the shed? Okay, I'm intrigued.

But seriously, Lenore's sass and snark had me giggling out loud, and I was low-key rooting for her to solve the mystery and get her life together

. Five stars for sheer weirdness and keeping me entertained. Lenore, you weirdo, I'm rooting for you (from a safe distance)."

It looked promising when i started but the author's writing style became too much for the entire book. So many characters and so many things happening amd it was complicated.
I thought this book will hit me hard. But no I was wrong. This book didn't click that well.

Lenore’s Last Funeral is a book about death. It is also an incredibly funny book. The fact that both of these statements are equally true is a testament to the imagination of J.M. Donellan. His main character, Lenore, is a professional moirologist—a professional mourner, hired by the relatives of recently deceased rich people. She’s also an expert in the general subject of death, as is her brother, Darius, although in a slightly different way. He’s a professional film extra specializing in playing corpses in B-grade horror movies.

In this way, Donellan presents us with two likable and smart characters who spend their professional lives dealing with death, and yet who both fear it palpably, never quite able to confront their own mortality. That all changes when Lenore inherits a spooky, run-down house from one of her dead clients, a house that might hold the key to a mystery involving an evil corporation, a missing child, and (oh, yeah) a ghost.

It’s been a long time since a book made me laugh out loud, but this one did. A lot. It felt like a blend of the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg films (which I love) and the prose acrobatics and style of Martin Amis in his prime. Definitely a unique and impressive book.

This could have been so good: the premise was promising, the first 2 chapters were intriguing and well-written, but then… well, the author was too ambitious. Too many characters and things going on simultaneously. The characters had interesting back stories and qualities, but became distracting. There was a lack of focus and depth. This didn’t work for me.

(I received a free review copy from NetGalley.)

Review – Lenore’s Last Funeral by J.M.Donellan, Published by Level Best Books Date: 10/31/2023

Lenore’s Last Funeral was written by J.M. Donellan and was published October 31, 2023 by Level Best Books. This book was bizarre. The concept was bizarre, the characters were bizarre and the writing style was ludicrous. The author attempted to create a cerebral wordscape by using $20 words in a $2 story line. At first, I was glad I was reading the book on a pc so I could easily use the dictionary’s look up feature, but after a while, I grew bored of that and just skipped over the pompous language. I don’t know if the author was just fond of the thesaurus or was intending to belittle the reader – either way, I did not like it.

As to the story . . . Lenore was paid to attend funerals and grieve. Her brother was a long-term corpse in a ‘movie’. Her bestie was a single mother of 2 and an online dominatrix. Adding to this mix was a plot revolving around eternal life, cryogenics, a ‘wealthy rule the world cult’, henchmen, thugs, a strong superhero-like snake-skinned high school student and a haunted house. Oh, I left out the guy who thought he was a ghost who could not transition to the afterlife. Bizarre.

I usually enjoy unique and creative books but this one just flops. The one good thing I can say is that I finished the book; as such, I award this book a rating of 1 Star.

Rating: 1 Star
p.s. I am grateful to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy. The opinions expressed in this unpaid book review are solely mine.

The book follows a young women who unexpectedly inherits a house, which quickly leads to her being sucked into the affairs of the family the house belonged too.

I enjoyed the spooky gothic vibes which felt perfect for the autumn/Halloween season!

This book is about Lenore. She is a professional mourner, she literally get’s paid to attend funerals and act sad. She can also have premonitions of her lover’s deaths when climaxing. That’s about the only interesting thing about this book.
I do have to say that I really enjoyed the writing style, I think I gained a few IQ points after reading this book. The author either has a very extensive vocabulary and wants to make sure you know it or he really likes the thesaurus feature on MS Word; either way I thought sometimes it came off as pretentious.
I mean, some of the terms he chose when writing this boom are bordering on ridiculous. For example, he called a GPS a “route guidance”, and an eighty year old an “octogenarian,” while misspelling the word “mold.” I appreciate the vocabulary lessons but that had me laughing out loud.
So if you are looking to expand your vocabulary of words you might never use while reading a mildly entertaining story, this might be the book for you.

An interesting story line that drew me to read it but soon went down several paths that didn't seem to connect at any point. I'm not sure which genre to recommend as it dabbled in many. BUT, the overall book was a good read. The story of a woman who works as a professional mourner inherits a haunted house from one of her funeral clients. This alone would have made an excellent story but there are so many subplots added to the side that it's hard to figure out where one character ends and the next starts. So I "weeded" out a few characters, when their chapters came up, I skipped them. This actually improved my reading experience as I could follow Lenore's story. It's hard to rate this book. 3 stars for a unique story line and 1 star for Lenore, one of the most confused characters I've met in awhile. The other parts.....well I'll skip rating them too.

I wish this book had focused more on fewer characters and storylines. There were too many things going on to be truly and satisfactorily brought to a conclusion when we reached the end. I was really looking forward to reading the story of Lenore. It was hard to focus.

This gruesome thriller by J.M. Donellan is perfect for anyone ready to immerse themselves into a book almost entirely focused on death and the lengths people will go to avoid it.

Through multiple points of view, Donnelan expertly weaves several story lines into a compelling page-turner that won't let you go.

A bit too dark for my taste, but clearly a unique, well-written tale.

Lenore's a moirologist, a professional mourner. She inherits a house from a deceased man she never met, but was hired to mourn at his funeral. She sees how people die after having sex with them. She's grieving the loss of her boyfriend who died a month ago. So much potential for a truly unique story.

This book started with a great premise and great, promising first chapter. From there it went into multiple POVs, many of which were interesting, but none of which panned out enough to result in a great book. Some supernatural-ish ideas and a HUGE vocabulary (so many words that sounded supremely cool and intelligent, but maybe took away from the storyline).

I feel like there were some very interesting ideas and characters (her best friend who is an internet dominatrix and single mom of twins being one). Honestly, four or five really great books could be made if the author took one storyline and ran with it. The combination of so many ideas has me discombobulated.