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Book Reviewed by:Darkly humorous and heart-wrenchingly beautiful, Jennifer Longo's YA debut about a girl stuck living in a cemetery will change the way you look at life, death, and love.
Home is where the bodies are buried.
Leigh sells graves for her family-owned cemetery because her father is too lazy to look farther than the dinner table when searching for employees. Working the literal graveyard shift, she meets two kinds of customers:
Pre-Need: They know what's up. They bought their graves a long time ago, before they needed them.
At Need: They are in shock, mourning a loved one's unexpected death. Leigh avoids sponging their agony by focusing on things like guessing the headstone choice (mostly granite).
Sarcastic and smart, Leigh should be able to stand up to her family and quit. But her world's been turned upside down by the sudden loss of her best friend and the appearance of Dario, the slightly-too-old-for-her grave digger. Surrounded by death, can Leigh move on, if moving on means it's time to get a life?
Most of the story takes place within the graveyard, a rich and atmospheric place. Although the setting and the themes of death are a bit mournful, the story never feels overly depressing, primarily thanks to Leigh's slightly sarcastic voice and dark sense of humor...continued
Full Review
(692 words)
(Reviewed by Sarah Tomp).
Leigh was born on November 1. The day following Halloween is known as All Saints Day. In Mexico, where Dario, her friend the gravedigger is from, it is also known as Dias de Los Muertos — The Day of the Dead. On Leah's fifteenth birthday, and the first day they meet, Dario gives her a tiny clay skeleton, La Catrina, the patron saint of death. This iconic figure is thought to represent the willingness to laugh at death as well as the fact that regardless of social status or power, we all are eventually made equal.
Although specific customs may vary from town to town in Mexico, generally Dias de Los Muertos (which usually also includes the morning hours of November 2) is a celebration in order to remember the dead in a joyful manner...
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Jennifer L. Holm, New York Times bestselling author
Darkly funny and deeply moving. An original, memorable voice.
