Setting: Canada

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls / Cherie Dimaline

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
By: Cherie Dimaline
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Number of Pages: 280
Published: April 4, 2023
Publisher: Tundra Books
Dates Read: September 11, 2023 - September 14, 2023
Format: Hardcover

Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works for the crematorium, all her life. She loves to spend her time wandering around the graveyard, but because she does this at all hours of the day and night, a rumor has started that Winterson Cemetery is haunted. It’s great news, because Winifred’s dad is on the verge of having his job outsourced. Now, Winifred needs to keep the ruse of a haunted cemetery up with the help of her con-artist cousin. But, when Phil, an actual ghost of a teenage girl starts showing up, it makes Winifred question everything.

I had a hard time caring about the characters in this one. I understood that Winifred was a loner and didn’t have many friends, but then she had a falling out with a guy who didn’t really seem to be her friend anyway, made it hard for me to care that it happened? And then the random sex talks would throw me off…

The nonlinear writing would get me mixed up as well. I wasn’t sure if it was something happening in the past or the present because scenes were never clearly ended, they would just blend into one another.

Overall, I still liked the story for the family element of it, but it wasn’t something I absolutely loved. It was a coming of age, slow burn (if that makes sense).

*Thank you Tundra Books and LibraryThing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Hopeless in Hope / Wanda John-Kehewin

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Hopeless in Hope
By: Wanda John-Kehewin
Genre: YA
Number of Pages: 216
Published: September 5, 2023
Publisher: HighWater Press
Dates Read: September 4, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: child neglect, mention of residential schools and the treatment of children, alcoholism

14-year-old Eva lives in a hopeless old house in the oldest part of Hope, Canada with her younger brother, Marcus, their Nohkum, and their mother, Shirley – when she’s not out drinking. It would be pretty miserable, if it weren’t for her cat, Toofie, and her writing. But everything gets ripped away after Nohkum is hospitalized and Shirley struggles to keep things together. One afternoon, Marcus is found on the streets trying to go to the zoo all on his own; he’s sent to live with a foster family and Eva is sent to live in a group home. Eva’s furious with Shirley and finds a hard time in finding hope in being reunited. To help understand her better, Nohkum gives Eva Shirley’s journal during a hospital visit with the hope the pages within will help Eva learn to find forgiveness for her mom.

This is such a heartbreaking and hopeful story about family and forgiveness. Eva’s bitterness towards her mom is completely understandable, especially for someone her age who doesn’t fully understand the things those before her have gone through. 

“You wanna know why so many of our people drink or use drugs? Because they take our children away after they’ve destroyed us. Once you take the kids… there’s nothing left.”

This quote really hit me when Nohkum said it because that’s really true. What’s the best way to erase a culture than to take the youth away? I’ve known about the residential schools and the horrors the children had to go through, and how some of them didn’t make it back, but I didn’t really think of the effects afterwards.

I absolutely loved the voice of Eva in this novel and her family’s story. It wasn’t perfect; life is messy, but in the end, I still had so much hope for their family.

I would recommend this to both YA and adult readers – even though the voice is younger, you are able to dive deeper into the subjects of both Indigenous generational trauma and their treatment – both past and present in this novel. You also get a look at the complexity of the foster care system as well.

*Thank you HighWater Press and Edelweiss+ for a digital advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review