Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Interweaving horror elements and wry humor, Dimaline (The Marrow Thieves), who is from the Georgian Bay Métis Community, crafts a macabre tale about a lonely girl who falls in love with a ghost. Sixteen-year-old Winifred Blight has lived on Toronto Winterson Cemetery's grounds with her crematory operator father, who is white, ever since her Métis mother's death during childbirth. Winifred is often bullied at school for her family's graveyard residence, resulting in few relationships beyond her father, whose worries surrounding the cemetery's imminent closure cause tension at home. When a passerby notices Winifred roaming the tombstones at night, they spread rumors about the cemetery being haunted, prompting a local ghost tour administrator to offer the family money in exchange for adding Winterson as a stop on the route. Winifred is happy her father agrees, but when she meets and falls for Phil, the ghost of a 15-year-old girl who died nearby, she fears the increased scrutiny will jeopardize their budding relationship. Contemplative prose excels in its portrayal of a reclusive protagonist longing for connection and overcoming grief while living in a neighborhood that shuns her for perceived shortcomings, presenting a textured narrative about loss and love. Ages 14--up. Agent: Dean Cooke, Cooke-McDermid. (Apr.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
First-person narrator Winifred, a Canadian teen of Metis and European descent, lives in present-day Toronto with her father, who is a crematory operator, on the grounds of the cemetery, between âeoethe grubby and the austereâe -- a ravine where drug users hang out, and the gentrified neighborhood of Cabbagetown. Winifred is ostracized at school because of her morbid surroundings, and as she sees it, she has âeoelived a fairy-tale childhood. Like, a Grimmâe(tm)s fairy tale.âe Her own motherâe(tm)s ashes are half buried in the cemetery and half kept in the house, and her father lives a âeoehalf-life,âe yearning for his lost love. Ghosts haunt Winifred, both figuratively and literally, but Dimalineâe(tm)s (The Marrow Thieves) intense, bittersweet, and often funny novel is more than a ghost story. Extended portions about the life and death of Phil, a sympathetically rendered ghost character who becomes one of Winifredâe(tm)s first loves, allude to the real-life neglected epidemic of MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People). Through this novel, Dimaline (Metis Nation of Ontario) honors those lost; as ÂWinifredâe(tm)s Metis auntie says, âeoeSo lucky, you, to live in this place with so many people. Imagine a world without your dead? Iâe(tm)d be so lonely walking around by yourself like that.âe Lara K. AaseMarch/April 2023 p.67 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nearly 16-year-old Winifred Blight's life is forever changed when she falls in love with a ghost. Business is bad at Toronto's Winterson Cemetery. This means trouble for Winifred and her father, Thomas, the chief crematory operator. If the cemetery closes, Thomas will lose his job and they'll have to move out of their apartment above the admin offices. It's just been Winifred and her White father since her mother, Mary Kalder, who was Métis from Georgian Bay with Romanian traveler ancestry, died during childbirth. Now, Winifred tries to find a way to save her home while navigating the humiliating and humbling trials that come with growing up in a cemetery, including being ostracized at school by peers who call her Wednesday Addams. As things look increasingly hopeless, a man who runs local ghost tours inquires about adding the cemetery to their itinerary. It would bring in money, which would be a good thing. But is the cemetery truly haunted? The "ghost" tourists spotted was actually friendless, bereft Winifred, dressed in a cape and curled up at the base of an obelisk. Complicating matters, she falls for Phil, the apparition of a 15-year-old girl who died of an overdose on the cemetery grounds. Winifred is an engaging lead with an emotional and fulfilling journey. Artfully melding horror, deadpan humor, and an impossible romance, this well-crafted narrative from Dimaline (Métis) follows lived-in characters who are tortured by grief. Atmospheric, intimate, and melodic; the rich storytelling sings. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
