Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s difficult to write this review without creating spoilers so I advocate caution if choosing to read ahead. I love the way that Dimaline portrays Winifred as a protagonist who is almost watching her life from the sidelines until she meets Phil the ghost. There are a lot of tensions pulling her family apart and she is child-like not realizing the true impact of her actions until she makes some unpopular decisions. Winifred goes from playing ‘ghost’ in her cemetery to encountering, loving and protecting one. Dimaline frames the story around the monumental task of exploring MMIWG in a sensitive but impactful way for this audience and the details of the horrific crime are manageable in their almost poetic approach. Winifred’s ‘coming-of-age’ is a slow burn but in the end she is rewarded with reconnected family relationships and an intentional life — not one that she is living because of circumstance. I loved it.

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