September 8, 2014
In a mordantly comedic coming-of-age story, 15-year-old Leigh believes she's the "patron saint of death." Not only did Leigh's parents move the family away from the California coast to operate a graveyard, but her sister has leukemia, her best friend Emily was killed by a falling tree, and death seems to be everywhere Leigh turns (she works selling gravesites to mourners). Yet after meeting a young Mexican gravedigger named Dario, Leigh's life at the cemetery starts looking up; the quirky graveyard regulars begin to grow on her, and she makes a new friend who reminds her of Emily. Debut author Longo provides Leigh with an offbeat, sarcastic worldview, revealed through Leigh's chatty running commentary about the people and events around her. Leigh's expressive inner monologues and witty observations about life and death vacillate from cynical and disassociated to deeply emotional: "I am the last person to hold her," Leigh muses as she buries a newborn baby. A strong heroine, multicultural cast, and eclectic contemporary setting make Longo's story stand out. Ages 12âup. Agent: Melissa Sarver, Folio Literary Management.
Starred review from June 15, 2014
A teenage girl must choose to live in a world filled with death.Fourteen-year-old Leigh is anything but thrilled when her parents move the family from their coastal home in Mendocino to run a "memorial park" (aka graveyard) in the boring inland California community of Hangtown. While her older sister, Kai, relaxes into small-town living, finally a normal high school girl after a long battle with leukemia, Leigh hides herself in the cemetery's office and tries to avoid forming relationships. Like her parents, Leigh sacrificed a lot for Kai's recovery, but she isn't bitter. She adores her sister. Instead, she has closed herself off from feeling, hoping to avoid hurting or losing anyone again. When the local florists' daughter and the new groundskeeper enter her life, she struggles to keep them at arm's length. As she begins to let her guard down, she realizes that loss is a part of life and must decide if she is ready to let go of some painful events in her past to start really living again. In her debut, Longo deftly combines Leigh's wry wit with an exceptional cast of well-developed characters to create a novel that is equal parts poignant and humorous. Readers will find themselves rooting for Leigh as she returns to the world around her.Superb. (Fiction. 12-16)
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June 1, 2014
Gr 7 Up-Instead of returning home at the end of a summer spent with their grandparents, Leigh and her older sister Kai receive two one-way bus tickets to Hangtown, CA. Their father has bought a graveyard and the family is moving. For the past three years, Leigh has been a stalwart support system for Kia while she battled cancer, and although the cancer is now in remission, Kai's health feels tenuous. And there's Emily, Leigh's best friend, who died over the summer. Her parents are neglectful and disengaged, and her father expects her to work after school in the graveyard office. Longo has crafted a complicated and multilayered narrative, the root of which is the story of a young girl who feels that death follows her. Leigh's aggressive sarcasm is at first off-putting, but soon it becomes clear that it masks a lot of pain. She resists making friends because she feels that being friends with her is to invite the specter of death. Leigh's worst fears are confirmed when Dario, the 20-year-old Mexican immigrant who works at the cemetery (and Leigh's crush), tells her that her birthday, November 1st, is the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Dario says she is like La Caterina, patron saint of the dead. It is through Dario's friendship, Kai's love, and the intrepid perseverance of Elanor, a girl who desperately wants to be her friend, that Leigh emerges from her grief and solidly joins the world of the living. An impressive debut novel-simultaneously hilarious, clever, and poignant.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 The one thing 14-year-old Leigh didn't need after the death of her friend Emily was for her dad to move the whole family, including her cancer-recovering sister, inland to work at the cemetery he suddenly decided to purchase. Now Leigh's days are filled with dealing with the Pre-Need (those buying plots for the future) and the At Need (those who need graves right now). Death, it seems, surrounds her, though the 19-year-old Mexican gravedigger, Dario, suggests that being the patron saint of death is rather beautiful. What looks to be positioned as a romance between Leigh and Dario develops into a surprisingand quite refreshingstory about the sometimes painful give-and-take of friendship, as Dario, over two years, helps Leigh to realize that accepting new relationships does not equal forgetting Emily. It may sound morose, but Longo gives it quite a bounce, with Leigh's wry sense of humor wreaking havoc on the day-to-day cemetery operations and her boisterous father bringing the laughs with his every sputtering shout of disbelief. A unique book for unique teens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2015
Moving with her family to the grounds of a cemetery and secretly mourning the death of her only friend back home, Leigh feels like a "friendless parasite in Yan] unfamiliar labyrinth" at her new school. An unusual setting and the likable protagonist's caustic humor make Longo's debut stand out. It's heartbreaking to see Leigh suffer, but all the more rewarding to see her transformation unfold.
(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 1, 2014
Four months ago Leigh's father unexpectedly bought a graveyard and moved his family from their California beach town to live on the graveyard's grounds. While he loves his new business (maybe a little too much), Leigh's not thrilled about having to manage the cemetery office when she's not at her new school -- a place where she remains a "friendless parasite in [an] unfamiliar labyrinth." Leigh's older sister is in remission from cancer and obsessed with running and with a new love interest; their artist mother escapes to the beach whenever she can. On top of all that, Leigh is secretly mourning the death of her only friend, Emily, from back home who, as it turns out, is buried in their cemetery. Leigh thinks that making new friends or having fun will be a betrayal of her friendship with Emily and believes that anyone who gets close to her will disappear, too, so she keeps people at bay. Fortunately the new young Mexican groundskeeper Dario and free-spirited flower-shop girl Elanor are persistent in their support and friendship, and they slowly help Leigh rediscover herself. Longo's debut stands out for its unusual setting and also the sarcasm and caustic humor of its protagonist ("Creepy death/birth? Check. Living in a graveyard? Checkborn on the Day of the Dead? The Day of the Freaking Dead?Check!"). It is heartbreaking to see this likable character suffer, but all the more rewarding to see her transformation unfold. cynthia k. ritter
(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)