Disclaimer: I won a copy via a Librarything giveaway.

This is a quiet book. Not a bad book, but despite the description, the book is really about processing grief and loss.

Winifred has a few problems. Her mother died in bringing Winifred into the world, she is on the spectrum in some way, she is the weird girl in school, her relationship with her best friend has become strained, and she and her father may lose their home.

Then she sees the ghost Phil.

Dimaline’s book is a quiet fantasy. There isn’t a world saving quest. Winifred thinks her quest as it were is saving her home. The real quest, the real point of the book Is coming to terms with loss of all types and grief.

Winifred feels as if she doesn’t belong most places. She is weird. Her mind works differently – focusing on symmetry. She is Metis on her mother’s said, but she really doesn’t know her mother’s people, outside of a nasty cousin and an aunt who is dead at the start of the novel. Neither she nor her father seems to have gotten over the lost of her mother. Additionally, Winifred is facing the loss of her best friend because of a little thing called growing up. In some ways, when she finally meets Phil she gets a friend, lover, and parental figure all rolled up in one.

How Winifred, her father, and Phil come to terms with loss is different but works for each them. Phil, in particular, is interesting because she brings to mind all the missing and found dead First Nations teens that seem to be forgotten or used for points. It’s also like how the lost of Winfred’s mother makes it that much more difficult for her to get in touch with part of her heritage.

It’s a quite book, more about the struggles of growing up and losing. One of the misses with the book is the character of Penny. While not making Penny and Winifred become best buds is an excellent choice, Penny is used as a one note character without anything much to her. There are hints, but they are never fully explored, and some of what happens in terms of information about Penny feels a bit flat.

That said the book is profoundly moving in a quiet way. The idea of loss and moving forward - and the range of losses mother, life, home, heritage, childhood, friends - is important. The book covers all this and does so without coddling the reader. It shows a very human experience.

(Trigger warning note

Spoiler

in the course of the novel a dog dies of old age, peacefully in his sleep. I would also argue that the pet in question was really background dressing. He really doesn't do anything, and it was not a surprise when he died considering his age

).

I gave this book 5 stars because I am positive teenage me would have LOVED this one. As for real time 49 year old me-I found it entertaining enough to finish. It’s not a bad book at all. The characters are your basic average teenagers, just that one is dead. There were some sections where the author was a bit flourishy with their words. Where my mind kind of wandered off. But for the most part, that wasn’t an issue.
I read this book after reading The Giver, and I was so so happy that this book has a relatively happy, hopeful ending (the author even hints that Mrs Dingleberry, the dog, is still in the cemetery as a ghost, possibly with Phil.)
I’m not sure I would necessarily recommend this book to anyone who is NOT a teenage girl. Some YA fiction crosses over well to adults (We Contain Multitudes comes to mind.) but I think this story just doesn’t hit the same for adults as it will for a teenage audience.

This was a very good book. Love the sapphic representation. What I didn’t like was some of the language that leaned toward fatphobic.

Dimaline's writing is beautiful. Win is a soft goth girl living in a cemetery with a dad who is half functional. Her friends are dicks, but she hits it off with a ghost in the cemetery. The loneliness and grief are very front and center in this book, but it also has a lot of humor and tenderness. There are some dark moments, definitely read CW. I found Win very relatable, and remarkably resilient.
I have seen reviews mention fatphobia and I really don't agree that it's an issue in the book. There is a well-loved fat dog and one incident with children mocking a teacher, but there's no, like, arch-villain who's fat or any moral judgment of bodies.

This book really touched my cold dead heart in a way I wasn’t expecting. I went into this thinking it may be more light hearted and whimsical. It certainly had its moments, but it was also very raw, sweet, and at times, heartbreaking. The writing was usually very light and the narrators voice was strong. Sometimes though, the writing became lyrical and downright beautiful.

My only criticism is that for me, it felt like there were too many plot threads that got a little muddied in the middle. If it had more focus, this honestly would probably be a 5 star read for me.

Still though, a solid story.