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.