Dearly Departed and Humor Whole Hearted: A Romance Writer's Resurrection

"Love is dead," Florence Day said 

To her editor one day.

But her editor was hot

So she blushed on the spot 

And then they had a roll in the hay.

Okay, so that's not what happens in Ashley Poston's The Dead Romantics.  But it's not not what happens either.  Ghostwriter and mortician's daughter Florence Day has been through a lot.  An epic breakup.  A missed manuscript deadline.  A family tragedy.  And oh, she also sees dead people.  Understandably, it all makes her a bit cynical.  At least on the surface.  But underneath the humiliation and hurt is the heart of a romantic that refuses to die.  

This novel is like The Addams Family meets Six Feet Under with your favorite romcom sprinkled in.  Which is to say, delightful.  Poston's writing is that irresistible combination of clever and lyrical.  Plus, there's a small southern town, a Victorian mansion of a funeral home, fields of wildflowers and balloons, and two well-timed twists, all of which spell cinematic feature.  (Hear that, Hollywood?  Please add The Dead Romantics to your long list of post-strike projects).  But the most compelling thing about this book is Florence's growth.  She starts out as a woe-is-me victim in hiding, then breaks back into her past to author her future.  The part where she sees her ex is particularly poignant:     

"He gave me a strange look, and oh, I wished he could've said that he missed me.  And I wished he could've apologized.  And I could've told him that my stories were real, and that they were precious, and that I wanted to tell them someday.  Because ghost stories were just love stories about here and then and now and when, about pockets of happiness and moments that resonated in places long after their era.  They were stories that taught you that love was never a matter of time, but a matter of timing." (309)

Florence's epiphany about writing -- and life -- is so spot-on beautiful.  Because that's what The Dead Romantics is really about -- a writer rediscovering her voice.  

Next up, another account of love and loss:

Casper Disaster: The Ghost That Got Away