Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Waiting on Wednesday: Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi
"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" is:
Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi
Release Date: May 24, 2011
Publisher: Hyperion
Age Group: Young Adult
Sometimes it’s easier to put make-up on dead people than make up with your family.
In the spring of her senior year, Donna Parisi finds new life in an unexpected place: a coffin.
Since her father’s death four years ago, Donna has gone through the motions of living: her friendships are empty, she’s clueless about what to do after high school graduation, and her grief keeps her isolated, cut off even from the one parent she has left. That is until she’s standing in front of the dead body of a classmate at Brighton Brothers’ Funeral Home. At that moment, Donna realizes what might just give her life purpose is comforting others in death. That maybe who she really wants to be is a mortician.
This discovery sets in motion a life Donna never imagined was possible. She befriends a charismatic new student, Liz, notices a boy, Charlie, and realizes that maybe he's been noticing her, too, and finds herself trying things she hadn’t dreamed of trying before. By taking risks, Donna comes into her own, diving into her mortuary studies with a passion and skill she didn’t know she had in her. And she finally understands that moving forward doesn’t mean forgetting someone you love.
Jen Violi’s heartfelt and funny debut novel is a story of transformation—how one girl learns to grieve and say goodbye, turn loss into a gift, and let herself be exceptional...at loving, applying lipstick to corpses, and finding life in the wake of death.
Whilst writing about how people grieve after a love one is gone is not new (I just read Fall for Anything which is also about grief) the concept of finding out how to deal with your grief through becoming a mortician is, and I think it’s utterly ingenious whilst also being a bit creepy at the same time! So as you can tell there’s just something about this book that I really like so I’m definitely going to buy myself a copy once it’s released. Huge thanks to the Ya Ya Yas (which is a great YA book blog BTW) who listed Putting Makeup on Dead People on their Books I’m most looking forward to in 2011 post, without that post I wouldn’t have known this book existed!
For more info on Jen here’s her website, simply click HERE. Currently there’s not much info on the book so we’ll just have to wait.
Oh and here’s an excerpt ….
As I watch JB delicately paint each of Miranda’s fingernails, I notice how tense my whole body feels, not like I’m stressed out, but like I’m some kind of animal, ready to pounce, all systems go. I can’t remember the last time I paid this close attention to anything. And it feels amazing.
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