Mortal Remains

Lily's more comfortable around the dead than she is the living.

Eighteen-year-old Lily, introverted makeup artist for the “clients” of her family’s funeral home, is trying to find her place in the adult world. She’s ambivalent about her role as heir apparent in the family business, her best friend Mallory appears to be moving on to cooler friends, and her romantic life is nonexistent.  And Lily’s problems only increase after an explosion destroys a creepy house in Lily’s neighborhood and she befriends a mysterious boy who seems to be the only survivor.  

Though there are plenty of teen misfits in young adult literature, Mortal Remains keeps things interesting because of a fresh subplot involving a slice of European folklore that rarely finds its way into teen books.  (No vampires, in other words.)  And Lily is an appealing protagonist who finds that rebellion is not necessarily a prerequisite of self-actualization.