Mortal Remains is a Young Adult Fiction novel written by Mary Ann Fraser following Lily, a morticians daughter, as she gets to know the strange happenings around her and her former childhood friend, Adam. 

Unfortunately, though the premise sounded interesting to me (gothic! Mystery! Former friend-to-lovers plot?) it really didn’t deliver on any aspect. The start of the novel was relatively strong. However, it didn’t take long for the pacing to slow to a stop. The characters would do something and it felt more like I was supposed to be reading a slice of life novel than a mystery. I started wondering, “okay, what’s the point of all this?” at several different parts. It has a relatively action packed ending, but it also feels jumbled. Mostly, because it’s hinging on the haphazard plot building the author set 20% until the book ends. It’s too rushed at the end. Though it was interesting, it fails to come down with any feeling because there was not enough tension built in the chapters before it. 

Besides the pacing, the characterization also suffered from the authors tell-don’t-show writing. I never felt connected to these characters. Mostly because I felt like anyone could act out of character at any moment. I could tell the author was trying to create a complex family, but it fell pretty flat. Instead of reading about a family that owns a small business where all hands are on deck and thus, their relationship to each other is very nuanced, maybe strained, but still interestingly written, we instead get a story about an 18 year old who quite literally runs this mortuary, who doesn’t get paid or compensated in any actual substantial way, and whose good nature is taken advantage of by her father, and STILL gets blamed for every failure of the business. We’re supposed to want her to take over the family business? She’s literally had no other choice but to run the family business and deal with her horrid family her whole life! That is indentured servitude!

I feel like I’m going on about this for too long. There were other issues I found with this novel, but it mostly had to do with the aforementioned issues I brought up earlier. I did actually find Lily and Adam interesting. I think with a little - okay, a lot - more brushing up in terms of writing and characterization, I could root for them. However, this was a bust for me.

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.