Undead Girl Gang was a surprise audiobook borrow from the library. Neither my partner nor I had read Lily Anderson's work before, but we'd heard many good things about Undead Girl Gang from #YALit twitter. In short, we came in with minimal expectations and were utterly blown away by this humorous feminist elegy to friendship cut much too short.

As my partner cross-stitched and I organized my Stardew Valley farm, the sassy tones of Rebecca Soler's stellar audiobook narration relayed Mila's story. As the lone fat Mexican girl in the very white small town of Cross Creek, Mila has only one friend, Riley, who is equally outcast because her family runs a "spooky" funeral home. The friends are further ostracized for being Wiccan and performing witchcraft. When Riley and two other girls are found dead in the space of a week, Mila knows there's a murderer afoot, despite the police happily labeling all the deaths as suicides. She turns to her faith for solace...and that solace takes the form of a necromancy spell. In a twist Mila herself wasn't expecting, the spell works and brings back not only Riley, but the two other murdered girls. Together, they team up to catch the killer.

Despite this thriller-esque premise, Undead Girl Gang is much more concerned about the young women's relationships than the murder mystery. Perhaps unsurprising for a book about death and transformation, the subtle reversals of characters are stupendous. The two other resurrected young women, Dayton and June, are at first glance stereotypical "mean girls." Anderson takes pains to complicate and, ultimately, fully humanize these characters. Even as we get to know them, Dayton & June grow beyond the toxic blend of ableism, racism, and misogyny they lived in while alive. In the beginning of the novel, Mila and Riley are proud of their rather caustic, f*ck-you attitudes. The book never condemns that (the world needs more angry girls), but Mila does re-learn some hope for humanity and is reminded that not everyone is trying to screw her over. There is no crime in being kind, and first impressions can be misleading. Lots of "Fear & Loathing" by Marina and the Diamonds vibes.

In addition to fantastic characters and character arcs, Anderson's world of small town America felt very realized, if not complete. Her descriptions are cinematic in their detail, and by hour 3 I wanted this to be a Netflix movie. Some of the world-building details could be made clearer. The line between real Wiccan practices and author-made magic was weirdly blurry. The Wiccan rule of three is mentioned often, but even at the end it's unclear what returned to Mila threefold. Other Wiccan (queer!) ladies warn Mila against performing "big magic" like necromancy, but it's unclear what qualifies as big magic and what doesn't. My partner, who once practiced Wicca, noted surprise when the concept of Mila as the Goddess' avatar was never brought up. None of these questions became so troublesome to detract from enjoying the book though, so I'm merely nitpicking.

Overall, read this book. If you're a teen processing grief, if you're adult with grief, Undead Girl Gang is here for you in all its magical feminist punk glory.