Review Detail

First Impressions: I’ve been reading a lot of paranormal young adult books lately, which deals with all matters of undead creatures, vampires and zombies, for example. But, I had never read a book about just plain old dead people, so the premise of this book intrigued me.

First 50 Pages: I love books where I can relate to the characters. I was immediately able to relate to Donna in so many ways. All of the characters are likable and lifelike, but some of the characters I felt could have been well-developed, but didn’t quite make it to that stage. I’ll get to that in a minute.

The Plot & Style of Writing: There isn’t much of a plot line here, which would usually bother me when reading a book. Putting Makeup on Dead People is an exception. It reads almost like a memoir of Donna’s life after her father passes away from cancer. Life has no plot line, especially when dealing with death and grief. Every person handles those two things in their own way. For some people, it takes years to overcome their grief. Other people may never release their pain, and others bury it deep down inside and never show their emotions. This story is really a story of a young woman overcoming and dealing with her father’s death, finding out her true calling in life. You can’t have a plot line for something like that. Being a teenager and graduation is a scary and difficult time in a teenager’s life. They must choose what they want to accomplish after high school has ended and face what is coming next. The author captures this important time in Donna’s life and shows anyone who reads this book that they can make their own choices, with or without the immediate approval of their parents. My parents for example, were always set on me becoming a nurse. So, I went to nursing school and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. But, I hated the line of work. Now, I go to school for something I truly love. Parents don’t always know what is best. Donna’s mother is a perfect example of how a parent can be wrong, which is okay; parents are only human too.

Characters: Donna is a very complex, well developed character who faces many difficult choices for the present and her future. Donna tries to balance life and death, cultivates her own sense of herself and who she really is, instead of what everyone wants her to be. She faces adversary from her mother, who doesn’t want her going to mortuary school and from her friends who think she is strange for wanting to work at a funeral home. As a reader, you can track Donna’s progression from a child to a young woman throughout this book. She starts out as a timid, semi-religious girl, overcome with grief, and blossoms into a woman who is sure of who she is and what she truly wants out of life.

Donna’s mother bothered me a little bit, probably because she reminds me so much of my own mother when I was Donna’s age. She is close-minded, religious, and strict. In my opinion, she is a bit too strict for a 17 almost 18 year old girl. But, I think it is mostly her over protectiveness that irked me at first. We watch her grow as well throughout the book. Donna isn’t the only character who blossoms in this story.

The other characters in the book, Liz, Charlie, Tim, and Aunt Sylvie, could have been more developed. We do hear a lot from them, especially Liz and Donna’s aunt, but they aren’t focused on as much as I would have liked them to be. Aunt Sylvie had an immense amount of potential to be a really interesting and influential character, but she didn’t live up to my expectations and Liz, I felt the same way. Tim and Charlie are important characters for their own reasons, but we don’t see much coming from those characters either.

My Final Thoughts: Putting Makeup on Dead People is a wonderful book about overcoming life’s obstacles, grief, and dealing with death. There are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes. I am so glad to have read a book that isn’t afraid of dealing with death. Death is another taboo topic not many people want to speak about, even though it is guaranteed for every living being on this planet. Jen Violi does a fantastic job bringing the topics of death and grief into the young adult genre without the need for undead creatures, like so many other young adult books. I really enjoyed this book.