Rules for Being Dead

by Kim Powers

“Kim Powers's haunting and spellbinding novel Rules for Being Dead reads like an intoxicating blend of the best of Shirley Jackson, Alice Sebold and Fannie Flagg." —STARRED Review, Shelf Awareness

It's the late 1960s in McKinney, Texas. At the downtown theater and the local drive-in, movies—James Bond, My Fair Lady, Alfie, and Dr. Zhivago—feed the dreams and obsessions of a ten-year-old Clarke who loves Audrey, Elvis, his family, and the handsome boy in the projector booth. Then Clarke loses his beloved mother, and no one will tell him how she died. No one will tell her either. She is floating above the trees and movie screens of McKinney, trapped between life and death, searching for a glimpse of her final moments on this earth. Clarke must find the shattering truth, which haunts this darkly humorous and incredibly moving novel.

312 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Goodreads giveaway win

Engaging, funny and sad

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say a 3.5. This is a book that started strong and with an interesting premise - that a recently deceased mother is able to watch her family cope with her death while she tries to remember how and why she died. About halfway through, I realized that the author could have written almost the same book without the mom, as most of her story is told in flashbacks. The use of both her and her oldest son as narrators was a strong device, but a switch to third-party narration for other major and minor characters ended up feeling more jarring than it should have. Still, that use of multiple perspectives - especially the husband and his new girlfriend - helped create a greater sense of empathy for all involved.

[Ghost in the Stacks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is hard to describe. Part mystery/ part coming of age/part ghost story..
Such a great story of a young boy growing up in Texas and dealing with with mysterious death of his mother. All the while the mother is there watching as a ghost as the story unfolds of what actually happened to her.