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A review by mousewitched
Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for this ARC!
Despite what the title may lead you to believe, Morbidly Yours is a very sweet romcom that doesn't focus on fulfilling tropes (despite there being soooo many good ones) but instead on character development. I point this out because one of the biggest trends we're seeing right now in romance/romantic comedy is a list of tropes with no real description of who the characters are or what the story actually is. People are going to label it things like "grumpy/sunshine" (it's so not, it's what I'd call two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, to quote Pink Floyd) or "marriage of convenience" (absolutely not), but that's failing to really understand what Morbidly Yours actually is.
Morbidly Yours is a romcom, yes, but it also is a beautiful character study on how death affects everyone differently. Lark runs from it, letting it make her a shell of her former self; Rachel lashes out; Maeve accepts it head on; Callum dedicates his life to it. And the journey these characters take, interwoven with one another, really is the heart of the story, not Lark and Callum's romance.
That being said, Lark and Callum's romance? Whew. WHEW. WHEW!!!!!!! I adored them.
Finally, Galway felt like such a lovely setting for this story, but a) I'm not Irish/don't speak Irish and b) have never been to Ireland, so I can't speak for any accuracy there.
Despite what the title may lead you to believe, Morbidly Yours is a very sweet romcom that doesn't focus on fulfilling tropes (despite there being soooo many good ones) but instead on character development. I point this out because one of the biggest trends we're seeing right now in romance/romantic comedy is a list of tropes with no real description of who the characters are or what the story actually is. People are going to label it things like "grumpy/sunshine" (it's so not, it's what I'd call two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, to quote Pink Floyd) or "marriage of convenience" (absolutely not), but that's failing to really understand what Morbidly Yours actually is.
Morbidly Yours is a romcom, yes, but it also is a beautiful character study on how death affects everyone differently. Lark runs from it, letting it make her a shell of her former self; Rachel lashes out; Maeve accepts it head on; Callum dedicates his life to it. And the journey these characters take, interwoven with one another, really is the heart of the story, not Lark and Callum's romance.
That being said, Lark and Callum's romance? Whew. WHEW. WHEW!!!!!!! I adored them.
Finally, Galway felt like such a lovely setting for this story, but a) I'm not Irish/don't speak Irish and b) have never been to Ireland, so I can't speak for any accuracy there.