Just Kill Me

August 22, 2016
Growing up in a funeral home has given Megan Henske a macabre sensibility. Her new job as a historical ghost-tour guide in Chicago seems like a perfect fit until her former-babysitter-turned-current-boss, Cynthia, hatches a plan to drum up more business. By systematically scaring willing victims to death (such as an elderly woman living miserably in a nursing home), she hopes to create real apparitions. "I nod along, not sure if they're serious or not," thinks Megan. "Like, they're talking about how to make someone into a ghost in the same kind of tone you'd use to tell someone how to make a Denver omelette." This offbeat tale meanders toward an eerily open-ended conclusion, taking side roads to explore Megan's relationships with her mother and an online girlfriend. Along the way, Selzer (Play Me Backwards) packs in plenty of stylized, rapid-fire exchanges and obscure film and pop culture references, as well as a bit of Chicago history, but these disparate pieces never entirely coalesce, leaving many unanswered questions. Ages 14âup. Agent: Adrienne Rosado, Leibo Literary.

Starred review from June 1, 2016
In his latest novel, Selzer (Play Me Backwards, 2014, etc.) brings together ghost tours, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the pitfalls of online dating in a darkly humorous collision.Growing up above the family mortuary, white, 18-year-old Megan Henske finds it difficult to relate to anyone unacquainted with death. An undying love of the OED, a penchant for writing freaky Disney villain fan fiction, and an online girlfriend who won't even send a photo don't help matters. So when Cyn, a former babysitter, calls with a gig as a guide on a Chicago ghost bus tour, Megan seizes the chance for a change of pace. In no time, she is certain that she has finally found her people, admiring the older white girl for her originality and bonding with Ricardo, a history-loving Latino who is also bi like Megan. Although entranced by her new life as a murdermonger ("one who deals in murder, or in murder stories"), Megan hesitates to help Cyn with her plan to increase ghost sightings by euthanizing elderly volunteers at tour stops, and when a guide from a competing tour company is murdered, Megan has no idea whom she can trust as it becomes clear that she could be next. Selzer has outdone himself with a narrative brimming with delightfully macabre irreverence, mystery, and the growing pains of self-acceptance.Fascinating history, witty Disney references, and a dash of homicide; what more could anyone want? (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-Eighteen-year-old Megan and her family run their own funeral home, where they handle everything from the embalming down to driving a hearse-one which Megan recently dented and needs to repair. Enter Cyn, Megan's childhood babysitter. Cyn and her boyfriend Ricardo run a ghost-tour bus around the Chicago area, where they show off real-life murder scenes to tourists. They offer Megan a job, and she finds that she's a perfect fit for the ghost-tour life. But at the end of one night's work, Ricardo casually invites Megan to go with the two of them on a side mission. Megan's new employers plan to murder an elderly woman. It turns out Cyn and Ricardo have been making their own ghosts for their tours. Megan's confused, but she sticks with the job, until she finds that she has a similarity to one ghost in particular. Cyn wouldn't be planning to kill Megan the way she and Ricardo have killed off old folks. Would she? This quirky YA novel has pacing problems, and the slow plot takes a long time to reveal any direction. Efforts made to show diversity in the cast, such as Ricardo being openly bisexual and Megan having a long-distance girlfriend, often feel like details that have been shoehorned in. The protagonists take part in typical mature teen activities, in addition to their gruesome endeavors, making this appropriate for older readers. VERDICT Recommended as a chilling, albeit additional, purchase.-Matisse Mozer, Santa Monica Public Library, CA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.