Meeting Report: February 2023

The DCBC met on Sunday, February 26, 2023 to discuss February's book: The Dead Romantics, by Ashley Poston (selected by Kris).

Attendees were: Miriam, Sarah, Kris, Jessy, Ashley, Lindsay, Paige, and Ray.

The Dead Romantics is a romance novel about a ghostwriter for a famous romance author, Florence Day. The novel begins with Florence meeting with her super handsome new editor, Ben, to try to get an extension on her latest book. Ben, short for Benji, last name I don't recall, could have used a more imaginative name as Ashley noted, given The Dead Romantics, like The Love Hypothesis, has its origins in Reylo fanfic. Florence hasn't been able to write about romance ever since her breakup with Johnny McJerkface (I don't remember his name and I don't care, because he's a Jerkface). Ben, of course, refuses. During our meeting we talked about all the many little conflicts in The Dead Romantics, and the tension of Florence not being able to write because of her breakup was one of several. Then she gets a phone call that her father has passed away and she has to return to Smalltown, where she grew up, to help her family bury him.

“Everything that dies never really goes. In little ways, it all stays.”

― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Florence hasn't been back to Smalltown for ten years because she helped solve a local crime using her secret super-power of being able to see--and talk to--ghosts, for which she was teased by high school bullies (especially Queenbee Meany-Pants). As Paige discussed during our meeting, the Smalltown representation of people remembering you and treating you like the person you were when you left is a real phenomenon. As is the petty drama. Florence's late father could also see ghosts, from whom she evidently inherited this ability.

The Day family (minus Florence, because she ran away to The Big City to be a writer) run a funeral home, and who does Florence see when she walks in the door, but Ben. Weird that he would be there, since she just saw him in The Big City, and to make things weirder, he doesn't know why he's there either. Uh oh, now Florence has to break the news to him that means he's a ghost and therefore DEAD.

“The universe sends you the things you need when you need them.”

― Ashley Poston, Dead Romantics

Having nothing better to do, Ghost Ben follows Florence around Smalltown while she tries to arrange the very particular and impossible particulars of her father's funeral and they slowly fall in Love. This was another low-stakes conflict where Florence feels like she has to gather all the random bits for the funeral by herself, even though no one asked her to and her family even offered to help. But she says it over and over again, that she HAS to do this by herself. I guess that's so Poston could maintain alone time for Florence to talk to Ghost Ben and not have her seemingly talking to herself in public any more than she already does (which, there were some bizarre moments as Miriam pointed out).

“I began to realize that love wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t forever, either. It was something in between, a moment in time where two people existed at the exact same moment in the exact same place in the universe.”

― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Meanwhile, Ghost Ben randomly keeps popping out of existence with increasing frequency and hearing voices possibly, so he and Florence interpret this to mean that his time to transition to the great beyond is fast approaching. If only they could have more time together. They just hope Ghost Ben can stick around for the funeral, which the whole of Smalltown comes together to help with the impossible particular particulars (including Queenbee Meany-Pants who is not such a meany-pants after all) and it is beautiful and sad and people cried.

“Everything died, but pieces of it remained. Dad was in the wind because he breathed the same air that I breathed. Dad was a mark in history becuase he existed. He was part of my future because I still carried on.”

― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Plus, come to find out, the famous romance author Florence has been ghostwriting for (Annie) is actually Ben's grandmother and she's been dead since before she hired Florence to be her ghostwriter, something she did while she was a ghost. (This explains why Florence hasn't had any contact with Annie since, though frankly I still have loads of questions. But moving on.) Ghost Ben disappears and Florence, able to Love again, gets her romance writing groove back.

“Giving you Annie's legacy and watching it flourish was under your pen was a blessing. And this? And suddenly this no longer felt like a conversation. It felt like a goodbye. These last few days have been beautiful. It's a good ending, darling. And as your editor I have no notes.”

― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Once back in The Big City, Florence learns Ben isn't dead after all, he was just in the hospital in a coma and just woke up. (Twist! I say this sarcastically because I recently watched the 2005 Reese Witherspoon/Mark Ruffalo flick Just Like Heaven, which uses the same trope so I totally called it. And if I remember correctly, I believe others of us did as well, because how else HEA?) 

But does he remember her from that time he was Ghost Ben?

“I knew you once,” he said so ardently, it made my heart flutter. “I think you still do,” I whispered,”

― Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

He does. Happily-ever-after achieved, Florence writes her book (not the knock-off version Johnny McJerkface wrote, take that), and Smalltown's canine mayor wins reelection in a landslide (I'm guessing).

Overall, people generally liked it. Miriam didn't love it but was invested by the end, Ashley swooned and cried, and Paige enjoyed her mini-vacation to quaint and quirky Smalltown! (Totally and shamelessly paraphrasing from your reviews...)

The Verdict

Taken from the average DCBC member ratings on Goodreads who had marked the book as read and rated at the time of this writing:

The Dead Romantics: 3.92 stars

Thank you to Miriam for hosting! And welcome again to new member Ray!

Next Month: March 2023: The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich (selected by Emily Y).

As always, the full book list for this cycle can be found here.