Six Feet Over It

by Jennifer Longo

When fourteen-year-old Leigh's father buys a graveyard and insists she work there after school, she learns much about life, death, and the power of friendship.

• ISBN10: 044981873X
• ISBN13: 9780449818732
• Publish Date: 26 August 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 189
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

Leigh is surrounded by death. She was born three months premature, died, but was revived. Her older sister nearly died from cancer. Her best friend in middle school died while Leigh was cooped up at her grandparents' for the Summer. Her birthday is on the Day of the Dead. And now, her father has purchased a cemetery where Leigh works in the office selling graves. Despite all of that death, Six Feet Over It is actually a pretty cute and fun read. Leigh takes all of this in stride, and after hiring a new grave digger, learns to live.

Six Feet Over It was so weird. It was not at all what I was expecting. The blurb makes it sound like her friend dies during the story and that she strikes up a romance with Dario, the grave digger. Well, neither of those things are true. Leigh's friend died right before her family moved, and if it weren't for her parents seeing the article in the newspaper, Leigh would never have known what happened to her best friend. At least until she spots her headstone in her father's newly acquired graveyard. Spooky.

A lot of Six Feet Over It is Leigh not doing anything. She doesn't want to work at the cemetery, but she won't tell her dad so. She doesn't want the money he's paying her, but she won't spend it. She wants to go places, but won't learn to drive. She wants to have friends, but she won't let go of Emily. She's just stuck until she meets Elanor, a girl who looks uncannily like Emily, and won't stop talking. She also gets to know Dario, helps him with his English, while he helps her with her Spanish and encourages her to live with stories about death celebrations from his home. It's all very over the place, but I liked it.

The plot of Six Feet Over It It kind of takes a super random turn, but once you put the hints together it's not all that random at all. I won't give it away, but let's just say Leigh needs to learn to drive for an unexpected road trip because of reasons. It's something I have never read about before, even though it's happening all of the time, especially where I live. It was interesting. But I will say that there's a pit stop in Disneyland! Only in fiction can you ride Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and the Teacups in three hours. In real life, you'd be in line for Space Mountain for three and a half!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.