“Don’t be frightened. The dead cannot hurt us; only the living can do that.”

A dark and sad tone for a middle grade book, but also very sweet. It’s one of those stories that slowly shifts to the heartwarming tone, even if it never quite loses the darkness. Beautifully written with equally beautiful and simple illustrations every 20 or so pages. Each page is also framed by small little floral drawings. This book is so atmospheric, and I usually don’t care about that, but I loved it here. I really enjoyed this book.

As the title suggests, there’s a lot of death in this little book. There’s also a lot of life too though. Alberto is a simple, good man who has suffered severely, and yet he persists and stays positive, treating people (both living and dead) with kindness. The boy in this story has suffered similarly, and I might argue more so. I don’t want to say too much more about the story itself because it’s a pretty short one at 190 pages, and I want everyone to experience it as I did, going into it knowing very little. I had low expectations, but I think even if they were high, I would still have loved this book. There were quite a few times when I got the sad/happy chills, if you know what I mean by that, or even felt myself tearing up a bit. I was emotionally invested. I loved a few characters so much that I didn’t stop reading until I’d finished the book, and I also hated a few characters passionately. I definitely did not expect to find such a little gem of a book on accident. I’ve been searching for comfort reads lately and this was just what I needed.