I really loved this book!
This is definitely not a novel with an ordinary plot!
I mean- doesn't everyone want to know for sure what secret/secrets the person who has died may still be holding on to? Perhaps time has run out or you as a family member were not present at your loved ones demise. You can only surmise what might have been told.
Now-- Imagine that you are the person who can actually hear those final words by the person after he/she is deceased.
Is this a calling or actually a curse as perhaps not all that is heard is pleasant to hear and then to repeat to family or friends as instructed by the corpse.
Jeanie Masterson is an undertaker who is able to actually lean over and hear words from those who are being prepared for their funerals.
It's a journey that I truly enjoyed taking with her and her family as she explains and comes to terms with her own life and challenges.It is not all love and light, but definitely a pretty neat idea!
Take the journey and see for yourself and decide what you think!
I really liked the characters in this story and wish I knew Jeanie!
I might have more to say in the next world!
Well done!

This is a book about love and death -- the most complicated kind. It takes place inside a family-owned funeral home in a small northern town of Ireland.

David and Grainne had it all planned. After years of working without vacations, they decided to retire in their early 60s to a small northern coastal village not far away. They would bring along their son, Mikey, who was on the spectrum and leave their daughter, Jeanie, behind who would carry on with the funeral home business with her husband and two relatives.

But with all plans, it wasn't so easy. Jeanie wasn't sure she wanted the business that she knew so well. She and her dad had a special gift of hearing the last words from dead people. The business was managed well with her husband, Niall, who was known as the "best embalmer of Ireland." He was fascinated by her ability to talk to the dead. But she questioned this opportunity. Seriously...who wouldn't want this? Her father said, "You get to make all the decisions without having to run a single one by me. There's a lot to be said for being your own boss."

Anne Griffin carefully balanced the difference between a young, infatuated romance with a solid relationship in a marriage. She also created a soft approach to the harshness of death by making it family friendly. To bring to life the last words by a dead person was an interesting part of the plot as we all are curious.

In one part of the story, Jeanie took a side trip to Norway. Her friend's husband commented that in this country the work place is not what defines them. It's the activities away from the job which makes them who they are. I guess that would make me: a reader. The book had many twists which kept my interest and was wrapped up with satisfaction in the end.

My thanks to Anne Griffin, St. Martin's Publishing Group and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book with an expected release date of March 22, 2022.

What a sweet, sad story! I enjoyed this book all the way through. Jeanie, the main character, works in her family's undertaking business and like some others in her family, is able to hear the dead speak for a few minutes after they arrive. The practice is to convey the deceased's message to the desired recipient. This can be awkward.

Jeanie also has two love interests, always a challenging situation. She has support from a loving family, which adds to the warmth of the story.

Listening Still was so pleasant and compelling that I felt sorry when I finished it. This author was new to me; I hope I'll find she's written or is writing other books!

I thought parts of this book was good,like when she helped the police find a body. Otherwise it was just about a relationship that was made complicated by the fact she hears dead people. I’m not sure what to think about the ending either. This book just wasn’t what I was expecting.
I didn’t hate it, I just thought it was ok
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

Enjoyable! Great plot. An Irish family owns a funeral home. Two of them can talk with the dead for a brief time. They then tell the surviving family members what the dead said.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this unusual read.

Jeanie Masterson, now 32, has inherited the gift of being able to hear the dead for a short time after they die but before they are buried. Since she was little, she has sat by on a stool at her father’s funeral home while her and her Aunt Harry prepared the body. If anyone had something they wanted to pass on to the living, she or her father would do so.

The dead have always played an important role in Jeanie’s life, from taunts all through her school years to Jeanie’s conviction that she cannot leave the dead and do something else because of the rarity of her gift.

Her husband Niall Longley works with her Aunt Harry in embalming bodies, and he has become an expert in it. He seems to be more comfortable with what he does than Jeanie. Jeanie gets upset when the dead want her to convey something hurtful, and even more upset when her father lies about what they said, so as not to distress the living too much. Although Niall wants children, Jeanie has been resisting - she would hate it if her offspring inherited such a fraught trait.

As the story goes on, we learn that Jeanie and Niall’s relationship has additional stress: in high school, Jeanie, who previously had a close connection with Niall since they were toddlers, got together with someone else. Niall isn’t totally convinced she is over him.

Evaluation: Although the author tries to pull out “happy” threads all through the plot, I thought this story was so full of tragic circumstances I could hardly lift my head after finishing it! It’s an interesting story, but to me, a very sad one.

How many titles can you think of in which the lead character is a funeral director, much less a female one? And one who hears the dead for a short period after they die, to boot. This is the book that has that and more. I am not one to rehash the plot in my reviews; I'm just here to tell you what I loved about the book. I loved Mikey. I loved the whole idea of Jeanie being able to talk to the dead. I loved the small town culture and atmosphere, which is described perfectly. I disliked the fact that the family secret changed the course of so many lives, but I was happy with the ending. I always say I prefer an ending I am happy with over a happy ending. Sometimes you get both, sometimes you don't. It's up to each reader to figure out if they did.

I think this is a fantastic book for a book group. I will be adding other reviews on Goodreads and Facebook.

Thank you, Netgalley.

Listening Still is a story about a family of undertakers some of whom are able to hear the last thoughts of the recently deceased. It’s also the story of a marriage that gets tested when the wife’s parents decide it’s time for them to retire and leave the entire business to their daughter. Ultimately this is a story about individual wants versus expectations of others. The story moves between the past and present as the author gives the backstory on each character. I didn’t particularly like all the diversions, but by the end understood the author’s process was to enable her characters to actually see the truth each sought. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Highly recommend.