The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by Claire Swinarski is about a group of individuals that live in Ellerie, a small town in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Esther Larson has been cooking food for funerals for seventy years with a group of "funeral ladies." She makes an internet friend but realizes that she was scammed out of $30K. Her granddaughter Iris is desperate to help her while also wanting to focus on her own goals of opening a vacation home in the area. Previous resident Annabelle Welch has passed away and her husband Ivan (a celebrity chef), Cooper (adult step-son), and Cricket (teenage daughter) arrive in Ellerie for the funeral and end up staying longer than expected. Readers follow the story of these folks in this slice-of-life type book as the Welsh's try to heal following their loss and other trauma they have experienced and as the town rallies to support Esther by creating a community cookbook to sell.

I didn't know what to expect with this book. I chose to read it because the title and cover caught my eye and I thought it would be interesting. Overall I enjoyed reading this book. The author has a specific way that she writes and it took me a little bit to get used to it but I thought it was an effective style for this story. The characters were interesting and I felt invested in learning about their lives and struggles. With a few exceptions, in general the story does not get very deep. There are some potentially difficult topics that are addressed in this story that readers might want to be aware of (cancer, alcoholism, PTSD related to gun violence) but I thought they were explored in a very realistic way. I also appreciated the multi-generational POV. There is a bit of a love story but it is clean.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for granting me a free advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review. This book is expected to be published on March 12, 2024

It’s hard to really say what this book is about. I thought it would be a light hearted read, but it is not and anyone reading should look carefully at the trigger warnings. Namely it focuses heavily on characters dealing with PTSD gun violence. It isn’t dark though, it also centers the stories of different generations of women and the power of community. And the power of cooking! I think it’s a portrait of life in small towns all over the country where the church ladies believe everything can be cured by a good casserole.

I feel like there are several places it could have gone that it just didn’t and that left the book feeling a bit uneven. I would have liked more focus and detail on the cookbook rather than Coopers story. Overall though the character all felt very real and familiar and that kept me reading.

Trigger warnings for depictions of PTSD from war and gun violence.

Wow! This was a great book! Esther, an 80-something widow sends a big chunk of money to an online scammer. She’s in danger of losing her home. Her friends, the funeral ladies, her granddaughter, and Ivan welsh, a top chef with a popular tv cooking show and his son Cooper all come together to put out a cookbook to save the house.

“So why was the sunny optimism still stubbornly clinging around? It was the power of the funeral ladies. When you’d seen what they’d seen, Esther knew— death after death after death, wars and divorces, oxygen tanks and new hips, burnt pasta bakes and fingers scalded by boiling water — you could t not hold a larger perspective”

4.75 ⭐️ Rounded Up

I read this book in one sitting because I could not put it down. I feel like there is a lot to say and the easiest way is a list:

1. There were more laugh out loud moments then I could count. Like, husband looking over wondering if I’m good type of laughs. Which was much needed amongst the deeper conversations.

2. The multigenerational aspect and POV’s truly make this book what it is. Not only do you have the relationships between the 2 FMC’s and their families which are seemingly “normal”; but you have the multigenerational aspect of the MMC’s family which has a lot more trauma and toxicity(?)

The age differences and how well portrayed the author wrote each generation was SO good. You feel like it is YOUR mom, YOUR grandmother.

3. I love the subtle hints dropped about Esther, the grandmother, having her own identity outside of the person the community and family has seen her as for years. It made me stop and think.

4. FMC expresses that she had no interest in packing up + moving away from her family. We see it so frequently in writing where the MC wants to run away and never look back, or was brought back but has to be convinced to stay. Nope, Iris knew she wanted to be around her family in her hometown and never wavered. Breath of fresh air.

5. As someone who is not religious (although raised Catholic) I can honestly say even though religion played a decent part in the characters lives; it never felt like I was reading something “preachy” and I appreciate the MMC being up front about not really believing either.

- .25 ⭐️ because even though I understand drinking plays a big part in the story, the culture, the environment.. I would have rather not seen the few mentions of drinking and driving. This is something that should never be normalized so I feel those should have been left out, or acknowledged further in regards to how irresponsible and wrong it was.

Overall, I can’t think of someone who I would not recommend this too. I think everyone will love it and will definitely be buying a hardcover for my shelves!