Book Mini- Review: "Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home" by Sheri Booker (All Lady July)

Sheri is a sheltered 15 year old when she randomly starts working for Mr Wylie at his funeral home in inner-city Baltimore. She starts out just answering phones and answering the door during the evening shift (4pm-9pm) but gradually gets more and more responsibilities. Eventually she's talking more to clients, handling important paperwork, and elbows deep in accounting.

Due to the funeral homes inner-city location, a lot of their clients are victims of violent crime. Mr Wylie is an expert on patching wounds and filling holes, which is a good skill to have in this case.They have have had violence or the threat of violence break out at more than one funeral. Sometimes they even suspect that a murder victim's killer is in attendance at the funeral.

 Sheri has a sad day at work when she has to dress a nine month old baby who died suddenly. There's also a funeral for an 18 year old transgender woman, who was buried in an outfit that included some very elaborate underwear that also included some tissue stuffing for enhancements.

She also sort of ends up dating/seeing the boss's son which ends badly which also puts a strain on things.

She works there for almost ten years and then quits over something that on the surface seems kind of like a petty argument.The end is kind of abrupt and random after all the time that she puts in there, but everyone stops at a job somehow, right?

The book was okay. I liked the different insights but it didn't really thrill me or make me feel like I absolutely HAD to know what happened next. I think it kind of suffers from the fact that it's all only from her perspective, being as how it's a memoir that's not surprising but it would have been nice to hear other people's takes. I give it a high 2 out of 5 stars.