51 pages • 1 hour read
Ashley PostonThe Dead Romantics
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Days Gone”
Florence regards the Days Gone Funeral Home, a Victorian mansion, a landmark of her hometown of Mairmont, South Carolina. It has belonged to the Day family for a century. The Days have a different attitude toward death, but they are respected by the town. Florence hasn’t returned since she left for college 10 years ago, and she feels the breath knocked out of her every time she thinks that her dad is dead.
She sees crows sitting on the dead tree outside as she knocks on the door. Her sister, Alice, leads Florence inside. Florence looks around at the house, where she lived until she was 12. Alice is guarded; the sisters drifted apart when Florence left. Florence hugs her mother. The lawyer reads her father’s will, detailing his instructions for his funeral. He wants 1000 wildflowers, he wants Elvis to sing, and he has party decorations on order. He also asks that there be a murder of crows, and he left a letter he wants Florence to read. The requests are peculiar, but none of the Days are very surprised, as Xavier was an eccentric but loveable person.
The doorbell rings. Florence answers it to find the ghost of Benji Andor.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Death of a Bachelor”
Ben looks confused to see her. He is dressed in a fitted jacket and pressed pants, his tie askew. Florence touches his chest, and her hand, feeling cold, goes through him.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Dead on Arrival”
Florence is bewildered. Benji can’t be dead. Her mother and brother ask if she saw a ghost. Florence lies and says she didn’t. The family bickers about how to fulfill Xavier’s last requests. As they close up the funeral home, her brother and sister ask Florence if their dad’s ghost is around. His body is in the freezer downstairs, but Florence doesn’t want to look at him. She was locked downstairs one night long ago when a young ghost asked Florence to let him see his own body.
When Florence walks with her mother and Alice back to their house, she sees family pictures on the wall and a clipping of the article about her with the headline “Local Girl Solves Murder with Ghosts.” Florence tells her mother she will stay at the B&B. She’s upset: “[E]verything I ran from had caught up with me” (90). She sees crows sitting on the roof of the B&B.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Dead and Breakfast”
Dana, who is reading one of the books Florence wrote as Ann Nichols, welcomes Florence to the B&B. Dana says they thought Florence was cool in high school and gives Florence the Violet Suite. Florence notices poisonous plants on each door. She’s spooked when she hears a noise in her room, but there is no one there. She is desolated to be alone with the knowledge that her dad is gone.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Past Tense”
Florence doesn’t sleep well, wondering if Benji is actually dead. She meets her family for breakfast at the Waffle House. They discuss the funerals they have to do before Xavier’s, and Florence volunteers to take care of his last requests. Alice calls Florence the “lone hero.” Even though they squabble, Florence realizes how much she missed her family. As she pays their bill, she sees a man muttering to himself by the counter and recognizes Benji, or Ben. He is startled to recognize her in return, and when the jukebox puts on a random album, Florence tells Ben to stop it.
He follows Florence out of the restaurant, wondering why she is the only one who can see him. Florence knows her dad would want her to help Ben. She tells Ben he is a ghost working through “a post-living experience” (104). Benji insists he’s not dead, and Florence puts her hand through him again. He is cold and tingly and permeable. He wonders why he’s come to Florence. She thinks his unfinished business might be the manuscript she owes him. He admits he knew she was Ann’s ghostwriter, and Florence feels like a coward and failure. Ben hears a sound and disappears.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Emotional Support”
Florence calls Rose, who reminds her that Florence gets things done and has pulled through deadlines before. Rose says that Benji Andor got hit by a car. Florence is shocked that he really is dead. Rose offers to fly down for the funeral, reminding Florence that she doesn’t have to do everything alone.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Ghoul Intentions”
Florence sees the crows when she leaves the B&B, which means Ben is somewhere. Ben follows her to the flower shop, where the owner tells Florence about an Elvis impersonator her father liked. He also gives Florence flowers her dad ordered, and Florence says she will deliver them. Ben joins her, saying he doesn’t know where else to go. Florence thinks she doesn’t know what happens after death either, if “we returned to the world, or became part of the wind, or just…if we just stopped” (117).
An older woman opens the door at the address Florence is given, and Florence and Ben see the ghost of an older man standing behind her. Florence realizes that her dad has been sending this widow anniversary flowers on behalf of the deceased gentleman. Ben accepts that he is a ghost and remembers he was hit by a van. He’s upset, and Florence starts crying in sympathy. She tells him he’s still hot and wishes she could truly comfort him.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Moonwalks”
Florence is frustrated in her search for 1000 wildflowers. She drinks rum and Cokes at the B&B and tries to write. Her friend Seaburn, who owns the town cemetery, comes in with a golden retriever, who is the town’s mayor, and tells Florence he enjoyed her first novel, Ardently Yours. Florence finds Fetch, the dog, outside with Ben. It’s a clear spring night with a bright moon, and Florence asks Ben if he wants to take what her dad used to call a moonwalk, a stroll through the cemetery at night. She feels like Ben actually wants to get to know her.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Sorrows of Florence Day”
The cemetery is closed, with crows perching on the gravestones. Florence climbs over the wall and persuades Ben to walk through the wall. Ben asks about her ability, and Florence tells him most ghosts just want someone to listen to them. They have good stories, and Florence is a writer; she likes the comfort of stories.
She tells Ben how hard it was to be ridiculed when she went to the police about the murder she solved when she was 13. Ben mentions that he read and liked Florence’s first book, Ardently Yours. Ben is an acquaintance of Lee’s and doesn’t like that Lee hurt Florence.
Florence thinks her unfinished manuscript must be the reason Ben is haunting her, but before they can pursue that thought, a police officer chases them out of the cemetery. After they escape, Ben departs, and Florence tells herself she doesn’t want to have two people to mourn.
Chapters 7-15 Analysis
The first part of the book sets up the premise that Florence can communicate with ghosts and was ridiculed when that ability became public. The second part elaborates on her ability and introduces complications around it. Florence’s family is proud of the part Florence played in solving a murder; they framed and display the clipping of the newspaper article about the case. For Florence, however, it brings up everything she is trying to escape, and she flees again. The only refuge she can find is the local B&B.
These chapters also establish family relationships; Florence’s family bickers, but they are close. Florence’s parents loved each other very much, and the siblings, for the most part, get along, although Florence and Alice drifted apart when Florence left Mairmont. The Days are known to be eccentric, but their eccentricities are part of the town’s charm. They have a different, more accepting attitude toward death, in part due to the family business. Their attitude contributes to the humorous tone of the book as well as its paranormal premise, that the dead remain when they have unfinished business, but can’t communicate with the living in most circumstances.
The Days accept that Florence can see ghosts, like Xavier had. Florence is reminded that her father used his ability to help people when she meets the widow for whom he ordered flowers. This is one way Xavier mentors Florence from beyond the grave. When she was 12, she also tried to use her ability to help people and a young ghost wanted to see his own body in the basement. Florence was locked downstairs by accident, but this incident never truly terrified or scarred her as it might others. She’s not afraid of death or the dead, as illustrated by her taking comfort in cemeteries at night.
However, Florence does keenly feel the loss of the end of human love, life, and dreams. Grief for her father’s death hits her hard, but his ghost doesn’t return, possibly because Xavier lived his life with energy and fulfillment, and he has no unfinished business. Instead, Florence tries to communicate her love by fulfilling his requests for his funeral arrangements. Through Florence’s mourning of Xavier, the novel explores a key theme, The Impact of Death, Loss, and Grief.
Ben’s lack of corporal form introduces the main obstacle to the couple’s developing romantic relationship. At the same time, it ensures that they have to get to know each other as people instead of simply relating on the level of sex or passion. As a ghost, Ben is less pressed and put-together than Ben as an editor or the guy Florence kissed outside a hipster bar. He, too, will have to let his guard down as he grows closer to Florence.
Florence is haunted by the quiet end of her first romance, Ardently Yours. Mentions of that book, however, remind her of her passion and chosen career, as do the Ann Nichols novels she encounters around Mairmont. Her books, as well as her confession to Ben that she likes hearing what ghosts have to tell her, show that central to Florence’s personality is her love of stories.
Poston weaves comic elements throughout the novel, such as Fetch, the golden retriever that is also the town’s mayor. The novel continues its humorous portrayal of death as crows follow Ben around, becoming a nuisance, and the rooms at the B&B are named for poisonous plants. Poston adds humor to leaven and contrast the heavier elements of death and loss.
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By Ashley Poston
