SOLVED. MG/YA Fantasy book. Girl gets stuck in ghost world, wanders around. Cartoony cover, colors black and blue. [s]

[Artemis]

Hello!

I was just thinking about some books I read in elementary school, and couldn't recall the name of this one. It was a YA/MG fantasy book, slightly zany/emo. The tone/mood/style was akin to Emily the Strange.

It was about a girl, possibly with a punny name or the word "bone" in her name, who somehow ends up in the afterlife/ghost world. She herself is alive, and I think she has to hide that fact. I think she wanders around trying to figure out how to get out and what's special about her.

One plot detail I remember is a ghost boy named Lucius, and the main character girl thinking that was a pretty name. I think Lucius gets hit by some cursed water or slime in a dramatic moment that drags his soul to a deeper perma-death place and the main character is shocked and sad.

A cat may also be involved.

I think it was the first in a series. The cover was blue and black, with a kind of cartoony art of the girl and her cat. The art style was sort of spindly and reminded me a bit of Emily the Strange or The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I read it probably around 2005-2008, and I think it was relatively new at that point.

[Tabitha]

Is it May Bird and the Ever After?

[Artemis]

Yes! That's it! Thank you.