Pyre by Christopher Golden
On the morning Samantha Finnin's father was buried, she had no tears to cry.
This is the opening line of Pyre by Christopher Golden. The story is brief - 25,000 words, a novella - but haunting. The premise alone will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up:
The day of her father's funeral, Samantha is filled with so much anger that she can barely feel her grief. Her late father was a cold, unfeeling man with no time for his daughter, an alcoholic who had cheated on her mother and left the family in financial ruin, and she has a lifetime of resentment because of it. She had planned to tell him, to have it out once and for all, but now it's too late...or is it?
After the funeral, an encounter with an old friend triggers a memory that Samantha had buried, about a place where it might be possible for the dead to rise again.
But if she wants to resurrect her father, the first thing she's going to have to do is dig him up.
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Whether you read it on a sunny day or a stormy night, Pyre will make you want to hug your loved loves and pray you never encounter a Monkey's Paw dilemma.
Also, if you like Pyre, you will definitely like Pipers, Christopher Golden's story in Four Summoner's Tales, which comes out in September. Trust me.