I saw advertisements for Dellaira's debut novel Love Letters to the Dead on goodreads.com, and nearly bypassed it when I saw that it was classified asI saw advertisements for Dellaira's debut novel Love Letters to the Dead on goodreads.com, and nearly bypassed it when I saw that it was classified as a 'young adult novel'. If it weren't for the excellent reviews and reasonable price, I likely would have never given it a shot.
I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I was certainly not expecting to be blown away.
“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don't have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says. It's knowing you could be the author instead.” ― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead
Laurel is your average nervous teenager starting her first year of high school. She frets over what to wear, where to sit at lunch, and who she wants to become. Up until she receives an assignment from her English teacher, Laurel is a ghost, entering and leaving classes without a word, too shy and too scared to reach out and begin to live again. The assignment she and her classmates receive is atypical and potentially awkward for just about anyone, but for Laurel, the assignment comes as a powerful blow. She switched schools to run and to be somewhere where she wouldn't be known as May's sister. May had been the golden child who was wildly popular, beautiful, bright, daring, and fun, but May was gone. She is now a ghost that exists only in the memories of those who loved her.
Unable to completely blow off the assignment, Laurel begins to write to the dead, beginning with her sister's favorite artist, Kurt Cobain, who, like her sister, died tragically at a young age. The plot continues on with letter after letter to fallen stars such as: Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, Judy Garland, and finally, to May herself. With each letter she writes, Laurel begins expose the ugliness of her pain and desperately attempts to move on with her life in a way that May cannot. She tries cigarettes, gets drunk, sneaks out of the house, and has her first make-out session with her first boyfriend, all while being consumed with the guilt that she is living the life her idolized older sister no longer has.
Love Letters to the Dead will break your heart and bring tears to your eyes. It's a powerful story filled with love, friendship, and grief. It's a coming of age story of a young girl who is trying to find her way in the world without the friendship and love of the older sister she adored. With each letter she writes, Laurel slowly removes the chains she has placed on herself and her heart and begins to live again.
“May, I love you with everything I am. For so long, I just wanted to be like you. But I had to figure out that I am someone too, and now I can carry you, your heart with mine, everywhere I go.” ― Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead
Undoubtably one of my favorites reads this year. Make sure you have some tissue handy though, you're going to need it. ...more
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