Author: Ava Dellaira
Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis: It begins as an
assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel
chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died
young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to
people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger,
and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher.
She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships,
falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her
splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May
was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has
written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly
begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to
see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply
flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.
Cover:
This book started out as an English assignment where the students had to write a letter to a dead person. Laurel ends up with a lot of letters to dead people, mainly Kurt Kobain, Judy Garland, and Amelia Earhart, but she never turns them in.
This is the kind of book that you get a little bit into, set down for a week or so, and then read the rest in one sitting.
I confess, I did not like this book when I first started reading it, it reminded me too much of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and I sort of felt like it was total bull, ripping off of one of the most moving and powerful books of this generation like that.
(I didn't find out until a little bit later that Chbosky was Dellaira's mentor.)
The second time I picked it up, I felt as though I grasped Laurel's character better. Having an older brother who I love dearly myself, I can understand her tremendous pain at losing a sibling like that. It would be totally world-shattering.
Of course, this didn't explain why she came across like a small child, or perhaps as though she had a mental disability. (I actually think she might have a little bit of a mental disability, like Charlie in The Perks did.) But, as the book gets closer to the end, you begin to understand the entirety of Laurel's dilemma. She felt so much pain and heartache and she felt such a sense of secrecy over what happened and she had no idea why. She didn't quite understand that the reason she could never fully tell someone else what happened to her was because the one time she did, that person died. She feels so guilty because of that and she doesn't even know she feels guilty.
Laurel, while writing, really did her research on these famous people. She wrote about their childhoods, their rise to fame, their deaths. She wanted so badly to connect with them, because she thought she'd feel less pain if she knew there was someone else out there that hurt as badly as her. I think this might have been some of Laurel's problem, she wanted to know that someone out there felt what she felt but the only people she knew that did were dead. (I'm seriously surprised she didn't contemplate suicide herself.)
Laurel sees some things in such black and white, much like a child. Her two best friends love each other, they should go out. Her sister died while with her, her fault. Sky loves her...why does he give up on her? And this is her character, she just doesn't understand the way that a mentally healthy teenager or adult might. Her childlike thoughts and writing is of no fault to the author, nor does it make the book less important or bad, it just makes the character different than the type of female protagonist most YA readers nowadays like.
Onto the other characters.
Her father. We don't see much of him throughout the book, just a few scenes in which Laurel emphasizes her affection for him. It's clear she truly loves her father, even just for sticking around the way her mother didn't after May died.
May. Wowza, May was truly a character. She tried so hard, and I think she and her sister shared many of the same qualities. She wanted what was best for Laurel, she truly did, she just didn't quite get that she was actually destroying Laurel instead. She needed love from everyone, and she was so caught up in trying to make everyone love her that she didn't realize what was happening to her sister.
Aunt Amy. I didn't really like the way Aunt Amy was portrayed. Jesus-freak, radical, really crazy and odd, overprotective. I felt as though that part was more of a vendetta that the author had against Christians/their religion, and the parody I felt was not needed or relevant to the story. If anything, I thought it was a really pathetic attempt at comic relief, which I, for one, did not find entertaining or funny at all. However, I think Aunt Amy was trying her best to do what she could, concerning both the Jesus-Man and Laurel.
Laurel's new friends in general. Weird, but awesome. That's pretty much all I have to say about them.
All in all, Love Letters to the Dead was an emotional roller coaster, and while I don't know if I enjoyed it, per say, but I do respect it.
xxAvalon
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