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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
In the spring of eight grade, Laurel’s older sister, May, dies under tragic circumstances, and an already fractured family is torn further apart with the sudden death as Laurel’s mother moves to California to cope with her grief. Rather than begin high school surrounded by people she has known all of her life and who also knew May, Laurel decides to attend another school in order to make a fresh start. On the first day of her English class she is given the assignment to write a letter to a dead person. With the task hitting so close to home, Laurel never turns in her letter to her teacher; instead she continues to write letters to dead people to tell the story of her life, her memories of her sister, her transition to a new school, her first love, and her all-consuming grief and guilt.
I don’t remember Laurel ever confirming it, but I believe she writes to people such as Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix, etc because they all died at young ages like her sister. Some readers may think this to be too depressing, but I understood it and even liked it. I learned so much about the lives of these figures as Laurel researched them and wrote to them. I thought the lessons she pulled from the lives of these people were important.
For all of her life Laurel looked up to her sister May, and that love and idolization of her is what makes it so hard for Laurel to move on and face what happened in the past. May obviously had issues to work through, yet her sister could never see that for a very long time and it was frustrating to watch her wade through life when all I wanted to do was point at what was the obvious. Still, this was a beautifully written book with some great characters that learn to grow. Laurel’s voice was instantly in my head, and while I have never gone through what she has I could easily empathize with most of what she was feeling. I’d recommend this.
I don’t remember Laurel ever confirming it, but I believe she writes to people such as Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix, etc because they all died at young ages like her sister. Some readers may think this to be too depressing, but I understood it and even liked it. I learned so much about the lives of these figures as Laurel researched them and wrote to them. I thought the lessons she pulled from the lives of these people were important.
For all of her life Laurel looked up to her sister May, and that love and idolization of her is what makes it so hard for Laurel to move on and face what happened in the past. May obviously had issues to work through, yet her sister could never see that for a very long time and it was frustrating to watch her wade through life when all I wanted to do was point at what was the obvious. Still, this was a beautifully written book with some great characters that learn to grow. Laurel’s voice was instantly in my head, and while I have never gone through what she has I could easily empathize with most of what she was feeling. I’d recommend this.
To say that [b:Love Letters to the Dead|18140047|Love Letters to the Dead|Ava Dellaira|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390036655s/18140047.jpg|25484455] caught me off guard would be a huge understatement. Seriously, I experienced so many conflicting emotions while reading and not all of them were pleasant. If I had to rate the first 100 pages alone, it would probably earn 2 stars and be filed away under ‘over hyped’. But there is more to a story than beginnings and first impressions, there is also the middle and an end. If I had to rate the final 200 pages of this book I would give it a solid 5 stars. Do you see my dilemma here?
Pre-Reading thoughts
➜ I was very excited to read Love Letters to the Dead. Many authors and celebrities raved about how awesome it was months before its release. Emma Watson even tweeted her praise. How could I not be excited to read Love Letters to the Dead?
While Reading (Page 1 – 120ish)
➜ The first 100 pages of this book were painful to read. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, which is critical for books that aim to tackle serious issues. When I did start feeling something for the characters it ranged from dislike to annoyance. I couldn’t bring myself to sympathize with a group of kids who seemed to be going out of their wait to make bad decisions.
➜ Another problem that I experienced is that for the first few pages I felt like the author was trying too hard to be deep. Sometimes it felt like she was trying to string together a series of quotable sentences and, as a result, everything came off as calculated and unauthentic. Reading didn’t feel effortless and I feel like this contributed, in part, to me not connecting to the characters.
While Reading Continued (Page 130ish to End)
➜ This is where things get confusing folks. Stay with me. Up until this point I was drowning while reading [b:Love Letters to the Dead|18140047|Love Letters to the Dead|Ava Dellaira|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390036655s/18140047.jpg|25484455] . I was bored out of my mind. Reading each sentence felt like pulling teeth. I started to despise the characters. And then something strange happened…I couldn’t stop reading. And then I couldn’t stop crying. And I started to like the characters. More than that, I began hope for them as if they were real people. I honestly can’t explain why I suddenly started to enjoy [b:Love Letters to the Dead|18140047|Love Letters to the Dead|Ava Dellaira|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390036655s/18140047.jpg|25484455] . All I can say is that I became so immersed in the lives of Laurel and her friends that I stayed up until 4AM reading.
Pre-Reading thoughts
➜ I was very excited to read Love Letters to the Dead. Many authors and celebrities raved about how awesome it was months before its release. Emma Watson even tweeted her praise. How could I not be excited to read Love Letters to the Dead?
While Reading (Page 1 – 120ish)
➜ The first 100 pages of this book were painful to read. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, which is critical for books that aim to tackle serious issues. When I did start feeling something for the characters it ranged from dislike to annoyance. I couldn’t bring myself to sympathize with a group of kids who seemed to be going out of their wait to make bad decisions.
➜ Another problem that I experienced is that for the first few pages I felt like the author was trying too hard to be deep. Sometimes it felt like she was trying to string together a series of quotable sentences and, as a result, everything came off as calculated and unauthentic. Reading didn’t feel effortless and I feel like this contributed, in part, to me not connecting to the characters.
While Reading Continued (Page 130ish to End)
➜ This is where things get confusing folks. Stay with me. Up until this point I was drowning while reading [b:Love Letters to the Dead|18140047|Love Letters to the Dead|Ava Dellaira|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390036655s/18140047.jpg|25484455] . I was bored out of my mind. Reading each sentence felt like pulling teeth. I started to despise the characters. And then something strange happened…I couldn’t stop reading. And then I couldn’t stop crying. And I started to like the characters. More than that, I began hope for them as if they were real people. I honestly can’t explain why I suddenly started to enjoy [b:Love Letters to the Dead|18140047|Love Letters to the Dead|Ava Dellaira|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390036655s/18140047.jpg|25484455] . All I can say is that I became so immersed in the lives of Laurel and her friends that I stayed up until 4AM reading.
This book was literally the girl version of Perks Of Bring a Wallflower, and I absolutely loved it! The ending is a little cliche, but I really want a sequel from Sky's POV now! Can someone tell the author to get on that please?
Nice piece of realistic fiction about loss and growing up.
Wow, this book is.. I don't even know what word I'd choose for this book. It is sad but at the same time really beautiful. She was writing to all these amazing people and I was impressed. With her and what she went through. She really was brave and she didn't even realised it. This book touches my heart because I'm fighting against myself and I want to be saved but at the same time I don't want to. But somehow this book gave me power to try, not for myself but everyone else. I see how everyone suffers because of her sister and I wonder would it be the same if a went away. But I really don't want to leave this world. Here is why love reading books like this one. It shows me that I have to be brave and just let some things go. It gives me an opportunity to look trough someone else's eyes and to see that not everything in my life is bad.
In the end I just want to say that I'm glad she succeed to save herself and that she started to live in the moment and not in the past.
In the end I just want to say that I'm glad she succeed to save herself and that she started to live in the moment and not in the past.
This was an emotionally heavy story. And a great debut for Dellaira.
The concept of writing a letter to a dead person is really fascinating, so I immediately wanted to pick up this book. The format of this book, all letters, was a bit bothersome to me at first. I just wasn't sure if that would be something I could tolerate for an entire book, but because there was a lot of dialogue within those letters, I didn't find it to be too unbearable.
Love Letters to the Dead follows a young teenage girl, Laurel, who is trying to cope with the death of her older sister, May, as well as make it through adolescence. We find out a lot about Laurel from the very beginning. This girl feels...a lot. And it takes me a while to be able to handle it.
The book starts off a bit slow, but once it picks up, it doesn't slow back down. Laurel is definitely a complext character. She feels and feels and feels. She's a sponge with no release. And that's what she's seaching for throughout the book -- a release. Her sister May is gone, her parents are going through their own thing. And she has no one to really help her process. So when the assignment of writing to a dead person is given, she takes it and run with it.
She writes to various people such as Amelia Earhart, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger... She writes to anyone who will listen to her.
It took me a while to really care about Laurel because she honestly overwhelmed me. I thought she was too much. And I still do. I did eventually adjust to the "much" that Laurel was and I began to care about her. The supporting characters throughout the book also had their own personal stories that were told through Laurel's eyes, and I began to care about them before I did Laurel. Sky, in my opinion, was a very relatable character for me. He was the most authentic, through flawed.
Dellaira does a great job of painting a powerfully sad adolescent experience. There is just so much that is absorbed throughout the book that by the end of it, you need your own release as a reader. And I think that's intentional.
I really enjoyed this book, because it didn't take much to create it. There was no major world building. Not huge plot line. Just a story about a girl growing up, falling in love, learning to forgive and deal with a harsh hand she's been dealt. A really decent read.
The concept of writing a letter to a dead person is really fascinating, so I immediately wanted to pick up this book. The format of this book, all letters, was a bit bothersome to me at first. I just wasn't sure if that would be something I could tolerate for an entire book, but because there was a lot of dialogue within those letters, I didn't find it to be too unbearable.
Love Letters to the Dead follows a young teenage girl, Laurel, who is trying to cope with the death of her older sister, May, as well as make it through adolescence. We find out a lot about Laurel from the very beginning. This girl feels...a lot. And it takes me a while to be able to handle it.
The book starts off a bit slow, but once it picks up, it doesn't slow back down. Laurel is definitely a complext character. She feels and feels and feels. She's a sponge with no release. And that's what she's seaching for throughout the book -- a release. Her sister May is gone, her parents are going through their own thing. And she has no one to really help her process. So when the assignment of writing to a dead person is given, she takes it and run with it.
She writes to various people such as Amelia Earhart, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger... She writes to anyone who will listen to her.
It took me a while to really care about Laurel because she honestly overwhelmed me. I thought she was too much. And I still do. I did eventually adjust to the "much" that Laurel was and I began to care about her. The supporting characters throughout the book also had their own personal stories that were told through Laurel's eyes, and I began to care about them before I did Laurel. Sky, in my opinion, was a very relatable character for me. He was the most authentic, through flawed.
Dellaira does a great job of painting a powerfully sad adolescent experience. There is just so much that is absorbed throughout the book that by the end of it, you need your own release as a reader. And I think that's intentional.
I really enjoyed this book, because it didn't take much to create it. There was no major world building. Not huge plot line. Just a story about a girl growing up, falling in love, learning to forgive and deal with a harsh hand she's been dealt. A really decent read.
Algo aburrido en algunas partes pero estuvo bien.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I struggled to get through this title. It didn't grab my attention in the way that I thought it would. I feel like I learned more about the public figures that Laurel wrote letters to (Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, etc.) than about Laurel herself, until the very end of the book when a lot of information was given to the reader about her past. The book had some profound, make-you-think moments, but it ultimately wasn't for me.
Click here to read my full review, on my book blog.