Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

13 reviews

julienicole1106's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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pchamblee's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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yvo_about_books's review

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4.0

 Finished reading: October 22nd 2023


“One day isn't your whole life. A day is just a day.”

I've had Letters To The Lost on my TBR for years now, and even though I've enjoyed her writing in the past somehow I never actually picked it up. I guess my TBR jar thought it was time to change that... Not that I'm complaining, because I ended up having a great time reading this YA contemporary. Sure, it took me a bit longer than expected to warm up to this story and especially to one of the main characters (Juliet), but once I did things improved drastically. I do confess that I liked Declan a lot more than Juliet, and especially the bond between Rev and Declan. There was also a lot less focus on the romance than expected, which I personally didn't mind too much. Instead, Letters To The Lost is mainly about grief and trying to move on after the death of a loved one, and it includes other serious topics like (child)abuse, alcoholism, bullying and suicide. As a result, this story was a lot darker than expected, but there were some brighter moments and I especially liked the anonymous interactions between The Dark and Cemetery Girl. The emails gave the characters so much more dept, and it added a little something extra to the story. I do have to say that it was quite obvious that Declan was behind The Dark, but that might just have been me... The change in Declan's home situation was also a bit too abrupt to be completely credible, but I still liked how everything else was wrapped up in the end. 

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sophiecatherine's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Only four stars because it was definitely somewhat chaotic and had its lengths. Also, all the extra drama at the end was unnecessary and disgusting, ngl. But except for that, this was an enjoyable reading experience. 

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kbucheit's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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psliz's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

loved loved loved. had me fangirling and crying. just perfect.

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lyla_wicks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

this book was really cute, and i liked seeing how declan and juliet found a comfort in each other, however i wish that we had more content of them in person. i really liked the element of what happened with juliet’s mum (and i loved the plot twist), but i do think that everything happened a bit too quickly at the end.

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jasminealizae's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

YA done wonderfully. Loved the conflict/resolution. This book made me want to confront my own skeletons. Perfectly age appropriate. Dealt with some hard topics. Very mature conversations.

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tammythree's review against another edition

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4.5


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readingwheneva's review

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dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book took me honestly no time to read which is saying something since I hit a pretty serious reading slump before picking up this book.  Following Declan and Juliet was honestly amazing and the way their characters were written was so amazing and realistic that it made it so hard to put the book down because I needed to know what happened next.
Letters to the Lost is written in first person narration but does switch between Juliet and Declan as far as point of view goes.  If Juliet sends a letter or an email then the chapter is from Declan’s POV and vice versa.  Both characters have some seriously dark things that they are dealing with and being able to confide in each other through letters (and later emails) helps both of them in their grief and healing processes.  Even though neither character knows that they have had many interactions throughout the book at first, eventually, it is revealed who they both truly are.
The fact that we get to follow both characters through their trials and tribulations and that we get to see how vulnerable both Juliet and Declan can be with each other and it’s amazing to be able to follow their  journey from not knowing each other at all, to being  friends and then, eventually, to being romantically  involved with each other.  Ultimately, I gave this book 5 stars for the character development, beautiful writing and range of emotions that were  truly invoked  through reading this book.  I honestly can’t wait to read  the second book in this series to continue the beauty that  is this story.

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