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A review by 222cieloreads
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
3.0
I’m going to sum up my review using the positives and negatives I’ve found after reading the book.
+ The love story between Sky and Laurel was cute. It gave off puppy love vibes. Although it wasn’t perfect, and they weren’t perfect, some parts made me feel the wholesome vibe around them.
+ The story was inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community. It shows the struggles of people who are part of the community; how they feel like they’re supposed to act a certain way, even if it means hiding from who they really are. It was clear that Hannah had a more difficult time accepting her feelings for Natalie, but she came around eventually. And their relationship seemed to turn out really great.
+ It tackles a lot of childhood trauma that the main character experienced in her life and how these experiences affected her relationship with herself, other people, and the world. She experienced grief, dealt with divorced parents, and went through almost everything by herself (and her sister who died recently). Her mom abandoned her, and she thought it was because she blamed her for her sister’s death. She was full of regret and blamed herself for what happened to her sister, but she wasn’t able to talk about it to anyone (not in the first parts of the story, at least). Her dad and her aunt were there for her, but she didn’t confide in them. Aunt Amy was strict and overprotective, always telling them how they need to be saved from all the sins in the world and all that religious stuff, so she didn’t really feel comfortable talking to her about her feelings. Her dad was present, but she was emotionally unavailable because of the circumstances, which was understandable knowing that he just lost a daughter and he and his wife got divorced.
+ Laurel has evolved into a better person with a better mindset. It’s cliché, but it’s a lot better because I’ve started to like her a little bit more than I did before.
- There were times where it felt like the author was trying to be deep by using a lot of literary devices, like metaphors. I didn’t find “being deep” beautiful, at least not with this book. For me, it was unnecessary and felt awkward to read, especially considering that Laurel is just in high school.
- There were minor typographical errors. Every time I saw one, it bothered me a lot.
- The book was a set of letters addressed to dead people, but they were just like journal entries. Sometimes, she talked to them (in an informal manner) about their lives when they were alive, but most times she just “told them” about her experiences. But I guess it was also nice, because the dead people she wrote to sort of became her bestfriends. They were the only people. thugh dead, who she could talk to without feeling the need to filter who she really was.
- Some parts (e.g., Sky was from Sandia, the guy he beat up was Paul because he liked May) were predictable with the foreshadowing in the beginning.
- This is a personal preference, but I didn’t like Laurel at first. I understand that her actions and how she thought were influenced by her trauma, not to mention the fact that she was still young. However, some of her characteristics (e.g., people pleasing) annoyed me.
+ The love story between Sky and Laurel was cute. It gave off puppy love vibes. Although it wasn’t perfect, and they weren’t perfect, some parts made me feel the wholesome vibe around them.
+ The story was inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community. It shows the struggles of people who are part of the community; how they feel like they’re supposed to act a certain way, even if it means hiding from who they really are. It was clear that Hannah had a more difficult time accepting her feelings for Natalie, but she came around eventually. And their relationship seemed to turn out really great.
+ It tackles a lot of childhood trauma that the main character experienced in her life and how these experiences affected her relationship with herself, other people, and the world. She experienced grief, dealt with divorced parents, and went through almost everything by herself (and her sister who died recently). Her mom abandoned her, and she thought it was because she blamed her for her sister’s death. She was full of regret and blamed herself for what happened to her sister, but she wasn’t able to talk about it to anyone (not in the first parts of the story, at least). Her dad and her aunt were there for her, but she didn’t confide in them. Aunt Amy was strict and overprotective, always telling them how they need to be saved from all the sins in the world and all that religious stuff, so she didn’t really feel comfortable talking to her about her feelings. Her dad was present, but she was emotionally unavailable because of the circumstances, which was understandable knowing that he just lost a daughter and he and his wife got divorced.
+ Laurel has evolved into a better person with a better mindset. It’s cliché, but it’s a lot better because I’ve started to like her a little bit more than I did before.
- There were times where it felt like the author was trying to be deep by using a lot of literary devices, like metaphors. I didn’t find “being deep” beautiful, at least not with this book. For me, it was unnecessary and felt awkward to read, especially considering that Laurel is just in high school.
- There were minor typographical errors. Every time I saw one, it bothered me a lot.
- The book was a set of letters addressed to dead people, but they were just like journal entries. Sometimes, she talked to them (in an informal manner) about their lives when they were alive, but most times she just “told them” about her experiences. But I guess it was also nice, because the dead people she wrote to sort of became her bestfriends. They were the only people. thugh dead, who she could talk to without feeling the need to filter who she really was.
- Some parts (e.g., Sky was from Sandia, the guy he beat up was Paul because he liked May) were predictable with the foreshadowing in the beginning.
- This is a personal preference, but I didn’t like Laurel at first. I understand that her actions and how she thought were influenced by her trauma, not to mention the fact that she was still young. However, some of her characteristics (e.g., people pleasing) annoyed me.