Review - Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

by Ava Dellaira
publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR
date of publication: April 1, 2014
format: ARC
pages: 323
source: publisher
buy it: Love Letters to the Dead

From Goodreads:

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.

I don't often read contemporary fiction.  I do, however, enjoy epistolary novels a great deal.  When Love Letters to the Dead arrived unexpectedly in the mail, I was intrigued by its premise.  I knew it was going to be a tough, heart-breaking book, but it was one that called to be read.  As it turns out, I was right on both counts.

Laurel is a character caught in the vacuum her sister's absence left behind.  She is unable to move past her idealized thoughts of her sister, unable to break free from the same spiral May was on before she died.  As you read Laurel's story through letters, you can't help but be angry on her behalf.  This is a girl who has been let down so many times, times when she needs support the most.  When you find out why she holds such a rosy view of her sister, however, it will break your heart.  It makes Laurel one of the most compelling characters with one of the most heartbreaking stories I've read in quite some time.

Each letter is filled with Laurel's raw emotions, as well as an account of her further loss of control over her life.  Not only that, but each letter addresses what happens to the recipients of each letter.  She talks of their short lives and their deaths and all that makes their memories live on to this day.  This adds to the emotion of the book and makes for an even more poignant reading experience.  By the end of Love Letters to the Dead, you'll have tears in your eyes as the implications of everything fully hits you.

Love Letters to the Dead was so much more than I had expected.  It's not a comfortable read, but you know what?  It's an important one.  Things like this do happen and there are children and teens that really deal with this in their day-to-day lives.  What's more, Love Letters to the Dead doesn't fear to touch upon other subjects of vast importance today.  In the end, Love Letters to the Dead is a gritty, moving novel about death, guilt, redemption, and healing.  It's a novel that stayed with me long after I put it down.