Hey hey hey peeps! After 3 months I am writing a blog post. It has been
a busy few months at work and at home. Now it is right smack in the middle of
Summer Reading Program which has left me very stressed and running around like
a crazy person.
In the meantime I have not had a chance to really read anything. Well
that’s not entirely true. I am, as of right now, 24 weeks pregnant so mostly
what I read has been in preparation for dealing with that!
Since April (my last post) I have read one YA book titled Love Letters to the Dead by Ava
Dellaira. That is what I will discuss with you today, but forewarned my posts
may still be more sporadic as a baby being on the way will keep me quite
occupied. Some baby books and adult
books may peak in there as well.
Synopsis via 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.
When I first saw this book reviewed in the School Library Journal I
thought the premise was very interesting.
I was looking forward to a chance to reading it myself.
After finally getting to it I would give this book a 3.5/5. I have the
same problem with it as I do with a lot of YA fiction these days in that I
think teens would love it and so I purchase the book mainly for them, but for
me it is too much.
There is soooo much drama in this book. There is death, suicide,
homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, familial abuse, sibling abuse, rape, and
divorced parents. The drama will keep teens engaged throughout the book, but my
god it felt like too much for implausibility for my taste.
I did find the letters to the dead celebrities very interesting as each
celebrity in a way mirrored Laurel and May’s lives. I thought it was a nice
connection that helps Laurel handle her pain by writing to those who would
understand it best. The letters were also a nice touch to Laurel’s character
development. We get to see her unfold before our eyes and while some authors
make this long and winded, Dellaira does a superb job of keeping the reader
engaged during Laurel’s character reveal.
Again, not to my taste, but this book is definitely for your older
teens as there are many times where the book can feel dark and heavy. A
purchase for larger YA collections perhaps?
