Review on Love Letters to the Dead

Hello, how is everyone today? Today, I have a depressing topic to talk about today. Have any of you lost someone? Have you felt guilt over their passing, as if it was your fault? Or have you thought of happy memories and experienced the joy from the past? I have never lost anyone close to me and I know I am very fortunate for that. But I have read many touching books about what it's like to lose someone special. The book I read deals with the guilt of someone dying and how overcoming that special someone's death can lead you to a brighter future.
I read...
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira



Format: Hardcover/ e-book
Pub. Date: April 1st, 2014
Summary:
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.
My rating: 4 out of 5 letters!
My recommendation: Anyone who likes books in letter form or anyone who has lost someone close to them.
My review:
My copy was provided to me by Netgalley.
Laurel lost her sister, May, in a tragic accident a few years ago. Laurel looked up to her sister and thought she was perfect. She would always imitate her sister and loved her so much. But her sister died and Laurel's family fell apart. Her parents were divorced and her mother loved to California, leaving Laurel going to and from her house with her father and her aunt's house. Along with the feelings of grief and guilt Laurel felt over her sister's death, she's dealing with high school for the first time.
Laurel has to try to fit in and find friends who will care for her. Also, she finds romance in a boy with his own troubles inside.
Through letters written to people both Laurel and May loved, Laurel finally tells the truth of what happened between herself and May, the event that took place right before May died.
I love books written in a different format than usual and I love how the author made this book into letters to famous people. It was different than any other book I have read and the writing itself was beautiful and lyrical, almost like the events Laurel was describing were poems.
Laurel went through a magnificent internal journey to finally gain the strength to tell the truth of what happened to her. The pain Laurel felt was so real, so vibrant, I could practically feel it. Laurel felt both the pain of losing her sister and nursing a broken heart.
Laurel went through so much and her friends tried to help her in any way they could even though they too were filled with problems.
I didn't particularly like all the teenage angst in the book. It felt like it was too much with all the alcohol in drugs, but that is how teens grow up. They learn to deal with life and find the strength to rely on themselves rather than the outside forces they had relied on before.
The book also included too many quotes for my liking. Laurel included multiple poems she loved and while they were beautiful and I was glad that the author had included them, it felt a bit too much and like they were blocking the story, hiding some detail that could have been used instead.
This book is all about growing up and finding strength within yourself. I loved Laurel's struggle with her emotions and how she finally gathered the courage to confront her fears, to defeat the shadows in her world so that her life could shine bright again, shine bright like May's love for her sister.