Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel

The story is told through Laurel’s various letters to various famous dead peeps, which originally was an assignment for class but she continues throughout the year. The way the dead person, whether it was Kurt Cobain or Amelia Earhart or whomever, was brought in to reflect whatever part of Laurel’s story was being told was really interesting. It becomes clear that writing these letters is her way to cope with not only her sister May’s death, but her own issues.::Slight tangent ahead:: The fact that she never hands any of them in for a grade kills me. It’s like seriously just write a something and hand that s*** in! Get that grade! ::End tangent::“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don’t have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says. It’s knowing you could be the author instead.”I appreciated Laurel as a character. She was complex even though I think she was a bit immature and simple towards the beginning. You really get to see how all the things that have happened in her past shaped her into the person she is in the present. Also the way her past is revealed through out the span of the letters was done very well.Dellaira was great with not only Laurel’s development but that of her best friends Hannah and Natalie. Their relationship with Hannah as well as with each other came off very sincere. I think it was easy for me to relate to their little crew as they were shown as kind of different and outsiders (shocker that me being a book nerd didn’t always fit in).“When we are in love, we are both completely in danger and completely saved.”And of course there is the boyfriend, Sky. Her first love. He is the new guy, mysterious and of course a hottie (do the kids these day still say that? did they ever?). Their relationship was sweet but also a upsetting (you have to read it to get those juicy details). Again, I think their relationship rang true and I liked the progression it took.“I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won’t be as good as everyone imagines we could be.”As the letters go on Laurel opens up more and more about her relationship with her mom and dad, her sister’s death, and what she has gone through in the past but never really dealt with. The letters serve as her therapist on some level in my opinion. Probably because no on sees them so there is no nervousness or hesitation to share. No judgement to face.“Truth is beautiful, no matter what the truth is. Even if it’s scary or bad. It is beauty simply because it’s true. And truth is bright. Truth makes you more you.”While the book deals with some majorly heavy topics, including death, it still has very normal high school issues – first love, friendships, fitting in and figuring out who you are – as well. I found the book to start a little slow but still engaging. Once I was past the halfway mark it really started to pickup. Of course by the end I was a mess. Overall I thought it was a great read and glad I picked it up ( especially since it was because I loved the beautiful cover!!).

One of the truths I know well is that sometimes, it’s easier to tell your story when you’re telling it to someone else. In Love Letters to the Dead, Laurel winds up doing precisely that for readers. It begins as her completing an assignment for English class, but morphs into Laurel telling her story through her letters to the dead. Through this beautifully written, epistolary novel, author Ava Dellaira brings us the story of a girl – one full of tragedy and secrets, but also full of love and hope.I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to sharing the deep love I have for Love Letters to the Dead. It sounded like a great premise for a contemporary novel, which is why I was eager to read it. But nothing could have prepared me for how it swept me up in the current of its story, keeping me unsettled and compelled until the serenity with which it ends.Laurel is easy to like, a main character that my heart instantly went out to. Her life has been touched by tragedy many times, but there’s still a glimmer of hopefulness and joy and wonder that exists in her spirit. The constancy and honesty with which she writes her letters is really something I admire. It was a pleasure seeing Laurel weaving her own experiences amidst her commentary on the person she’s writing to, and done so well that it felt truly organic.Each letter revealed a part of the puzzle piece that was Laurel’s story. Readers get glimpses of her family (torn apart by tragedy), her friends (some old, some new, but all incredibly complex presences) and romance (with a boy who I couldn’t help but love like Laurel did).But more than that, Laurel talks about her sister May, exposing their relationship and her memories candidly. Even though May is gone, she felt so alive because of Laurel’s recollections of her and their relationship. I love that Dellaira was able to accomplish this and to the point where I really felt like I knew May the way as Laurel did.The novel did have moments where the story dragged a bit, as Laurel was suspended in a period where she was consumed with romance and friendship. But the beautiful writing, and the gripping need to discover Laurel’s secret, certainly kept me turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning.Love Letters to the Dead drew me in entirely. I have mostly good things to say about this debut, which left me deeply moved and hopeful, and with plenty of marked passages to revisit and savor again and again. It’s definitely one of the novels I’ve read this year that will stay with me for a long, long time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

It was really deep and kind of a mix of sad/cute at first, but after it started to lose track of the events and I kind of lost interest on it, But I would recommend it since it is a pretty good book for being the debut book of the author! :D It might be a little overrated but, it’s not bad at all, it has a good lesson after all

Comprei ele porque o titulo me chamou a atenção. Quando comecei a ler vi que não era aquilo que eu estava pensando, mais não me decepcionou. Não é uma historia profunda, é algo simples, pra vc se divertir e passar o tempo. O inglês é super simples e quem tiver o nível intermediário pode lê-lo com facilidade. Enfim, gostei muito! :)

I really enjoyed this book. It was really engaging and kept me interested.

Such a great book.