Love Letters to the Dead

by Ava Dellaira

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

• ISBN10: 0374346674
• ISBN13: 9780374346676
• Publish Date: 1 April 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 August 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

"We do things sometimes because we feel so much inside of us, and we don't notice how it affects somebody else." (Laurel)

I was worried that the format of Love Letters to the Dead wouldn't work for me. The whole story is told through the main character, Laurel, writing letters to dead celebrities. The beginning of Love Letters to the Dead is slow because Laurel just writes about her day, but with each letter that she writes the rawness, honesty, fragility and vulnerability increases. There's also a lot of strength and hopefulness in them too.

As Laurel writes these letters, she has to deal with feelings of grief that result from the death of her older sister, May. May is such an important part of Laurel's life. In Laurel's eyes, May is perfect, beautiful and brave and in Love Letters to the Dead, Laurel has to come to terms with the fact that May was human too. Laurel's love for May is overwhelming and as Laurel shares memories of her sister, her grief, pain and heartbreak is so palpable.

The secondary characters are extremely interesting. Natalie and Hannah, Laurel's friends, have a beautiful relationship. Tristan and Kristen are fun and full of depth. Laurel's relationship with her parents is so real and I appreciate that Aunt Amy isn't portrayed as a stereotypical religious type and that she's kind, understanding and loving. The relationship between Laurel and Sky is insta-lovey, but they have one of those cute and awkward first love romances.

The first part of Love Letters to the Dead didn't do much for me, but when everything started coming together, this book became so profound. There are so many quotes that got to me. Love Letters to the Dead is a book that creeps into your heart and overwhelms you with emotions and feelings when you least expect it. It's about growing up, loss, grief, hurt, pain, heartbreak, hope and everything in between.

"You can be noble and brave and beautiful and still find yourself falling." (Laurel)

[Nessa Luna]

Because this book I am reviewing is made up entirely out of letters to celebrities, I thought I'd try something like that too.

My Dear Frodo Love Letters to the Dead,

I honestly don't remember what I had expected when I heard about you for the first time. Yes I'd heard you would be written in the form of letters to deceased celebrities (from Kurt Cobain to Amy Winehouse), but that was about it. I had not expected it to be like this, but maybe I was still in an Illuminae-induced trance when I bought you.

Basically, you were just an average contemporary story that reminded me mostly of Saving June - minus the whole roadtrip. You also reminded me of the John Green books, though you were not that full of metaphors that I did not get at all, so there you have an extra half point. (Yes, I do like John Green's books, but the metaphors, ugh).

You may have felt already that when I picked you up, I was still not 100% if I was going to enjoy you, because I am honestly not a contemporary lover in general. There were some great ones that I read the past couple of years, but also a couple of missers. Still, I was intrigued by your whole 'letters to the dead' idea.

Your writing style was really nice, and though it was a bit hard for me to get into the first couple of letters, I flew through the second half of the book mainly because I really wanted to know what had happened to the sister of your main character. I have to admit that I had been expecting something more shocking, but it's also nice to know it wasn't something super awful that happened. Yes, of course, a loved one dying is the most awful thing that can happen to a person, but I had thought that May either killed herself, had a big car accident that Laurel was in as well, or that she had been murdered or something. So reading about her fall in the river felt a bit 'better' than the usual tragic deaths I read about in books.

To be honest, I can't say I loved you; but I did like reading you, though I found your main character to be a bit annoying. It felt to me like she was trying so hard to be friends with people, that she did things she didn't really want to do. Like stealing, and drinking alcohol, and smoke cigarettes, and go to prom with a guy she caught jerking off in class (who the fuck does that?!). This guy later on in the book tried to rape her after drugging her at a party, yeah top lad! Later on, as I read more and more about Laurel's past, I realised that she was just trying to cope with more things than just her sister's death, and it made me sympathize with her a bit better. I also liked her friendship with Natalie and Hannah better after a while, but your first couple of chapters were a bit - well - 'meh', I should say, dear book.

As for the romance, I felt like you had a bit of an insta-love thing going on, though it was later on explained why Sky was interested in Laurel from the moment they locked eyes, but still, it didn't convince me that much. I liked them when they were together though, so I guess I'm just a little bit conflicted about it.

In the end, though I enjoyed you, I also don't think I'll be reading you again. Maybe it is also because I just had a weird day when I read the majority of this book, that I just couldn't really get through you and I felt like I was falling right into a nother reading slump, two books before the finish of my reading challenge. But I finished you, and I did like you.

I recommend you to lovers of John Green and just contemporary novels in general. I hope those people will love you better. I am sorry, dear book, but you are just not the one for me! I do have one more gif for you, to express my general feelings about you!



Yours,
Nessa

Ps: Your cover is gorgeous, keep up the good work!

[thebookdisciple]

I loved this book in the beginning. The concept is great and it kept it interesting; but, as the book went on, it was, at times, TOO much teen angst. And I figured out the 'twist' pretty early on. However, I think it was pretty realistic-teens going through what these kids were would really respond in the ways they did. So, its not something to read if you are looking for an easy teen romance or something-its pretty dark and heavy.

[girlinthepages]

This review was originally posted at Girl in the Pages.

Love Letters to the Dead is officially the book of 2014 that has me completely stumped on what to rate it (hence the ambiguous rating at the top of this post. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I was drawn in by the fascinating concept and the pretty cover, but then completely aggravated by the first half of the book’s narrative voice. Then things take such a gut wrenching twist at the end that I could not put it down.

I hate to criticize this book because I feel like Laurel’s story is a powerful one, but the first half of the book felt like it was being narrated by a ten year old. Laurel is starting high school, which probably puts her age around fourteen or fifteen, yet she speaks in such choppy, short, and simplistic sentences that it makes her sound like she’s in elementary school, which is totally at odds with the situations she’s in as a high schooler and the new experiences she’s having. It seriously drove me crazy and I was very close to marking this book a DNF.

*Some Spoilers Ahead/Trigger Warning*

Yet the story line really picked up about 70% in and I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what abuse Laurel had suffered in the past. I had to know how her sister May died. And after I found out, I had to know what the fallout would be. The sexual abuse she suffered was devastating, but also a situation that impacts many, many young girls, and I’m glad Laurel decides to speak up about it at the end of the book, although I wish we had seen more of how she went about dealing with the abuse once it was out in the open. Dellaira deals with the issues of sexual abuse, the stigmatization of non-hetero-sexuality, and sexual awakening in what I felt was a rather candid way, and I appreciated the struggles the characters encountered while facing these issues that are often ignored or glossed over because they are uncomfortable (such as Hannah’s intimacy with much older guys, and it’s always dubious as to why she is with them and if she is truly consenting).

*End Spoilers/Trigger Warning*

Though Laurel’s narrative voice aggravated me, I really enjoyed reading about the various stages of her relationship with Sky. It made me remember the pains and elation of dating for the first time in high school, and having your entire world at that time hinge upon another person as you first discover what you think might be love, and the fallout when it doesn’t work out. He was also a surprisingly empathetic character, and his story tethers in cleverly with both Laurel’s and May’s. I also liked how Laurel’s parents were mentioned, and their history and coping was noted by Laurel, rather than making them non-entities.

I actually think this book could’ve stood well on its own without the letters to the dead aspect. Sometimes I got annoyed with Laurel discussing the background of the letter recipient’s story (although I realize it was supposed to parallel her own or May’s at the time) because I was so anxious to find out what had happened to Laurel and May. I think Dellaira has the potential to be a great author to tell heartbreaking, candid stories without the letter format or from borrowing so much from other authors (I’m not going to go into it in length, but as most readers know she borrowed really heavily from her mentor Stephen Cbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower, and the outcome is not exactly subtle). Dellaira manages to create a simultaneous tragic contemporary with an undercurrent of fantastical and eerie elements, through the character of May, who is truly an enigma. Aspects of her personality and actions, such as her obsession with fairies or the “dead” game, coupled with Laurel’s worshipful opinion of her, made her seem like an ethereal creature.


Favorite Quote:

“You think you know someone, but that person always changes, and you keep changing, too. I understood it suddenly, how that’s what being alive means. Our own invisible plates shifting inside of our bodies, beginning to align into the people we are going to become.”

Overall: Love Letters to the Dead has a great plot and story line that’s obscured by an irritating narrative voice and too many borrowed elements. If you can get past those obstacles, there’s fascinating characters and a candid account of the painful truth of being a teenager. As a debut author, I’m interested to see what Dellaira writes next, hopefully with more original style.

Would I recommend it: It’s definitely worth reading at least once! The story stays with you- it gave me book-hangover!

[shannonmiz]

Full Review Here

I really, really had high hopes for this book. I wanted to love it, I did. I kind of love anything that gives me a good case of "The Feels", so I was gearing up to have my tissues handy to read a lovely book about a bunch of deceased people. How could that not give me the feels, you know? Also, more superficially, the cover is beautiful. So there's that. But alas, this book and I were not meant to be. I *almost* DNF. So, "what happened?" you ask? Basically, these things:

Laurel. At first, I was really sympathetic, because she really comes from a pretty awful place. Not only is her sister dead, her family is in shambles, she's left her friends behind, and is kind of a mess. How could you not feel for her? So at first, her behavior, while annoying, wasn't altogether baffling. She's bound to have some problems adjusting after what she's been through. But at what point does she actually stand up and try to move forward? No, she chooses to grab some friends who like to get drunk and skip classes all day with some senior hippies. What?! Listen, I know I was a bit "square" in high school, but seriously? Does this happen? And I shouldn't start on the insta-love, but I am going to, because it sucked. It made absolutely no sense. Was there a point to Sky's existence? If so, maybe someone could fill me in, because I didn't "get it". Ultimately, she sounded like she could be the author of my fifth grade journal, if I was writing it with a bottle of whiskey in hand and some Birkenstock-wearing degenerates hanging out in the corner. By the end, I flat out did not care at all what happened to Laurel or any of the rest of them. I kind of just plowed through for the sake of finishing.

The "letter" recipients. Just... why? What do these random collection of deceased people have to do with anything? Not to be heartless, but most of these people aren't even really relevant, except that maybe May once liked their music, or one of the hippie twins talked about them once. And then throw in a rando like Amelia Earhart for funsies, and you have a regular Who's Who of Quasi-Forgotten Dead People. It'll be a sentence like "Wow, Kurt, May played your song one night when she was high as a kite, so yeah. Anyway, about my friends' complicated high school drama and Sky's uselessness..."

The plot. I just flat out didn't feel it honestly. It was like, May died, the family was in shambles, her friends were a mess, so Laurel just kind of ended up being a follower and not really creating much of her own path. I just felt that Laurel did not have her own voice, and she was looking to these people to create one for her. She worshipped May, she followed her friends around like a lost puppy, latched onto Sky at the first sign of interest, and so on. And absolutely no one's parents/guardians were involved. At all. This whole damn town was a mess.Yes, it was very sad, because a lot of awful stuff happened to this girl, but it was more like "wow, this chick is a mess" than anything. I won't go into any more detail, because I don't want to spoil anything, but it just didn't work for me.

So, were there redeeming points? Sure, this is a two-star, after all! I found it very sweet the way that Laurel was so fond of May. I rather enjoyed Natalie, even though Hannah made me angry on the regular, and I even liked Kristen of the Hippie Twins. And it was a truly upsetting story, and I think that the author took some risks with some of the topics, which I appreciated. But overall, the things I did like just couldn't make up for the glaring problems I had with it.

[Sophia]

Absolutely beautiful, simultaneously heartbreaking yet hopeful. I think part of the reason I loved this book so much was because it reminded me of myself a few years ago and Ava Dellaira manages to convey all the emotions I felt but could never put into words.

Some complain about how irritating Laurel, the main character is. Yes, she's naive and lost and looks up to people too much, but it wouldn't make sense for her to be otherwise, nor would this book be so poignant. Love Letters to the Dead is a story about finding yourself and facing reality and I cannot wait to see what Ava Dellaira writes next.

[nitzan_schwarz]

4.5 stars

Originally posted on my blog, updated review posted here.

Love Letters to the Dead is a poignant, touching, beautiful story of coming to terms with death and growing up. Of finding yourself among the wreckage and accepting that person on all her faults--even coming to love her. To love yourself.

For me, this is one of those books I'll recommend in a heartbeat - no matter what type of books you like.

Laurel, the teenage girl telling the story, is trying to deal with her sister's death. She does so by writing... to dead people. About everything that happens to her, and everything that has happened in the past. May, Laurel's sister, was almost a part of Laurel. She was so closely tied to Laurel's identity, to who Laurel wanted to be, that without her, Laurel is not sure who she is anymore.

Her journey is an emotional one. One that will make you emotional on the way. She grows tremendously throughout the book, to the point where she stops trying to be someone else and just becomes herself. And herself is good enough. Herself, to me at least, was beautiful.

"You learned right away that applause sound like Love"
-- Love Letters to the Dead, p. 9

And not just by who she is, but by how she thinks and how she writes, which is - in short - gorgeous. Laurel's thoughts are so beautiful and often laced with such stunning poetry. From the first pages I found myself stopping to frame a quote in my mind. Then, eventually, I went and made sure I had a notebook right there on the bed so I could just write them all down. One day, when I own my own house and be free to decorate it, I would hang up quotes from books on the walls. And a good few of them will be from this book. 

"Like a boat swimming over the dark asphalt surface of the earth"
-- Love Letters to the Dead, p. 9

Side note: we learn a lot about those dead people through her letters, which I found completely endearing. I now know a lot about artists and famous figures that I never did before! 

Aside for Laurel herself, we've got a great supporting cast, and quite a few interesting side stories. 

First, we've got Natalie and Hannah, Laurel's new friends. Both these girls are cool and wild, but I admit - at first I wasn't too sure about them! I mean, they made Laurel skip school, drink, flash people... It all seemed to me so far away from my own high school experience - and such a bad influence! But then we stopped this shallow introduction, and moved on to their real story - and that one I loved. Adored even. It's one of those side stories you eagerly wait to see what happens next with. 

"I think Hannah must be afraid like I get afraid, the way I did when I heard the river yesterday, the way I do when I don't even know what the shadow is, but I feel it breathing."
--Love Letters to the Dead, p.99

Then there were Tristan and Kirsten. This is the bad boy x good girl love story... only we come into the story after he's been converted into a one gal kind of guy. And I did love them. I kind of want a book just for them, for what happens after this story.

And then, there's Sky. Laurel's love interest, and I really liked him. I don't think I got to know all of him, himself, deeply, because we didn't get to hear much of his past, but we did get to know the person he is - kind, caring, a bit messed up. However, maybe contrary to popular belief, the romance is not a huge part of the book, it's not the crux of it. It's something that accompanies the story, something that is tied in it and empowers it. It's part of how Laurel learns to like herself, but it's not the main story line and it doesn't overpower the actual story. I heart it! 

"If beauty is truth, and truth is beauty, they are defined by each other, so how do we know the meaning of either?"
--Love Letters to the Dead, p. 110

And the last is... May, herself. While she is dead, May is very much a living character in the story. And her story is a sad and tragic one, but also one I loved reading about, despite everything. 

This is one of these stories that I loved enough to become extremely sad when I see people not like it. It's a book that demands to be felt, and when it's not... it makes me really sad. Like, really.

[Sam@WLABB]

Really deep and moving. Made me cry sad and happy tears.

[Linda]

*I received a free ARC of Love Letters to the Dead from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

Very sad, and also very honest story. I loved it!

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews