“I
mean, words can’t be good enough for a lot of things. But, you know, I guess we
have to try.” – Love Letters to the Dead
My
Synopsis: Laurel lost her sister a few months ago and is now starting high
school. A different high school than the one her sister went to because she
doesn’t want people to know, doesn’t want them to ask questions because there
are secrets that Laurel just can’t say aloud. Then Laurel’s English teacher
gives her the assignment to write a letter to a dead person. Laurel writes to
Kurt Cobain because her sister loved him, but she doesn’t turn it in. Instead,
she continues to write to a whole cast of characters that died too soon.
Through these letters (and with the help of some awesome friends with struggles
of their own) Laurel tells her story and discovers life, love, and herself.
First
let me say that I find that I am harder on contemporary books when it comes to
the star system, so I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really liked this
book. The fault that lead to a 4 instead of a 5 stars is that it did drag a bit
every once in a while, but honestly that is to be expected in such an
introspective, character driven book. The voice in this book is amazing. It had
an emotional core that kept you attached to the characters, but at the same
time all the events that happened were being told to a third party, the dead,
which gave a unique perspective.
Another beauty to the letters was in who they
were written to and who they were not written to. As Laurel discovers things
about herself and her sister and the world, the letters begin to reveal more
and more of what Laurel really wants to say, and it pulls at your heart strings
as you, the reader, begin to release who she is really talking to even when
Laurel still believes she is writing the Kurt or Jim Morrison or Judy Garland.
The friends in this book are amazing. They
see everything that Laurel needs even before she knows she needs it. You will
very easily fall in love with all her friends and be rooting for them in their
own struggles. And first love. =) Of course, there is a first love. It is…
real. All of the members of this little group are very real. They each have
weaknesses and each have strengths. In the romance, in all the romances, you
watch in frustration as their weaknesses pull them apart and back together and
apart and back together again.
Comparing Love Letters to the Dead to other
books, I would say it is a mixture of Perks
of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Looking for Alaska by John Green. (May, Laurel’s sister, really
reminds me of Alaska.) In other words, you will cry. A lot.
Video review here.
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