Effortlessly Reading

Book Review: Love Letters to the Dead – Ava Dellaira


loveletterstothedeadLove Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Goodreads | Amazon | TBD

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. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead – to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse – though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven’t forgiven?
It’s not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally 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 truly start to discover her own path.
In a voice that’s as lyrical and as true as a favorite song, Ava Dellaira writes about one girl’s journey through life’s challenges with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty.

 
First Sentence: Dear Kurt Cobain, Mrs. Buster gave us our first assignment in English today, to write a letter to a dead person.

My Review:

Love Letters to the Dead isn’t usually my type of book. Heartful, deep contemporaries and I usually don’t get along, but when I saw the hype building up for this book, I couldn’t help but be swayed to read it. In the end, I don’t know whether I’m happy to have picked this one up or to be sad since I could have been reading another book using the time I’ve read Love Letters to the Dead. I have a mix of those two feelings regarding Love Letters to the Dead.

It took a very long time for me to get invested in Love Letters to the Dead. I feel like there are basically two parts to the book: the section before the big reveal and the section after the big reveal. Basically, I could care less about the story, the characters, the happenings before the big reveal, but after the big reveal, the book just grabbed me and I couldn’t put it down. If the beginning of Love Letters to the Dead starts off slow for you, I strongly recommend you to continue reading on because the end of the book is totally worth getting through the slow beginning.

“I think it’s like when you lose something so close to you, it’s like losing yourself. That’s why in the end, it’s hard for her to write even. She can hardly remember how. Because she barely knows what she is anymore.” (13)

For people who do not know, Love Letters to the Dead is a book consisting of “letters” written to the dead by a girl named Laurel. One kind of minor issue I had with Love Letters to the Dead is that Laurel is about 15 years old or younger, yet she somehow remembers the exact words used in dialogues she and her friends had spoken that day. (I say “about” because Laurel never mentions her age as far as I know, but she does mention her friend’s age, which is 15 years old, so I’m assuming Laurel is also 15 years old too.) To make things more clear, Laurel’s “letters” consists of dialogue that she deems important enough to write about, which surprises me because letters to somebody usually aren’t written using dialogue. What surprises me the most is that 15 year old Laurel remembers who said what and what words they used exactly the day she writes the letter. I’m in college and I can’t remember what I ate earlier this morning, never mind the exact words in conversations my friends and I have spoken.

But life isn’t like that. You can’t be sure how it’s going to come out, even if you do everything right. They turn around on you, lives do. (32)

Okay, I have to admit, I was a bit judgmental while reading Love Letters to the Dead. Fine, I wasn’t “a bit” judgmental, but a lot judgmental. I couldn’t help it though; I wasn’t at all prepared for 15 year old students (and some characters that were about 17 years old) who smoke cigarettes, drink, smoke pot, drive without a license, sneak out in the middle of the night, and have crazy wild sex. Love Letters to the Dead also consists of a lot of dark topics (like you can’t tell from the above list) like rape. Honestly, I feel like this book should have a warning label of some kind on it. However, in the end, despite all the characters endearing personalities, they all just grew on me, with the exception of the truly horrible characters of course.

The one thing I loved the most about Love Letters to the Dead is that it’s full of gorgeous, beautiful quotes. I’ve written down at least ten quotes while reading and wanted to write down a lot more, but was just too lazy to. There are literally beautiful quotes on every two pages in Love Letters to the Dead.

At least that’s what I imagined, because I know that it can be hard to believe that someone loves you if you are afraid of being yourself, or if you are not exactly sure who you are. It can be hard to believe that someone won’t leave. (145)

After reading Love Letters to the Dead, I found out from my friend that Ava Dellaira is the producer of The Perks of Being A Wallflower movie. After knowing that fact, I start seeing the similarities between those two books; they both talk about dark subjects, have very flawed characters, and have lots of quotable lines. There is absolutely no doubt that I definitely did like Love Letters to the Dead a lot better than I liked The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which honestly isn’t saying much because I absolutely strongly disliked The Perks of Being A Wallflower. (I wonder how many of you guys are staring at me in horror right now.)

Overall, I don’t know whether or not I want to recommend Love Letters to the Dead to other people. In the end, I think it really depends on whether you’ll mind a slow beginning just to reach a gorgeous ending.

three

-Kelly

Speak Your Mind

    • If you like dark contemporaries, then Love Letters to the Dead would be perfect for you Mel! There were A LOT of dark topics that were talked about.
      Ha ha, like 98% of the people who’ve read The Perks of Being A Wallflower LOVED it and I’m just the crazy weird one here. :P
      The book scared me off the movie; not even Emma Watson can convince me to watch it. In fact, the book also scared me off the actor who plays Charlie. -shudders-
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  3. I’ve been hearing a lot of comparisons of this book to The Perks so it makes sense that Dellaria would have some relation to the book… Now Emma Watson’s tweet makes much more sense! I’m happy you liked it more though because while I liked The Perks, I don’t think I liked it as much as others. I’m a bit wary of the slow start because that’s the one thing I can’t stand but GORGEOUS ENDING, yesss please.
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    • Ohhh yeah. I forgot that Emma Watson tweeted about this book ha ha. Maybe it’s for the publicity?
      That’s better than me; I can’t STAND the sight of Perks. -shudders-
      Love Letters to the Dead takes awhile for it to REALLY start. There were just so many things I wanted to add to my review, especially things about the romane in the beginning and the end, but my review was long enough already. :P
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  4. It’s funny you mention The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn’t like it at all the first time I read it, but the second time was a different story. Weird, right?

    This sounds like a really interesting premise. I don’t think the dialogue thing would put me off because I write like that myself sometimes, and The Princess Diaries also has that format. Also my suspension of disbelief is pretty strong, since I recognise that there are limitations to the format so I don’t really mind.

    Not sure about the dark themes, though. I’ve read a couple Ellen Hopkins books and they were really overwhelming.
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    • My friend was thinking of rereading The Perks of Being A Wallflower too because he thinks he’ll like it a lot better the second time around. Me, I refuse to give it a second chance. -shudders-
      Wow, you must have a really good memory then! I mean, I forgot what I just did 5 hours ago, never mind writing something someone said earlier that day. But yeah, I’m really critical when it comes to these things. :P
      I love Ellen Hopkins! :D
      But yeah, Love Letters to the Dead is like Ellen Hopkins dark. Frankly, I was so surprised on how dark it was.
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  5. Aww I was going to read this one but then it expired on Netgalley for me D: The second half of this in its entirety sounds enticing enough because in high school a lot of people actually DO all the things that come off as crazy and if I hear that someone got drunk over the weekend and hooked up with a guy, I won’t even bat an eye anymore. But I think this one is the right amount of dark and gripping at the same time :)
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    • Aww, I hate when that happens! D:
      Ha ha, my high school was one of those REALLY great ones. There was SO few people smoking pot and doing drugs, etc. which was one of the reasons why I wasn’t prepared for this at all. :P
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  10. i haven’t read this book yet but sound interesting, but at the same time can’t convince me, maybe only read the book for the quotes haha because when i read the sinopsis and your review i have a complex feeling about the book haha

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  11. I was really uber keen on this novel, from the moment I saw the beautiful cover, and also the title. They’re both captivating, and then the synopsis sounded pretty unique, and I added it to the TBR.
    To be honest, I am not really sure about it now. It does seem incredibly unrealistic for someone to remember, word for word, what was said in a day. Like you said, you can barely remember what happens in the morning, let alone the whole day. I have a terrible short term memory, and sometimes forget something I said like five seconds ago. So obviously Laurel has some kind of uncanny ability to remember ever single thing that happens to her. That, or she is just making stuff up. XD
    Okay, wow, I definitely agree with you about the warning. That blurb implies nothing of the hardcore activities that take place. I personally think trigger warnings are necessary, especially for something like rape. I just think that it’s a bit dismissive to not include a warning for strong themes.
    I wasn’t a particular fan of Perks, but I don’t know if I’d like this one any better. It’s definitely slid down the TBR pile, that’s for sure, haha.
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  13. I never knew what this book what about until recently. It was the cover that first caught my eye (obviously), but the summary really makes me want to read it. I have no problem with slow beginnings, especially when there are amazing quotes. And I totally love deep, heartfelt stuff and dark stuff. I always find it weird when teens are doing crazy things like that, though. Just because my own life is boring. But I guess it’s possible. I’ve heard some crazy stuff. Like, in real life. Not books o.o
    Remembering conversations, though… I can remember the gist of it, and approximately when. If it’s the same day, it is easier. But I could never get it word for word. So I can see how the dialogue is weird.
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  14. This book seems to be a really interesting concept- a little creepy, but sweet, cute, and lovely at the same time! I think it’s really strange that Laurel can remember the exact phrasing of the conversations she had with friends.. even ten second after a conversation I’m already paraphrasing! I will definitely have to check out this book.

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  15. I actually won an arc copy of this book just haven’t gotten to it yet. School is totally kicking my butt right now. I don’t even know how I’m going to make it in the next few weeks :/ But I will definitely read this one! If the beginning leads to better ending than I totally have to! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :D

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  16. OMG!!! Your review just made me want to read Love Letters to the Dead even more! I haven’t purchased the book because it just came out on April 1st but I want to read it so bad!!!

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  17. Ooh this book sounds very interesting and the cover is very intriguing. It sort of has a creepy essence to it. Great review and I hope to read this book very soon!

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Effortlessly Reading sometimes receives ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) from publishers or authors in exchange for honest reviews. Please note that no compensation of any kind has been provided in exchange for a review. Any use and/or duplication of my material without any permission is strictly prohibited.