Love Letters to the Dead

Love Letters to the Dead
By Ava Dellaira
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014. 336 pgs.

This book was written in such a beautiful way that I would completely lose track of what I was doing while listening. The obvious pain of so many of the characters was real and tangible, but the hope in forming new relationships, learning to survive in their own lives, and being looked out for just every now and then was what made this teen book so memorable. Everyone was flawed but able to find something good in the end.

Laurel is the main character and she starts to write letters to a dead person for a school assignment. She chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him and his music. In the letters, Laurel changes as she writes to more dead people like Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart and Janis Joplin. The music ties in so perfectly to the emotions Laurel is getting through, and the story Laurel has to tell is heartbreaking. But through the letters she can accept what has happened and heal.

EW