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A review by bookworm097
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
3.0
I was originally going to give this book 2 stars, but at the last minute it changed to 3. Why? The plot of this book did not move an inchey-squinch until around 250 pages in (of 323, might I add). I am truly disappointed by this.
I was drawn to this book by its poetic title and beautiful cover. I mean, it's gorgeous. All I knew about this book going in was that it was about a girl writing letters to dead people about her dead sister, and that it was only in letters. That concept intrigued me. I also have heard it compared to The Perks, which I have not read, so that did not bother me as much as other people.
Basically, the first 250 pages were all stories about Laurel's daily life. There wasn't a ton of character development or backstory or anything, just little snippets and beating around the bush as to way May (the sister) had died. It got to be kind of boring after awhile. Personally, I couldn't relate to the characters. I'm a homeschooler, I've never been to high school, and the lifestyle Laurel and her friends lead is just so alien to me. Then, things started moving after 250 pages. But even still, I could not connect to any of the characters. I don't really care about what happens to them, or what decisions they make. I wasn't really rooting for them. I didn't really care when Laurel finally stopped blaming herself and starting letting things go. The only thing I really like was the poetry aspect in the book, which wasn't much.
Also, the writing was a bit odd. I get that it's supposed to be a 14(ish?) year-old writing letters, but some of the sentences were just weird to read. They weren't necessarily grammatically incorrect, they just didn't flow right. Sometimes I felt like the tenses were a bit off as well. I wasn't really pleased with the writing style.
I think this book would be better if it had been more of a book about how she got over her sister's suicide, not just this weird limbo of sadness. It would have been phenomenal if this was based off of a true story, or were the actual letters of a teen, that they had decided to publish to help others dealing with suicide.
So all in all, this book was ok. Would I have read it had I known what it was like previously? Most likely not. Would I recommend it? No. The story is not deep or gripping enough to spend the time on it, in my opinion, even though it isn't that long. It looks pretty on my shelf, but that is all.
I was drawn to this book by its poetic title and beautiful cover. I mean, it's gorgeous. All I knew about this book going in was that it was about a girl writing letters to dead people about her dead sister, and that it was only in letters. That concept intrigued me. I also have heard it compared to The Perks, which I have not read, so that did not bother me as much as other people.
Basically, the first 250 pages were all stories about Laurel's daily life. There wasn't a ton of character development or backstory or anything, just little snippets and beating around the bush as to way May (the sister) had died. It got to be kind of boring after awhile. Personally, I couldn't relate to the characters. I'm a homeschooler, I've never been to high school, and the lifestyle Laurel and her friends lead is just so alien to me. Then, things started moving after 250 pages. But even still, I could not connect to any of the characters. I don't really care about what happens to them, or what decisions they make. I wasn't really rooting for them. I didn't really care when Laurel finally stopped blaming herself and starting letting things go. The only thing I really like was the poetry aspect in the book, which wasn't much.
Also, the writing was a bit odd. I get that it's supposed to be a 14(ish?) year-old writing letters, but some of the sentences were just weird to read. They weren't necessarily grammatically incorrect, they just didn't flow right. Sometimes I felt like the tenses were a bit off as well. I wasn't really pleased with the writing style.
I think this book would be better if it had been more of a book about how she got over her sister's suicide, not just this weird limbo of sadness. It would have been phenomenal if this was based off of a true story, or were the actual letters of a teen, that they had decided to publish to help others dealing with suicide.
So all in all, this book was ok. Would I have read it had I known what it was like previously? Most likely not. Would I recommend it? No. The story is not deep or gripping enough to spend the time on it, in my opinion, even though it isn't that long. It looks pretty on my shelf, but that is all.