Book Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

**I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review**

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  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 did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to 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 begin to discover her own path.

 

My Thoughts:  Laurel's sister has died, her mom has moved away and now she is starting high school at a new school.  She wants to go to a school where no one knows who her sister, May, was and what happened.  

 

Her English teacher gives the class an assignment to write a letter to a dead person.  What starts out as a simple assignment turns into a whole notebook of letters to numerous dead people.  Laurel pours out her heart to these people and tells them what she can tell no one else.

 

This book was a little difficult for me to get into.  I felt that it was a little slow and at times it just really dragged on.  The writing was beautiful though and I loved how Laurel wrote to famous celebrities that just happened to be dead.  

 

Laurel was a broken character.  She thought her sister lived a perfect life and it tore her apart when she realized that May was hurting and acting out in a not so perfect way.  Laurel really wanted to keep her sister on that pedestal.  Laurel had to work through a lot of emotions and struggles but watching her do that and grow was really amazing.

 

I loved Laurel's friends in this story.  They all had problems that were hard to deal with such as abuse, mental illness and abandonment or loss of parents.  Tristan and Kristen were great supporters and I liked how Kristen was really into getting good grades and going to college.  

 

This book definitely was not a happy, go lucky book but it was very much worth the read.  It dealt with some very tough subjects and I think it would be a good book for many to read!