Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 1st 2014
Pages: 336
Source: E-book, purchased
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 2.5/5

How I Felt: This was not my kind of book. It wasn't really good and it wasn't really bad, it just wasn't for me which is why I gave it a low rating. The majority of the book was hard to get through because I didn't like the main character, Laurel, at all. I didn't like her mentality or the way she treated people. I understood that she was grieving but that didn't give her an excuse to treat her family and friends horribly.

The only part of the book I enjoyed was the ending. When Laurel was able to face and write down what happened to her and her sister was the bright light at the end of the tunnel. I liked how Sky was able to help her realize this, she needed someone like him in her life.

My favourite character in the whole book would have to be Laurel's dad. There is literally no one else I could like. I felt so bad for him. His wife left him and then his first daughter died. He didn't always handle the situation well but you could tell he was trying. I liked that about him.

Another character I liked was Laurel's aunt Amy. I felt bad for her because she's had a tough time living and being alone for a long time and the way Laurel treated her for most of the book didn't help. I'm glad that as Laurel grew up over the course of the novel, she was able to grow closer to her aunt and get to know her better.

I liked the concept of the book, the assignment Laurel had to do that led to her finding out who she was and realizing that she needs to grow up and move on. I thought the way the story was told through letters at times didn't really work. The switching of tenses, and the time frame in which these letters were written got a little jumbled at times but for the most part it worked.

Even though I haven't read the Perks of Being a Wallflower, I have watched the movie and I did notice a lot of similarities between that and this book. But I'm not too bothered by that considering that Dellaira said in the acknowledgments that he played a big role in her writing this book.

Overall, I'm not too fussed about this book. It just wasn't for me. I have just too many mixed feelings about it to be able to say I enjoyed it. If you're a fan of dark contemporaries you'll probably like this one. I'm not sure this will be a book I'd reread ever but I'm glad I read it now.

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Images taken from Google.ca