Letters to Jenny Just After She Died

by Charlene Elsby

JENNY IF YOU’RE OUT THERE HOWEVER THAT MAY BE JUST KNOW I LOVED YOU

22 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

Reviews

[Thomas Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

review to come

[Mike Kleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title spells it all out for you. Jenny has died. Her friend, who is still processing, begins to write letters. Meanwhile, the place where Jenny used to live, becomes occupied by another person. The protagonist writes about this new person, while attempting to make sense of everything else, through these letters. The protagonist explores past, present and a little bit of the future. Yes, this is an epistolary zine. And I really enjoy that the reader is only given slivers of hard/concrete evidence, with each subsequent letter. As I was reading, I began to notice my own biases (aka me assuming the protagonist was a certain type of person, assuming certain things about Jenny as a person, etc.). And I enjoyed this process of self-discovery, very much. Asking myself why I was thinking these types of things, based on the information I was given. I like written works that are able to transcend… move past/outside of the page and drip into your real life like this. It doesn’t take too long to finish. And after I was done, I sat and thought about everything (the text & life) for a little while. I have still been thinking about all this, in spurts/chunks. Again, I have to emphasize: I love this. The writing is good because it puts into words how we are, as a people. It explores the awkward stuff we do and think about but then never address. It discusses how there is a lot we internalize, but also, how there is so much more we just cannot completely understand. In my continued pursuit, over the years, of exploring short(er) works of written fiction, I am becoming even more enamored by how so much can be done, with so little. This is a powerful thing. I like powerful things. Not sure if there will ever be a re-print or 2nd edition (as this is, as of the time of writing this review, out of stock). At the same time, I think there is something charming about only being able to experience a certain project, through what others are saying about it: reviews, blurbs, tweets, etc. Of course, I can only say this since I have been able to completely digest the text. Again, very powerful stuff. Perhaps even, the most powerful.

[on storygraph (macclown) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A part of me really loved this, truly. Very emotional and a great look into grief, and I loved the actual format of it being a series of letters to Jenny. But I guess I just felt like there was something missing, some sort of twist or a bang. But maybe that's the point, I don't know.