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Love Letters to the Dead

Ava Dellaira (Goodreads Author)

3.79 · Rating details · 69,197 ratings · 8,169 reviews

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 w ...more

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Kindle Edition, 336 pages

Published April 1st 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

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May 07, 2014 Emily May rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, 2014

Dear Famous Person,

You are so cool. My name is Laurel and I go to High School but I am still going to talk to you in the passive, immature voice of a 10 year old and then occasionally break out into beautiful metaphors about the sparkles in Sky's eyes and how just one glance from him makes fireflies dance in my stomach (or something equally ~~nauseating~~ beautiful).

"There is something fragile like moths inside of him, something fluttering. Something trying desperately to crowd toward a light. May

...more

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Apr 03, 2014 Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: high-school, mary-sue, why-do-i-hate-myself, ya-contemporary, boring-main-character, ya, romance, mental-illness, sleeping-pill

Dear Kurt Cobain,
Mrs. Buster gave us our first assignment in English today, to write a letter to a dead person.

For me, this book was pointless, puerile, and pretentious, with a character who is the passive, dull YA contemporary equivalent of Bella Swan or Luce Price.

It’s hard to be myself, because I don’t know exactly who I am. But now that I’ve started high school, I need to figure it out really fast.

The main character was simultaneously too naive and juvenile, while never letting me fo

Dear Kurt Cobain,
Mrs. Buster gave us our first assignment in English today, to write a letter to a dead person.

For me, this book was pointless, puerile, and pretentious, with a character who is the passive, dull YA contemporary equivalent of Bella Swan or Luce Price.

It’s hard to be myself, because I don’t know exactly who I am. But now that I’ve started high school, I need to figure it out really fast.

The main character was simultaneously too naive and juvenile, while never letting me forget that behind this character, there is an adult writing this book.

On my first day...I used my favorite outfit from middle school instead, which is jean overalls with a long-sleeve tee shirt and hoop earrings.

I could not bring myself to care about the extremely dull character, who has no character and no personality of her own, who comes off as a girl who's only too willing to be pulled along by peer pressure.

The next thing I realized is that you aren’t supposed to bring your lunch. You are supposed to buy pizza and Nutter Butters, or else you aren’t supposed to even eat lunch.

This book goes nowhere. It is a diary of a high school girl, Laurel, who's lost her sister, May. Laurel's despair over May's death is tremendously subtle, and so suppressed that I can hardly tell she's grieving at all.

I guess I am not doing this assignment the way I am supposed to. Maybe I’ll try again later.

Yours,
Laurel

No shit.

The point is that there was no point to this book. If I wanted to read about a main character that I can't relate to, whose grief isn't even present, who falls in love too easily, who lets herself be completely bent by peer pressure, who can't really relate to her family...WHY DO I NEED TO PAY MONEY FOR IT? If I wanted to read the diary of a really immature young woman, I can just go onto Tumblr or DeviantArt or Livejournal (does anyone use Livejournal anymore?) and browse through any amount of adolescent frippery for free. And I can stop when I want to!

The Premise: This book is written in a series of letters to dead characters, musicians, poets, actors. It reads like a slightly less silly version of a 12-year old fangirl writing letters to One Direction or Justin Bieber.

Dear Amy Winehouse,

Your fearlessness seemed like it came from a different time. When your first album was released, you still looked innocent, a pretty girl who said she thought she was ugly.

You would step onstage in your little dress, sipping a drink, with your big beehive hairdo and Cleopatra eyeliner, and sing with a voice that poured out of your tiny body. You were willing to expose yourself without caring what anyone thought. I wish I was more like that.

And 95% of the book is about Laurel, not the artists. To be fair, I didn't want it to be, because the information I got from these artists from these silly, juvenile "letters" aren't anything I wouldn't have gleaned from 5 minutes on Wikipedia or Daily Mail UK.

The Actual Letters: A few paragraphs on the artists themselves, and then a million pages (or so it felt like) of a teenaged girl rambling on about:

1. Skyyyyyyyyyy. Skyyyyyyyyyy <3333333

I especially like to watch this boy, whose name I figured out is Sky. He always wears a leather jacket, even though summer is barely over. He reminds me that the air isn’t just something that’s there. It’s something you breathe in.

2. Her family, dad, mom, crazy Bible-thumping Aunt Amy
3. Her lesbian friends
4. Her cool older friends who are like, so awesome, and, like, so into each other, and like, so into music!

Dear Janis Joplin,
When I got home today, I looked up about Slash, and I also looked up about your life, so that I can start my education, and so that I can be friends with Tristan and Kristen.
When Kristen and I are better friends, I am going to ask her to play me some of your music.

Yours,
Laurel

5. Her sister. I guess.

The "letters" follow this pattern for the entire fucking book:

Dear ______,

I think you're really cool because _______. I imagine that you must have been like _________ growing up. I think your dreams must have been like the wings of an angel sparkling with unicorn horns and butterfly dreams that never got fulfilled.

Today I went to lunch with my friends. I thought about Sky a lot.

Then I talked to my friends. Then I watched them kiss. Then I pretended that I didn't see them kiss. I went home to talk to my really sad dad, and I reflected upon how sad he is and how much I miss him. And May. But I'm not going to think about May. I'm not going to tell you anything about how she died. I'm going to let you have the impression that I love her even if I don't say it. I'm going to give you the impression that I care about her without ever implicitly mentioning her.

Sky is really hot.

______, you must have been so cool to know while you were alive.

Yours,
Laurel

AN. ENTIRE. BOOK. LIKE THIS.

Laurel: She reminds me a lot of Lara Jean from Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before, which is to say, she's innocent as fuck, she's naive as fuck, and even if she's old enough to get to 3rd (and then some) base with her boyfriend, and drink, and do illegal shit, she's just there for the ride. Laurel is not a leader. She is a follower. She does things because people tell her to. If this book were an YA paranormal, Laurel would be the equivalent of Bella Swan because she fucking does nothing in the book unless someone drags her into it.

She is a good girl, an innocent girl who drinks and do stupid stuff like ask strangers to buy her alcohol because her (cool) friends tell her to. And she really, really wants to be friends with them. She is desperate to be loved, and I couldn't give a flying fuck about that. Spare me your dull I-have-problems-that-I-won't-talk-about mental issues; I want a girl twisted and torn by grief, I don't want a passive little fluffy bunny, even if that bunny occasionally indulges in some cannabis-laced carrots.

Inconsistent Writing: I could not get immersed in Laurel's character because she has such an inconsistent voice. In some parts of her narrative Laurel sounds like a 12-year old.

- I liked everything about it. I liked waiting in line with everyone. I liked that the girl in front of me had red curls on the back of her head that you could tell she curled herself. And I liked the thin crinkle of the plastic when I opened the wrapper. I liked how every bite made a falling-apart kind of crunch.

- When I got the shirt, secretly I had hoped that Sky would notice me in it and see who I could be. Maybe he’d feel a pang of regret over losing me.

- It had my name on the back. It was perfect. He had sanded the wood down so it was smooth, but the grains don’t go away. I told him it was my favorite present I’d ever gotten. He looked proud.

And then she starts spouting off philosophical crap and imageries out of freaking nowhere, and I'm left wondering who am I reading, the character or the author trying to write a poetic teen who's not convincing in the least?

- Her house is a different kind of empty. It’s not full of ghosts. It’s quiet, with shelves set up with rose china, and china dolls, and rose soaps meant to wash out sadness.

- There is something fragile like moths inside of him, something fluttering. Something trying desperately to crowd toward a light. May was a real moon who everyone flocked to. But even if I am only Sky’s street lamp, I don’t mind.

- I think Hannah must be afraid like I get afraid, the way I did when I heard the river yesterday, the way I do when I don’t even know what the shadow is, but I feel it breathing.

Laurel's narrative voice just did not work for me. I can't take a 12-going on 40 year old poet.

The Romance: Zero spark. Zero chemistry. About as convincing as the romance between Leonardo DiCaprio and whatever barely-legal Victoria's Secret supermodel he's dating now.

Everyone loves Laurel. Out of nowhere, the most popular guy in school asks her out, and not only that, she got the attention of Sky, the loner who never talks to anyone.

And although he has license to stand with the cool kids, he still doesn’t fully belong anywhere and hasn’t relinquished his title of Mr. Mystery. Hence the throng of girls who are always leaning in and touching his arm. But of course, my money’s on you.”

He's a cool loner, the one who never cares about anyone, until he meets Laurel. It is insta-love for her, and Sky falls for Laurel remarkably fast, considering Laurel never does or say anything fucking remarkable. But I guess 17-year old boys are easily impressed.

“You’d be a really great writer,” I said.
“Oh yeah? How do you know?”
“By the way you talk. Like when you said that Kurt is so loud because he’s staring the monster in the face, and how you’ve got to fight back.”

Final Comments: The grief over May's death just isn't there. Sure, Laurel is supposed to be really, really sad about May, considering she died, but I never felt her sadness. It is a matter of telling, not showing. You could argue that Laurel is suppressing her grief really well, but why the fuck would I want to read a book about that? It's the equivalent of reading a romance novel where the main character absolutely refuses to fall in love against all reason. I know those books exist. I don't like them!

Some truly bad things happen to Laurel in this book, and guess what? I don't care. I want to care. I'm not a callous person, but you have to make me FEEL something for the character. I could not relate to her. I could not sympathize with her. I did not like her. I can't bring myself to hurt for her when she is damaged.

Not recommended. ...more

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Jan 05, 2014 Wendy Darling rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-publication, read-2014, april, lgbtqi, own-dtb-tbr, young-adult, macmillan, realistic-fiction, gorgeous-prose, made-my-heart-hurt

4.5 stars Months ago, I had to put Love Letters to the Dead down because it was making me so desperately sad. Almost a full year later, I read the last half of it with a lump in my throat and tears dripping down my face. This is a profoundly moving meditation on grief, written with rare sensitivity and the kind of prose that nearly stops your heart with moments of quiet, anguished beauty.

Review on the blog: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...

Strongly recommended for fans of If I Stay.

...more

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Nov 03, 2013 Ash Wednesday rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-romance, heartbreaking, review, yuri, rockstars, young-adult, pop-goes-the-culture, why-do-i-love-depressing-shiz

3.5 STARS
Our flushing hearts, trying to climb the stars - how with the wrong wind, we can fall.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so many contrasting emotions for a book as I did for this one. My first impulse was to rage quit this as early as the second Cobain letter, followed by derisively laughing at Laurel’s puerile drama. Then I felt some alien tug at my heart over Aunt Amy and her Jesus Man and got teary-eyed over the story behind her parents’ broken marriage. Reading this book felt a lot li ...more

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Dec 27, 2013 Evie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Reminiscent of Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Love Letters To The Dead is too beautiful, too meaningful, and too heartbreaking to describe with words. An incredible, moving and very important story with a beating heart and bright soul. It's one of those books that everyone ought to read, own, and share with all their friends.

don't miss it ...more

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Feb 21, 2017 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was ok

Shelves: liburrrrrry-book, pretty-on-the-outside, read-in-2017, teenie-bopper-books, it-s-all-in-the-name

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Obviously Mitchell and I aren’t the target demographic for this book, so take my rating with several grains of salt and I’m going to keep this short and ~~sweet~~ sour, just like myself. Love Letters To The Dead could have been a perfectly A-Okay book for me. The basic storyline is Laurel’s sister May is gone and Laurel is lost in her grief. She swaps schools in order to get rid of the “sister of the dead girl” stigma and is presented ...more

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Aug 20, 2013 Rashika (is tired) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2014, loved, would-have-blown-my-mind-but, good-characters, cute-love-interests, ya, touchy-issues, e-arcs, i-need-to-go-cry, cute-romance

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

WARNING: This book may cause you to spend a whole day feeling down.

“There are some things I can’t tell anyone, except the people who aren’t here anymore”

This is honestly a very hard book to review. It brought out a lot of mixed feelings in me. I went back and forth between being pissed and loving the book and it wasn’t until the 3rd third that I decided that this book was wonderful. A warning though, if you don’t like drama, avoid thi ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Aj the Ravenous Reader rated it liked it · review of another edition

"You can be noble and brave and beautiful and still find yourself falling."

Although the title is a blaring warning that this is going to be a tough and probably a torturous read, I boldly ignored it because look at the book cover. Doesn’t it look beautiful? Its invisible strings had this unrelenting tug at my eyes and my heart that made me give in and grab the book. ^^

I really didn’t know what to expect from this book but what I did not expect is that the entire story is written through let ...more

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Sep 22, 2017 Anj rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Underwhelming. I had expected a beautiful story when I went into this book. What I got was an annoying protagonist, one- dimensional characters and a history of celebs who died at a very young age. If I had written this review right after I had completed the book, I'm sure that half of it would have been in caps. I was that annoyed.

The beginning was quite slow and I had to plough through those pages. I was expecting the book to get better, but then, how wrong was I? I was completely wrong. Thin Underwhelming. I had expected a beautiful story when I went into this book. What I got was an annoying protagonist, one- dimensional characters and a history of celebs who died at a very young age. If I had written this review right after I had completed the book, I'm sure that half of it would have been in caps. I was that annoyed.

The beginning was quite slow and I had to plough through those pages. I was expecting the book to get better, but then, how wrong was I? I was completely wrong. Things took a turn for the worse and each page seemed to drag on forever. Let me tell you this: Laurel, our protagonist is very one-dimensional. She didn't really convince me at all. And what's with her obsession with this "mystery" dude Sky? At first it was all about her observing him from a distance and him, staring at her. Fast forward to fifty pages, they've already developed a romance. Love at first sight never works. Most of the times. *there are a few exceptions, like me, falling in love with Newt Scamander the moment I saw him* I cannot tell you how annoying Laurel was. Agreed that her sister died, yet, she seems to put the blame on herself for something she had NOT done. Speaking of which, I was pulling out all my hair off my head because the story behind her sister's death is revealed much later in the book. So, what did Anj do? She googled it up and read spoilers! Yay. I felt that the story could have been revealed much earlier in the book because the delay just made me impatient and irritated. That is not suspenseful. (I ain't giving you the spoilers. Go and look it up. I'm not going to waste my hard work lol)

There was no depth to the characters. Sky behaves like a jerk for a minute and then he goes all lovey-dovey. Laurel's words don't have the depth they should have in them. She doesn't believe in embracing her personality, but rather wants to embrace what her dead sister's personality was. One moment, she uses shiny metaphors, beautiful writing filled with emotions and the next moment, she's writing the biography of a dead celeb filled with cringe-worthy life lessons. Save us the biography. I'm sure that we've all got access to Wikipedia.

There were two positive things about this book though. One: it focused on issues like domestic violence and abuse. And I highly appreciate that the author decided to put those issues into this book so that the readers become aware of it. Two: HANNAH AND NATALIE. THEIR LOVE WAS 95542588854% REAL AND NOT LIKE THE STUPID, BLAND RELATIONSHIP SKY AND LAUREL HAD. They were the only rays of sunshine in this book.

Amidst all those things I said about this book, there are only two positives. The book ended on a hopeful note, which prevented me from giving this book an even lower rating. One final thing I've got to say: there's a part where Laurel lies down on a busy road to challenge a bully to do the same. This trick eventually scares the bully off, but mind you, the road was a busy one. Had she not moved at the right second, she would've turned intotomato ketchup under the wheels of a car. *okay, my humour is weird* Dear readers, that is not how you fend off bullies. Don't put your lives at risk. I warned you.

That is all I have to say about this book. I'm glad that I didn't buy it. ...more

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Apr 16, 2018 Lucy Langford rated it liked it · review of another edition

"You can be noble and brave and beautiful and still find yourself falling."

This book was so beautiful and heart breaking.

It begins as an assignment in English class where Laurel, our mc, writes letters to dead people, from the likes of Judy Garland, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. We are told from the beginning that Laurels elder sister May died young.

While we are not told the circumstances of the death straightaway, we are told snippets of the events leading up to her death, how her death happe ...more

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Jan 22, 2014 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2014, netgalley

This book is a hard one for me to decide how to rate. There were parts of it I really liked and there were parts of it when I thought my eyes would glaze over and never recover.
Laurel is given an assignment to write to a dead person. She begins to do so and never turns in the assignment. Once she starts she keeps going with it and changes to several past celebrities and historical figures. She has moved to a new school to help cope with her sister Mae's death. Hoping that a new school will shie ...more

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May 03, 2014 Maureen rated it liked it · review of another edition

I ended up enjoying this book and the characters a lot, but it was SO similar to Perks that it annoyed me. I love the idea of writing letters to someone who is dead, and I love how the author included facts and things about the famous person's life. The characters were lovely and the writing was beautiful. Getting over loss is never easy, and I really liked how the author approached it.
The romance aspect felt a little forced to me. There wasn't much build up or substance or....anything, until cl ...more

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Jul 03, 2014 Lazaros rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: tragedy lovers

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary

“What I told you about saving people isn't true. You might think it is, because you might want someone else to save you, or you might want to save someone so badly. But no one else can save you, not really. Not from yourself. [...] You fall asleep in the foothills, and the wolf comes down from the mountains. And you hope someone will wake you up. Or chase it off. Or shoot it dead. But when you realize that the wolf is inside you, that's when you know. You can't run from it. And no one who lov

“What I told you about saving people isn't true. You might think it is, because you might want someone else to save you, or you might want to save someone so badly. But no one else can save you, not really. Not from yourself. [...] You fall asleep in the foothills, and the wolf comes down from the mountains. And you hope someone will wake you up. Or chase it off. Or shoot it dead. But when you realize that the wolf is inside you, that's when you know. You can't run from it. And no one who loves you can kill the wolf, because it's part of you. They see your face on it. And they won't fire the shot.”

I didn't read this having high expectations, in fact, I thought that I wouldn't even like it and know this, prejudice is a very bad thing because I actually loved it. I loved how deep and simple it was, it approached the problems teenagers can sometimes face in a really touching and beautiful way.

We all know that sometimes parents can be of no help to us, there are things that every single person has to cope with alone with no help from loved ones and that does not only apply to the grown ups, it also applies to kids who've been through things & are still going through some tough stuff that they cannot talk about to anyone because they feel like they can't be helped, or saved. It's what leads many teenagers to committing suicide.

If you have a friend like that, please, don't ignore them, don't let them push you away, be there for them, care for them, stand by them and help them not slay the beast that's hiding inside them but simply let them know that they are not alone, that they have someone to fight and win for and there are people who love them.

This book was a great example of it. There were all kinds of problems to a bunch of children, I mean, sure, the heroine was one and her problem was pretty tragic but there were all of these stories woven into them. Kids with sexuality problems, kids who had to come apart because of how things change, kids with no worthy parents. It targets lots of problems in a very wide spectrum and that was awesome to read and experience through the eyes of a teenage girl.

“I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won't be as good as everyone imagines we could be.”

It all eventually comes down to this. Don't be naive enough to think that you're not worthy, that you're not loved or that you won't be accepted. In the end, just be yourself and don't give a fuck about what anyone else feels. I'm tired of doing everything in order to be liked or acceptable, I just want to be and if you're not in for it, I'm sorry there's nothing I can do for you to like me. If you fake it then don't expect anyone to love you for who you are. They'll just love the facade that you created.

Thanks for reading! :)
...more

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Apr 04, 2014 ily rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014

Tedious. Repetitive. Pretentious. Love Letters to the the Dead is too similar to The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Yes, a copy.

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Feb 10, 2016 Elle (ellexamines) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-characters, z-2015favs, z-2015reads, lgbtq, contemporary, trauma-abuse-recovery, elle-recs-list, 4-star, sapphic-books-shelf, favorite-relationships

“I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won't be as good as everyone imagines we could be.”

The central argument of Love Letters to the Dead is that finding human connection is the only way to move past grief; that finding love is the best way of coming to terms with our past. But that's not always as easy as it seems. “The more you love something, the harder it is to lose,” side character Natalie says to our narrator, Laurel. The writing styl ...more

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Oct 16, 2016 Ashley Daviau rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book tore my heart into pieces and left me a total mess. It was both absolutely beautiful and devastating at the same time. I wasn't expecting the whole book to be in the form of letters but when I saw it was, I was thrilled. I loved the idea of it and it totally sucked me in. I related to the main character Laurel in many ways and I think that's a big part of why I loved this book so much. I went through a very difficult period right around the same age as she is during the story and so I ...more

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Sep 16, 2013 Michelle (Pink Polka Dot Books) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr-2014

2.5 Stars
Overall it was a letdown. Immature characters and predictable drama :(

Laurel is given an assignment in Freshman English to write a letter to a dead person. While she doesn't turn in the assignment, for the rest of the year she continues to write to dead celebrities about her life. Her sister died and she's starting at a new school district, meeting new friends, navigating potential pitfalls, and meeting boys. As the year goes on Laurel meets a group of friends and a boy that makes a maj ...more

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Oct 08, 2017 emi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Nothing is worse that when someone who is supposed to love you just leaves.

3.5 STARS

I felt a bit like climbing a ladder with this one. Only the rungs felt a little rusty and unstable at times. At first, I thought it was more along the lines of, what I call, a 2 star book, but slowly, and steadily, I watched my opinion of this book rise. I definitely considered giving it a 4 star rating, but whilst, there were parts where I stopped for a second and thought 'wow', unfortunately I had to chip it d ...more

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Apr 16, 2014 Dayse Dantas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Dear Kate Chopin,
there's something extraordinary about writing letters the dead. I think it's because it's kind of freeing to write something to someone who will never ever read it. You don't feel silly about getting too deep or too poetic or too weird or nonsensical. And it's better than writing a diary, because a diary is basically one talking to oneself, and sometimes we don't want to talk to ourselves, we want to talk to someone else, but we can't because we don't want to sound too deep or t Dear Kate Chopin,
there's something extraordinary about writing letters the dead. I think it's because it's kind of freeing to write something to someone who will never ever read it. You don't feel silly about getting too deep or too poetic or too weird or nonsensical. And it's better than writing a diary, because a diary is basically one talking to oneself, and sometimes we don't want to talk to ourselves, we want to talk to someone else, but we can't because we don't want to sound too deep or too poetic or too weird or nonsensical. Besides, even though we might believe the dead will not read these letters, a tiny part in our hearts kind of believes (hopes?) that you can read them, but since you're dead and beyond, you don't really care how deep or poetic or weird or nonsensical we get, because you know about things beyond death, so the way we sound is the smallest of your thoughts.
So, for me, this is what this book is mostly about. Of course there are the issues, and the relationships, and the tough bits, and all of that is nicely written and greatly handled, but the best part is how it's freely written from the heart, through the letters.
I really think you would have liked this book, not because of its narrative, or the complexity of characters, ot its clever choice of words and references and poems, but because I think you would love something so raw, so openly written from someone's soul, even if that someone is fictional. I've read books like this before, of course, it's not something ground-breaking or anything, but I liked this one better because it was from a girl and about girls, and I really love girls. As people go, I like girls and kids most of all. Kid girls are the best.
But anyway, I felt like trying this, writing one letter to one dead person. I thought about writing to Elvis of Virginia Woolf or David Foster Wallace, but you seemed like the right choice. Studying about you has always been my favorite (that is, in the category where we talk and study about dead people). You were someone who had strong opinions, but didn't much care about making a fuss about it. Not that there's anything wrong about making a fuss about opinions, especially if they are important and right. But it's like... I feel like you kind of knew that people weren't ready to listen to what you had to say. So, instead of going crazy with frustration and sadness and anger, you wrote about it, and you lived your small, simple, happy life (I really hope it was happy), and you left your opinions for those in the future who would want to know about them. So now I'm writing this letter to you to let you know (though it's not like you're really reading this. Are you? Hello? We'll never know) that I liked this book, and I like what it means and I like that more and more people talk about messed stuff that they were not willing to talk about back when you were alive. I will never have a conversation with you, I don't think, so this letter is the closest I've got. So, for that alone, this book is special. But for many other reasons, too.
Love,
Dayse D.

P.S.: I'm really sorry your house burnt down. ...more

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Oct 30, 2013 Jillian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

ALL OF THE STARS. 5 MILLION BILLIONS STARS.

I AM A MESS RIGHT NOW, BUT OMG THIS BOOK HAS TOUCHED ME SO DEEPLY. I can't even coherently gather my thoughts. Just know that I wholeheartedly recommend you read this book. A heartbreakingly beautiful story about grief and growing up. A story about forgiveness. Love, friendship, and family themes are all present. This book will grab hold of you and won't let go. I'm SO in love with this book. In love with Laurel's story. May's story. And every other cha ...more

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Jun 19, 2015 Masooma rated it liked it · review of another edition

the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like disaster.

Love Letters To The Dead is, in sum, about loss, grief and guilt; all welded together into a sharp weapon that keeps stabbing at the heart of Laurel. Once I began this novel, I found striking resemblance with two books: Love, Rosie because of the presentation of the story in the format of letters and All the Bright Places because of an on-silent-mode central character (like Violet Markey) who has lost her sister. Nonethel ...more

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Oct 27, 2013 B rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: caught-in-a-bad-romance, perfect-ending, cried-my-eyes-out, i-e-i-will-always-love-you, deserves-the-hype, hand-me-some-tissues, i-will-have-children-with-this-book, judge-a-book-by-the-cover, april-2014-arc, didn-t-see-that-coming

wow. That's such a massive, massive understatement, but I just...wow. Hands down the best book I've read in 2014. ...more

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Jan 30, 2017 Stepheny rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya

4.5

You all are well aware by now that I am completely and helplessly obsessed with YA books. I’ll read just about anything in that genre. Literally. I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know if I never grew up from my own teenage years, or if I felt that my teenage years weren't what they were supposed to be, or if I just have some weird fascination with teenagers. What I do know is that I can’t say no to YA novels.

Love Letters to the Dead was brought to my attention by one of those stupid fake Dea ...more

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Apr 03, 2014 Heather rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-contemporary

http://bookablesbooks.blogspot.com/20...

I have been anticipating this book since last year. I thought the premise of the book sounded amazing & it was! Now I will say if you are fan of Stephen Chbosky's 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower', you will LOVE this book! Fun fact, Ava actually worked for Mr. Chbosky for awhile & gave him some of her writing and he urged her to write a novel. So as you can tell he was a big influence over this book.

I thought the book started off a little slow so I was ver ...more

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Apr 24, 2014 Sarah Churchill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: received-for-review, books-i-own

Wow. I don't know where to start...

The only reason this didn't get 5 stars from me is because I found it a teensy bit slow to begin with, and the main character Laurel wasn't particularly likeable. That's entirely on purpose, I know, but I just didn't buy into her story right away. Once the layers started to peel away though - and this book is FULL of layers, like onions and Shrek - it became a deep and powerful masterpiece.

The secrets that have been haunting Laurel are eventually revealed, and ...more

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Oct 30, 2017 Paige rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites, own-physical-arc

Full review here: https://youtu.be/_Qxw4BFlxfo

I can see how this book might not be for everyone, but it made me cry and cry and cry and I loved it. ...more

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Aug 28, 2015 India rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-a-copy, 2016, i-wish-i-knew-these-people, amazing-life-lessons, i-did-not-see-that-coming, beautiful-conclusions, i-feel-bad-for-these-characters, gorgeous-cover, great-mc, happy-tears

Rating:

4 stars. Love Letters to the Dead is an amazing book, but I made the mistake of going into it with really high expectations, and that made it seem like it wasn't as good as it could have been.

I hate when I do that.

Maybe when we can tell the stories, however bad they are, we don't belong to them anymore. They become ours. And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don't have to just be a character, going whichever way the story says. It's knowing that you could be the auth

...more

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May 28, 2014 J.m. Darhower rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Love Letters to the Dead is the type of book you either love or hate. There's very little middle ground. Either you find it utterly brilliant, or you have a hard time even making it through the damn thing. And I can see why some might not like it... it's certainly not for everyone. I stayed up all night reading the book. Literally. All night. I finished the last word 45 minutes before my alarm went off.

And I don't regret it for a second.

I was awestruck by the author's bravery in tackling the sub Love Letters to the Dead is the type of book you either love or hate. There's very little middle ground. Either you find it utterly brilliant, or you have a hard time even making it through the damn thing. And I can see why some might not like it... it's certainly not for everyone. I stayed up all night reading the book. Literally. All night. I finished the last word 45 minutes before my alarm went off.

And I don't regret it for a second.

I was awestruck by the author's bravery in tackling the subjects it did in the format it did. Every single word is written in the form of a letter to a dead celebrity/writer/poet/whatnot. Sure, I could nitpick things, like how realistically it makes no sense that she'd write some of that to some of those celebrities (like the heavy dialogue scenes) BUT this is fiction, and the beauty of it is suspending disbelief. Would a teenager really write some of that? No. Did that matter a smidgen to me? Nope.

I was left absolutely awestruck after finishing this story. I cried. I found it moving, and heartbreaking, and uplifting, so beautiful yet tragic at the same time. It's not an easy, light, fluffy read by any means. It will tear you apart at times. However, there are moments tucked in that truly give it soul, flashes of humor that I absolutely loved. Laurel's friends are amazing. Yes, some of the drama is a bit melodramatic, but come on... they're freaking high school kids, most of which are freshman. Are you really surprised they have friendship drama and guy issues, etc? That's what made it so damn REAL to me. It was so vivid, and rich, and that's so surprising given a lot of the book is telling vs. showing because of the letter format (I know, as a writing, telling more than showing is in general a no-no, but the way the author does it here is no short of genius in my opinion). I feel like I know these characters now, like they're real, and I mourn with them. I love with them. I'm thankful to have met them.

Do I recommend this book? Abso-freakin-lutely. Will you like it? Maybe. Maybe not. It's a toss up. But it's absolutely worth giving it a try.

I already want to re-read it.
...more

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Jul 03, 2019 Lilith Black Bee added it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

DNF at page 127

I don't have any kind of joy reading this... I wasn't getting into it with any expectations since the reviews that l read where kind of mixed opinions. Maybe it gets better at one point, but l am not willing to lose my time reading something that l do not enjoy! It was like l was reading the journal of a 10 years old girl, for God's sake! ...more

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Apr 23, 2014 jv poore rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own-it, realistic-fiction, adolescence, survival-stories, young-adult, donated, mental-health

Passages from this phenomenal story pop into my head, even though I read this more than a year ago.
******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ********
I need to give a copy of this book to every single teen and young adult that I encounter.

If ever I was to tout a book for recommended reading; this is the one.

I believe it will be impossible to read this book without becoming at least a little bit better of a person for having done so.

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About Ava Dellaira

Ava Dellaira

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I was born in Los Angeles. One of my first memories is of looking out the window of the black Cadillac that my family drove across the wide-open desert when we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is where I grew up, and where my sister and I spent countless summer afternoons making fairy potions, battling evil witches, and playing other imaginary games that probably contributed to my proclivit I was born in Los Angeles. One of my first memories is of looking out the window of the black Cadillac that my family drove across the wide-open desert when we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is where I grew up, and where my sister and I spent countless summer afternoons making fairy potions, battling evil witches, and playing other imaginary games that probably contributed to my proclivity to make up stories.

My first memory of writing is as a 2nd grader. I had been assigned to write a poem about the things I liked and why. I started out pretty unassumingly: “I like rainbows because they are pretty. I like kittens because they are soft.” And then I wrote, “I like my Mom—” but I couldn’t come up with an end to the sentence. I remember it vividly because it was my first awareness of that space between a feeling and the language we have to name it. No words were big enough. I thought about all of the things that I loved about her, all the fun stuff we did together, and finally I settled on, “I like my Mom because she gave birth to me.” That just seemed the most basic. (It was, in part, her beautiful life, and her sudden, untimely death that inspired me to write my first book, Love Letters to the Dead.)

After a lot of growing up (stories for another time), I got my undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, and then received my MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, (where I lived on the bottom floor of a farm house once occupied by Kurt Vonnegut!). Upon graduating from Iowa, I moved to Los Angeles with aspirations of becoming a screenwriter. I had the good fortune to get a job working for Stephen Chbosky, the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and became an associate producer on his film adaptation of the book. When I got up the guts to give him some of my writing, he said, “I think you should write a novel.” The idea had actually never occurred to me before, but that night, on my drive home, I was staring absently at the half-full moon while waiting for a red light to change, and a title popped into my head: Love Letters to the Dead. I started writing the book that night. Since its publication, I've adapted it into a screenplay for Temple Hill (the company that produced Twilight and The Fault In Our Stars) and I’m hoping to see it come to life on screen.

I now live with my husband, and spend my days writing in neighborhood coffee shops, in bed, in my shoebox office in our condo. I love the LA palm trees, especially the really tall ones that bend in the wind. I love how when a new album comes out, you hear it pouring from car windows all over the city. While I was at work on my new book, In Search Of, I spent a lot of time wandering around Los Angeles with my headphones on, listening to James and Marilyn's music, and to Angie’s, imagining them in the same spaces where I found myself.

When I'm not writing (or walking around and thinking about writing), I love to spend time reading, hiking, being at the beach, doing yoga, cooking, binge watching TV, and going to the movies (where I am always the one crunching on popcorn during the supposed-to-be-quiet moment). I love traveling, too. Since the publication of my first book, I've had the opportunity to visit Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, and many cities throughout the US. Whether in person or online, I've been blown away by the generosity of readers around the world. Thank you; getting to know you all has been an incredible joy and honor.
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