Ratings42
Average rating3.6
For fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Amber Smith, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel, Love Letters to the Dead.
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 stars. Easy read, written well.. I just think it was missing something for me.
I don't even know where to start because, I have so much to say about this book. First of all, I want to thank for the person who recommended me the book (which I don't even know who it is), and please, if you see this, come talk to me, please?
This is a dramatic book that involves mainly grief and romance.
“Love Letters to the Dead”, like the tittle suggests, are letters that this girl called Laurel writes to Kurt Cobain and some other famous people, that she, and her dead sister, saw on movies that they watched together or songs that they both would listen to or even artists that they friends liked and she eventually started liking as well.
My opinion on the book:
Well, I guess I can say I have mixed feelings about this book. When I started reading it, I fell in love with everything in it pretty instantly! And of course, I loved Sky! I loved so much, on page 187 where Laurel says to Kurt Cobain:
“(...) Kurt, (...) Becoming a star didn't make you happy. It didn't make you invincible. You were still vulnerable, furious at everything and in love with it at once. The world was too much for you. People were too close to you. You said it in one sentence I can't get out of my head: I simply love people... so much that it makes me feel too fucking sad. Yes, I understand. (...)”
I loved this part of the book, because I identify myself a lot with it, and it made me realize that Ava Dellaira, loves Kurt Cobain as well. But as I continued my reading, on the next page (188), I read something that disgusted me:
“(...) So yes, in a way, it's easy to understand. But on the other hand, it makes no fucking sense, as you would say. To kill yourself. No fucking sense at all. You didn't think about the rest of us. You didn't care about what would happen to us after you were gone. (...)”
And this made me sad because if Ava Dellaira loves Kurt Cobain, as I've said before, she should understand him and try to put herself in his position, but I guess all she wanted was a good book to sell, because this goes on to page 190, where she says:
“(...) Nirvana means freedom. Freedom from suffering. (...) death is just that. So, congratulations on being free, I guess. The rest of us are still here, grappling with all that's been torn up. (...)”
With this last sentence, she's blaming Kurt. Again - anf forgive me, if you don't agree, but I couldn't just let this go without putting my opinion to words, because furthermore, Kurt is one of my idols, and maybe the one I love the most - I think Ava Dellaira just wanted to write the perfect book to sell, to get some fame and maybe money, I don't know and I don't care, but I don't like the fact that this sounds like she's blaming him for killing himself.
Again, on page 207, he continues blaming him for not thinking about his baby girl - Frances Bean Cobain - although, Ava Dellaira, has a point here! But, as I continue my reading through the book, I find some hypocrisy on page 210, on the following sentence:
“(...) When they found you in your apartment, dead from too many pills, I really did think it was an accident. I don't think you meant to go. (...)”
Supposedly, this last sentence, is written to Heath Ledger, and I just can't stop finding so much hypocrisy in this, and I'll explain why. For those who don't know, there are a lot of speculations on Kurt Cobain's dead, as there are on other famous people that Laurel writes letters to, and it's not even proven, that Kurt Cobain did really kill himself - although my opinion on this, is that he did - but what I mean is, Ava Dellaira, or Laurel, cannot accept the fact that Kurt Cobain, eventually, killed himself, but it is ok with her, to accept that Heath Ledger did it. I know she does say that she believes it was an accident but I think that's crap.
Now, let's leave Kurt Cobain's dead behind, and let's talk about how unrealistic Ava Dellaira portrays high school. Things, most of the times, do not happen like she tells us on the book at high school. And let me also underline the fact that, this romance between Sky and Laurel was also a bit unrealistic and I've said before how much I like Sky, but it's kinda stupid how he's always there when Laurel's in danger.
Well, that's all I have to say
Reading this book is heavy, like there's always something in my chest, but this beautiful and full of emotions.
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