Love Letters to the Dead

Laurel writes letters to a variety of dead people, from Amy Winehouse to Amelia Earhart. In time the letters begin to recount a life spiraling out of control as Laurel delves into her own dead sister’s past. Dellaira's characters are authentically conceived and beautifully drawn. Teens meet situations of physical, sexual, and substance abuse with numbness, stoicism, and fury.

Laurel's first assignment in freshman English is to write a letter to a dead person, and she chooses Kurt Cobain, a favorite of her recently deceased older sister May. Instead of turning in the letter, though, Laurel builds on it, keeping a journal of letters to a variety of dead people, from Amy Winehouse to Amelia Earhart, Jim Morrison to Judy Garland. The letters begin in straightforward second-person address, as Laurel speaks directly to the dead about their own art and experiences. But in time the letters begin to wander; she forgets her reader and just starts writing, recounting a life spiraling increasingly out of control as she delves into May's past. She makes new, complicated friends, struggles to connect with her separated parents, and meets a boy tortured in his own way. Dellaira's characters are authentically conceived and beautifully drawn. Teens meet situations of physical, sexual, and substance abuse with numbness, stoicism, and fury. Broken adults flail and try. With her epistolary confidants Laurel confronts the circumstances leading up to her sister's death, and makes peace with her place in it. She learns that, however dark our secrets, the only way out from the shadows is to stand in the light. thom barthelmess