This is a marvelous and enlightening book. Full of intelligent insights in to what very much feels like a 14 year old girls mind. All her fears, her insecurities, her desires and the loss of feeling cared for by someone other than herself. Laurel has lost her older sister May in an odd accident that she blames herself for. Her parents have been divorced and now after May’s death, her mother leaves the family completely and moves across the country to “get herself together” leaving her daughter and ex- husband trying to survive the horror of losing not one but two of the family’s heart supports.
Following Laurel’s step up into high school and all the emotional upheavals that happen to a child’s psyche when tossed into the firestorm of adolescence , the author writes with a deep understanding and love for what a young person goes through in the first blossoming of youth. The pain, the agony of not belonging along with the unfinished mourning of her best friend, her sister May.
I was not sure at all in the beginning if I would like the form of the book. The letter form. It turns out that it works brilliantly, especially when the “people” Laura writes to are people who have lost their way and die young often with overdoses and suicide, showing the same loss of self that Laura is fighting. It takes the journey through her freshman year to finally begin to come to terms with the fact that her sister was not the perfect, happy go lucky sister she tried to portray but an extremely frightened young woman who was trying to do the job that the parents should have been doing: protecting her and Laurel and her pain when she finds out that she has allowed things to happen to Laurel that no child should endure. Not having a Mom to intercede in May’s life and save her from the moral dilemma she faces and falls prey to and in the long run dies because of.
Beautifully written with strong characters and an obvious understanding of the human condition, “Love Letters” is a deft look into our society’s youth. I think it is a book that all teachers and parents should read. It is one of those that will be forever in my library except when loaned out to help a parent though a tricky patch.
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Five stars but have tissues handy!
“‘I miss my sister,’ I said simply, and it was nice to be able to just say it out loud.”Teen, Laurel, lost her sister in a tragedy and she’s lost herself in the aloneness of her grief. Her parents are devastated in different ways, like islands ravaged by separate hurricanes. Laurel has to begin high school with her insides ripped apart by grief.All she wants is to make a friend, blend in and touch the sore spot of grief when she’s safe. And then Laurel is given an assignment for English class, to write a love letter to someone dead.Laurel completes the assignment in a notebook, a letter to Kurt Cobain, her sister May’s favorite musician. The next day, Laurel lies to her teacher, saying she didn’t finish the assignment. But she continues to fill up her notebook with love letters to the dead. Not just Cobain, but Laurel writes to others, too, that are important to her and significant to her sister, May.As the notebook fills, Laurel finds her voice and truth and the reader learns that getting over a tragedy isn’t so much about numbing to the pain, but allowing others to share it with you.I especially loved the authentic handling of grief as it pertains to teens. As a volunteer at a pediatric hospice, I know that most teens that suffer a death in their inner-circle will spend huge amounts of energy into continuing to blend in with their peers. In fact, even besties will go entire months without knowing a friend has lost a loved one.I would highly recommend this book to YA lovers. Five stars!
Top reviews from other countries
Brittney Larocque
Absolutely in love with this book.
Reviewed in Canada on October 25, 2023
Najat
It looks like a new book, amazing!
Reviewed in Spain on April 22, 2021
Najat
Reviewed in Spain on April 22, 2021
I have started reading it and for now it’s great.
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