Love Letters to the Dead is about Laurel, a girl who is starting high school. Her sister died that summer in a dubious accident, and Laurel's life is in upheaval -- her mother moved away, she spends half her time with her dad and half her time with her uncle. She receives an assignment to write a letter to someone who is dead, and it evolves into a notebook full of her musings to the likes of John Keats, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, and Amelia Earhart.

Okay, there is a positive blurb by Stephen Chbosky on the cover of the book. If you squint, you can see it right there. But I will say that this entire book felt like a rewrite of Perks of Being a Wallflower. Letters to a silent audience. A friend who is in an LGBT relationship with someone else who wants it to be kept quiet. An important relationship ended by death. A past history of abuse. Becoming good friends as a freshman with a group of seniors. A heavy interest in musicians. A great relationship with an English teacher. And okay, some of that is just high school. But it was pretty clear that there was some strong inspiration in Love Letters for the Dead by Perks, and it bothered me a little. There were just two many checkpoints that were similar. Still, Stephen Chbosky seems to be okay with it, so who am I to judge?

Other than the too-blatant (for me) tributes to Perks, Love Letters to the Dead was well-written, moving, and difficult to put down. Laurel reveals the secrets of the circumstances surrounding her sister's death very slowly, which kept me thoroughly invested until the end of the book. Dellaira's prose is elegant and poignant. There is also a sweet romance that defies some of the common tropes of YA literature. All in all this is a strong book -- it captures (a greater than normal share of) the sadness of growing up and moving through adolescence as well as the buoyant joy of first love, friendship and music. (You know, kind of like Perks of Being a Wallflower).

Oh, this was such a great read! I loved reading Laurel's letters that she writes, as she starts high school, talking to this people who are dead about what was going on her life, and how her sister had just died. It was an emotional story, and I had a great time with it.

This is epistolary, the story is told in a series of letters that Laurel is writing, to a number of different people, from musicians to actors who have passed. She's talking about how these people have entered her life, from in her past, to those she's being introduced to now and she's getting to know their lives, and how they might relate with her own.

This was a story about grief, but it's also one of growing up, and dealing with all the high school things, like making friends, and it was really great to watch Laurel's journey unfold. Sometimes she wasn't making the best of decisions, like drinking, but that does happen.

Her sister's death was traumatic to her. We know there's more to the story, it says so in the synopsis. But when we find out what that secret was, it's pretty hard. I mean, I know she was a teenager, and she's human, mistakes are made, but the way things came together really sucked, and Laurel had to deal with it all.

I had a great time reading this book, it was just so quick and easy and the pages just flew by!

4.5/5

Really enjoyed this book! It reminded me a lot of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. If somehow this book and TPoBaW could be combined, it'd be thee perfect book!

I really loved how honest the book was. Another facet that I loved were the little facts about the people that the MC was writing to.

I unfortunately was not able to read this book. I was excited when ever I had chosen to download or pick this book up on Netgalley. However, time moves by so quickly and I never got to read it.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book but had a hard time getting into it. I wasn't able to finish it for this reason, but I do know that some of my friends appreciated the style and the story of this title.