This was really a great read. If you like wholesome, flowery, fairy dust kind of novels, then this is not for you. This book deals with dementia, betrayal, mind games, absent father, dead sister and alcoholism. Hey and that is only the first chapter....well not really but you catch my drift. Very clever written book

My review can be found at my blog

Sister (Ava) is summoned home after her twin sister (Zelda) is presumed dead in a barn fire. But, is she really dead?

Upon Ava's return from Paris to the family winery in New York, she is immediately busy planning her twin sister's funeral, caring for her mother who is suffering from dementia, dealing with her divorced parents who are reunited for the funeral, avoiding a grandmother she finds annoying, and mostly, delving into Zelda's life to discover the secrets she's been keeping over the last two years Ava has been living in France. Ava soon discovers that the winery is deeply in debt. And then, an email arrives from Zelda! ... followed by mysterious notes, clues, etc. Could her sister still be alive?

As much as I wanted to like this story which took Ava on a scavenger hunt of clues from A to Z, I just didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and had to force myself to press on. The ending was mildly satisfactory, but overall, I just didn't love it. I did, however, enjoy the writing style and would be willing to try another one from this author.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This book was slow going for me - it seemed long and actually got boring with Zelda's "game". I was glad I read to the end, if only to learn the secrets behind some of the rationale for this strange family's behavior. It wasn't a bad book - just not as good as I'd hoped it would be.

Dead Letters probably has the weirdest vibe of anything I've ever read. If I had to explain this book to someone, I don't think it would be particularly helpful to summarize the plot, which makes it sound like a tense mystery instead of the literary character study that it is. I'm not really sure how I would explain it. There's something about it that reminds me vaguely of a film noir, told with a linguistic prowess and dramatic flair that calls to mind the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Somehow. Despite not really having anything in common with either of those things. Are you sufficiently confused? Yeah, me too. Let's proceed.

Dead Letters commences when Ava Antipova receives a distressed email from her mother, informing her that her twin sister Zelda has died in a barn fire. Ava, who's been living in Paris, flies home to her family's vineyard outside Ithaca New York, suspecting that Zelda's death may not be exactly what it seems. Soon she begins to receive a series of clues, hoping it will lead her to the truth of what happened that night in the fire.

In this era of fast-paced thrillers, let me stress: this does not belong in the mystery genre. This is a (at times slow-moving) character-driven novel. I didn't like it any less for this fact, but I'm glad I'd heard that it wasn't exactly a thriller before picking it up. Sometimes it's difficult to adjust your expectations partway through a book.

Though you'll have a hard time loving these characters, each makes a hell of an impression. Each member of the Antipova family is a volatile, selfish alcoholic. This is a book about horrible people being horrible to one another, and if you can't bear to read about that, you won't enjoy this book. But if you're fascinated by dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics, as I am, there's a good chance you'll find this rewarding.

Our narrator, Ava, is one of the most well-crafted and three-dimensional characters I've read in anything recently, which is especially a feat considering the first-person narration (which I find at times complicates the reader's ability to give the narrator an objective assessment?) But I thought that Ava was frustratingly, unnervingly real, for all her faults and virtues. Though at the beginning I was sure I wasn't going to be able to see any of myself in her, there were certain details, like her fear of intimacy, that I found I related to so intensely it was a bit unnerving - the kind of thing where you're reading and suddenly your breath catches and you feel deeply unsettled like you're seeing yourself on the page. That's just how present this story felt.

Caite Dolan-Leach's writing is superb. Though it's wordy to the point of pretension, you can always tell, with a book like this, which authors are anxiously flipping through thesauruses and which authors have had these words in their arsenal all along, and it's pretty clear that Dolan-Leach belongs in the latter category. The (at times annoyingly overwrought) prose suits the story and the characters so seamlessly that it's hard to imagine it being written any differently.

As for the ending - I won't spoil anything, but I loved it. It was exactly the emotional payoff I was looking for after this long-winded adventure.

Though it takes a while to get going and relies a bit too heavily on elaborately baseless guesswork from the characters in order to connect certain plot points, Dead Letters was a clever and addicting read, and I thoroughly enjoyed this ride.

Confession....
I don't drink alcohol. It's just never been my thing.
But I feel a little drunk after reading this book. My gosh- there is so much alcohol drinking - a tasting room and Vineyard make for an easy access to drink until one is unconscious. --- but if readers 'do enjoy wine - you might consider a glass while reading this novel. Could enhance the experience!

Drunk is..... business as usual! Passed out is......business as usual!
Moving on.....
The setting is lovely -
The blurb gives almost too much of this story away!!!!!! I don't have much more to add! The blurb description gives more details than I would have given. I consider the 'blurb' a spoiler.

So.... what's left is MY EXPERIENCE....
I loved the beginning- the history to the 25 year old twin sisters names: Ava and Zelda.

I was also curious of Ava's first reaction when she first learns her sister Zelda is dead.
When she learns she burned in a barn fire - her first words and thoughts were...
"Well, that's just like Zelda". Funny reaction!!!

My mistake was then reading the BLURB. I tell ya - it got in my way. I knew this story was a 'game' of sorts. I'm not a big game player- nor do I drink. I thought the story was fair - good - but it wasn't flying monkeys or fireworks.

I understand why people love this mystery story -- the unraveling of the game from A to Z is unique. Every family member has their troubles- exhausting type troubles to me -TOXIC...

Mostly -- To be honest - I read it -but other than at times 'feeling' some connection & compassion with Ava - intrigue with the letters- the communication back and forth between the sisters - this story didn't 'wow' me. It's not a style I'm crazy about - yet many people may enjoy the spirit of the scavenger hunt---and the books cleverness.

Thank You Netgalley, Random House, and Caite Dolan- Leach

3.4

Enjoyed this unique read. Didn't see where it was going. Will look ok for future books by this author!

Dead Letters is a wonderful on the edge of your seat thriller. This is a thriller of the year that you will not be able to put down. The twists and the characters will make you fall in love with this book. I would recommend everyone to read this book. I can not wait to read another story from this author.

Just a quick browse of the reviews before I post mine makes me wonder if we even read the same book. I found that this book was slow to start, the use of big "uncommon" words made it some work to read and the plot didn't make me want to keep picking up my Kindle.

I'm well read, but the use of the larger words made it that I had to keep pausing to define to make sense of the sentence; then re-reading the sentence to figure out the context of what was going on, was a put-off for me. It felt like at times there was a larger word used when really the simpleness of using "family" (for example) would've sufficed. When I read I like to enjoy it, I make sure I carve out time during my busy schedule to read, and I felt like with the beginning of this book I had to work to read it.

The plot really didn't start to get interesting to me until the 80% in mark. Then I wanted to know what Zelda was really up to, how this was all going to pan out and have some dramatic twist that I REALLY didn't see coming.. and then it didn't. I'm not sure I felt/saw the suspense during the entire book, it wasn't a huge climax at the end, it was rather lack luster and kind of how I saw it ending.

I hate giving books a 2, because I feel like there are always good things you can find in a book, something you enjoyed, but for me this one fell flat. I also hate that this is the first book I received from NetGalley and I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping to. Maybe I'm missing something.. If I did, let me know!

This book was bang on with its description "if you liked Luckiest Girl Alive.." and thats exactly how I felt reading the book. It's a genre bending book, which reads like a beachy chick lit novel with a side of mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am really glad I read this book without knowing much about it. It was everything I want in a psychological thriller. Good writing, strong characters, suspense, mystery, believable plot devices and dysfunctional family ties. Ava and Zelda are identical twins, but their personalities are quite different. When Zelda betrays Ava, Ava flees overseas trying to put her sister and family behind her. It is only when tragedy strikes that Ava returns home to face her shaky family, their failing family wine business and the truth of the betrayal. Leaving cryptic notes for her sister, we discover what Zelda has been up to since Ava left for Paris and what Ava needs to do to save her family and their business from complete ruin.
I don't want to say too much but fans of both literary fiction and psychological thrillers will really enjoy this smart and engaging debut.

Skimmed through to the end. Was not a fan of this one. The characters were all unlikeable drunks. The mystery was not enough to save the book. Not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book!

This is being marketed as a suspense thriller - while it's definitely a mystery, it isn't the type of book that I would classify as a thriller. However, that takes none of the power away from this book.

Ava and Zelda are twins, born to alcoholic, dysfunctional parents who own a winery in the Finger Lakes of NY. They were always opposites - Ava the good girl to Zelda's wild child persona. When their dad leaves the family to start a better life in California (better wife & kids, better winery), the girls are left to care for their mother who is slipping into dementia. Ava is expected to be the one to return home after college and take care of the winery and the family - however, after a betrayal by Zelda, she escapes to Paris to start her own better life. Because of their falling out, Ava hasn't spoken to Zelda in two years - until she gets a phone call to return home because Ava died in a fire.

But did she die? Ava starts receiving messages from Zelda - an alphabet puzzle to solve. The puzzle leads her to discover aspects of her family that she never knew as well as solving the mystery of what happened to Zelda.

I really enjoyed this book and uncovering the truths about the characters. A wonderfully-written debut novel!

I'd like to thank Kindle for its Dictionary feature. Dead Letters has a language so rich and complex, that many words were new to me. This is an insanely good novel. The fact that it's the author's debut makes me want to preemptively add her name to the syllabus that future real-life Avas will study in college. It's a twisted treasure hunt, a look into the disintegration of a family, a cautionary tale on the perils of addiction and a mystery so well built that it's hard to see where it's going. Ava, the good twin (or is she?) comes back from Paris after two years for her sister's funeral. Zelda, the evil twin, seems to be dead, but Ava doesn't believe it. Where it goes from there is surprising and heartbreaking. All the characters are just so damaged that it's sad to read about how they keep repeating the same patterns and making the same mistakes over and over. The girls’ parents are horrible, but it's hard to hate them because they were just doing their best. It's not a fast read, not only because the plot is so complex, but because the prose is so beautiful that you want to slow down and take notice. Every minute spent poring over the story of Ava and Zelda is reading time well spent.

Caution: There may be mild spoilers, but I promise, NOTHING will ruin the ending.



Literary fiction isn’t my GO TO genre. In fact, I tend to avoid it. For the most part I don’t like that style of writing. Going into Dead Letters I knew it was a more literary book than I gravitate toward and honestly, up until about 15-20% I seriously considered quitting. By the time I reached THE END (sobbing like a baby) I was so glad I didn’t quit this one.

As the blurb indicates, Ava’s from a family of alcoholics. They’re all pretty terrible people, making all kinds of terrible life choices. It was hard to relate to them because I’m the opposite, I just don’t see the point in alcohol so I usually abstain. It actually bothered me a lot more up until the point when Ava says out loud that she knows she has a problem. Once the cards were on the table, I could respect her more.

One of the problems I have with literary fiction is that they tend to linger on seemingly random tangents. That was very much the case with this book, as present day Ava reminisced about something that happened years ago, usually involving Zelda. And much of the time they seemed unimportant to the story, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of a flashback that didn’t pertain to the clues/ending.

The clues laid out by Zelda were very clever. I found myself wondering how she was doing it. What was going on. Just when I thought I figured it out, I got a slap in the face. My theory was 100% incorrect, and though it would have been cool, this ending was so much butter. (If anyone wants to know my theory, feel free to private message me! I don’t want to spoil the journey for other readers by posting it here!)

Seriously, I can’t express my feelings for this book without spoiling it!

I’ll sum it up this way – for 95% of the book I could have cared less what happened, I just wanted to FINISH. Then the ending happened. And suddenly I was completely and totally invested in the story. Days later and I’m still thinking about it. The book shot from like, a 2.5-3 star book to a 3.75/4 star book.

So should you read the book?

If you’re into literary books – YES.

If you’re not so much into literary but you like a book with a mind lowing ending that leaves you thinking – YES.

While twin sisters Ava and Zelda Antipova may be carbon copies of each other, they couldn't be any more opposite. Ava - the all around good girl who follows the rules and keeps people at arms length, and Zelda - the wild child who is always jumping into things head first. What finally tears the twins apart is betrayal and sends Ava half way across the world to get away from her scheming sister and the suffocation of their small town...and there she stays until word reaches her three years later that Zelda has perished in a barn fire on their property.

Ava returns to her tiny upstate NY home, rife with ghosts - including her alcoholic family (a title that may also extend to her), her increasingly unstable mother, her flighty absentee father, the boy who broke her heart and of course, her sister - who sends her on a wild chase and it turns out may or may not be dead.

Is Zelda alive? Is she punishing her sister for leaving? Is she forcing her to confront the past or does she want her to create her own future? As the game unravels, Ava must confront all of these questions and what may be their painful answers.

I don't know...I did really enjoy this book while I was in the midst of it. The story is engaging and while the characters are frustrating and in some ways overblown - they were also entertaining. I know a lot of people struggled with the description of this book as a thriller and I can understand why. I don't think the pacing or the telling of the story suggests 'thriller' but it was definitely mysterious enough to keep my attention. While I wish I found myself more caught up in the action, so to speak, I also wasn't left disappointed.

I think I was more unnerved by how completely implausible some of the events were, by the twins lack of care for anyone but themselves, and the fact that some plot points were never completely fleshed out (like Ava, Wyatt and Zelda's mysterious night after the betrayal - It's easy to confer what happened BUT what bearing did this really have on the story at all?).

This book kept me up all night. I was hooked from the first chapter, and the author kept me in suspense the entire book. Just when i thought i figured it out, it would go the other way. I really got invested in the story, and i really liked the characters, and the development of each character. I really enjoyed this book and i hope to see more books from this author!

This is a book about twins, the good one and the wild one the rest is a mystery! This is the book that everyone is going to be reading on the beach this summer and talking to their girlfriends about over copious amounts of wine!

I really enjoyed this book. It took me longer to read than it should have simply because life doesn't stop for a good book. But I was very caught up in the story and enjoyed the twist at the end.