This isn't just Good For A Debut Author (though it is - exceptional for one, in fact - if she isn't a Morris Award finalist I'm going to have to take up a one-sided correspondence with the American Library Association), it's Great For Any Author.

Because the world seems like a tunnel of silence.'

In one letter, Laurel appeals to all of these dead simultaneously: 'I hope one of you hears me. Laurel's deceased confidantes, some disfigured by regret and disappointment, all suited in various ways to 'understand' her, include Janis Joplin, Judy Garland, Amelia Earhart, John Keats, River Phoenix, and more. Laurel continues writing, filling her notebook with letters to the dead this epistolary armature provides structure, a sanctuary where she can unravel the past while making sense of her life. Laurel blames herself for the death of her troubled older sister for an English assignment - 'write a letter to a dead person' - she chooses Kurt Cobain, her sister's favorite musician. 'Love Letters to the Dead' will crack your hard, cynical heart with its imperfect beauty and raw pain. Told through letters written to those who've passed, this epistolary story will cut straight through you like a knife. So when this book called this book 'stunning' and 'a bold new literary voice,' I'm in. If Stephen Chbosky told me a certain pizza place was good, I'd eat there.

Love letters to the dead review