Category: Reviews by Maddie

Review: Day 21 by Kass Morgan

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Day 21

Day 21 by Kass Morgan
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published by: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Series: The 100 (#1)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Day 21’, like ‘The 100’, had a lot going for it. Sarah, the super-fan if you remember, was of the opinion that the two books should have been combined into one. On that note, I agree with her. As I read the books so quickly one after the other, like with the ‘Shatter Me’ series by Tahereh Mafi, I found it hard to separate what happened in each book. Neither stands out to me as a showstopper, more of a signature bake. (Excuse my profound love for The Great British Bake-Off)

So the ending of ‘The 100’ set us up for a wild ride in ‘Day 21’. Unfortunately it felt like the ride was closed for repairs. The concept of other humans, on an Earth that was strongly believed to have been uninhabited, was not played up to its full potential. Sure, the humans were a threat, but we all saw that coming. OK, they didn’t have to kill someone to prove that they were dangerous but I certainly expected the other humans to play less of a background role.

Instead, we were focusing on the cyclic romances of the now 95 or so human delinquents. Excellent?

For this book, the 95 have kidnapped one of the human born. Sasha. I’d say it’s pretty convenient that she’s a girl so that Wells, our heartbroken leader, can have a love interest now that Clarke has up and left him for the allure of Bellamy. I saw their romantic involvement coming a mile off, though that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. When you’re in a kingdom of isolation, it’s better to have a soul mate.

However, the kidnapping works both ways. Octavia was also kidnapped by the Earthborns, although not many were mourning her loss after the scandal surrounding her within ‘The 100’. Of course, Bellamy gets his bravado on and has to be the hero. Clarke follows. Together they try and find Bellamy’s lost sister as well as work on trusting one another in their relationship.

When will they learn its better just to tell the truth straight away? It would lead to a lot less break-ups and inevitable make-ups.

Meanwhile, on a spaceship far, far away, Glass is encountering a lot of problems, you know, like not being able to breathe. She chooses to stay with Luke, which was cute, but then has to do something risky to get them both back to the safe side of the ship…the part with the high levels of oxygen in it. It turns out that lack of oxygen means the ship is failing (whose fault is that, eh chancellor’s son?!) and the spaceship colony is being shipped down to Earth. There’s a bit of a Titanic situation, in that there’s not enough escape pods for everyone. Glass said she’d never let go of Luke, but we all know what happens to Leo…I mean Luke.

It’s another cycle of I-love-you-now-I-don’t-love-you-oh-wait-I-love-you-again. Not great.

Now, there’s another big reveal at the end of this book to do with the connection between the characters. If you read too much into the flashbacks, then you will figure this out in about a minute. I wasn’t at all surprised by what was revealed and, therefore, it didn’t deliver the shock factor that was promised.

Overall, I’d give ‘Day 21’ 3 stars. I enjoyed it more than ‘The 100’ because at least each character’s plot line varied slightly. Maybe it’s because I read them one after the other that I became more involved in the second book? That said, if this series continues, then I would be very interested to see if it gets better and where Kass Morgan takes the 95 delinquents next.

Preview Review: My True Love Gave To Me Anthology

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My True LoMy True Loveve Gave To Me Anthology
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Anthology
Published By: Macmillan Children’s
Pages: 320
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

From the two stories I’ve read from this anthology, I can just say that October 14th could not come fast enough. In the excerpt given, I got the chance to read Rainbow Rowell’s and Stephanie Perkins’ editions to the holiday short story collection, ‘My True Love Gave To Me’.

I’m guessing, because they’re romantic stories, the main characters get a kiss, but I’m hoping that someone gets six geese.

There’s nothing I love more than a good holiday themed short story. I read ‘Let it Snow’ by Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle and John Green last year and loved how the stories were all interwoven. However, with this collection I’m expecting the stories not to be connected. (12 authors in contact at the same time about their characters? A dream come true, though highly unlikely.)

I imagine the culmination of these stories happened in a boardroom, similar to ‘The Apprentice’, with Stephanie Perkins at the head of the table, delegating work to her eleven author elves that must churn out stories for Christmas.

So, Rainbow Rowell’s story was obviously written by Rainbow Rowell. There’s definitely not some Christmas ghostwriter out there, dictating what the authors write. In a similar style to ‘Landline’, the story takes place through flashbacks to previous New Year’s Eve parties. We get to see the friendship between Mags and Noel as it develops from just acquaintances to please-be-mine-forever lovers. It was adorable. I love it when a story line is quite circular, where things that were planted, earlier on in the story, grow into something constant and recurring. This was also the shorter of the two stories, but because it takes place over three years, it feels a lot longer. Heck, I would have been happy to read about Mags’ and Noel’s New Year’s Eve parties for a whole novel. Can that happen?

As for Stephanie Perkins’ edition to the anthology, I was equally impressed. It held her usual romantic and humorous style within fewer pages and managed to deliver a very satisfying story that gave my cheeks a warm glow. I loved that the main character, Marigold, and her mother were struggling with their bills and general living – it’s nice to see that these issues and real life situations are still being dealt with in short stories. Even though these stories are romantic, they are not romanticized.

Marigold and North were both adorable characters, on par with Anna and Etienne. Perkins’ characters are so quirky and loveable it’s hard not to enjoy whatever she writes.

I need more short stories from this collection ASAP. These ladies have definitely set the standards high and have done what they do best. It looks like my true love gave to me a five star book.

(Mild Spoiler) Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

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The 100

The 100 by Kass Morgan
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published by: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 323
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Sequel: Day 21 (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘The 100’ is probably the first legitimate science fiction I’ve read. Of course, all the dystopian novels I’ve completed could also be categorized as sci-fi, but this story takes place in space. My very first space opera. (I wonder if there’s a card for that?)

This was the first book in a series about a colony of humans that had been evacuated from Earth to live in the safety of a spaceship. Because I’ve read ‘Cress’ by Marissa Meyer, I could guess something would go wrong with the ship. I wasn’t disappointed. Therefore, one hundred juvenile delinquents (because ninety-eight just doesn’t have the same ring to it) are sent to Earth nearly a century later to see if Earth had become inhabitable.

Written in third person and following the storylines of four characters, who are very well linked together, ‘The 100’ has a lot to offer. There’s always something going on, even if it is only for a sentence at the end of the chapter. My general opinion was that each story line could have been told in a much shorter timespan, or with lots more detail.

Let me set the scene.

So, Clarke was in love with Wells, and Wells committed a felony just to go to Earth with her, but it turns out Clarke isn’t in love with Wells anymore, she likes Bellamy. Bellamy likes Clarke too, but he has to protect his sister Octavia. Later he doesn’t like Clarke, and then he does again, then Clarke likes Wells, and then settles for Bellamy…. meanwhile aboard ship, Glass, Wells’ best friend, loves Luke but Luke doesn’t love her, he loves Camille, but then he actually loves Glass and Glass still loves him.

Is anyone else thinking these characters are completely unable to make up their minds?

When it came to the romantic relationships between the characters, the same cookie-cutter pattern was followed: one person in the couple is unhappy because they are hiding a HUGE secret that could tear their relationship apart. When the secret finally comes out, as it inevitably will, the relationship fails because of mistrust and dishonesty. I can read about this once, but not on eight separate occasions.

I’d definitely say that the romantic relationships drove the plot more than I thought they would. I know ‘The 100’ has been made into a popular TV show, though haven’t seen an episode. My friend, Sarah (‘The 100’ super-fan) says that the show focuses more on the survival element of the book because that’s actually quite interesting. Just under 100 teenagers, (about ninety three after a few deaths to prove the scene was important) with no experience of Earth, trying to survive without many resources? That sounds killer! I can see why it didn’t chose repetitive romance to draw in the viewers.

So you know what I said about no survival experience? Well, it turns out Bellamy is a dead shot with a bow and arrow, without any earlier practice and having only read about hunting in books. If only Tudor History was that easy to master!

The book ends in quite a cliffhanger, but let’s see if you can guess it! A colony of humans think they’re the only people alive and that Earth is uninhabited. They stress this fact quite a bit. What are they completely not expecting to find on Earth? Other humans.

What do they find on Earth? You guessed it. Other humans.

I severely hope this conflict is played up to it’s full potential in the second book. (More on that later!)

Overall, I’d give ‘The 100’ 2.5 stars. It didn’t impress me as much as I wanted it too because I was expecting something more like the TV show and what that offered. However, Kass Morgan has left the story relatively open ended so it could get better. Fingers crossed.

Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

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Vampire vampire academyAcademy by Richelle Mead
Genre: Supernatural, Romance
Published By: Razorbill
Pages: 332
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: Frostbite (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I can’t even coherently describe how excited I was to read Vampire Academy. Bee read the whole series before me, in cute little bind-ups on her Kindle, and really recommended it, saying that she wasn’t expecting much for the books but was blown away by how completely absorbed she was by the story.

Continue reading “Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead” →

Review: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

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Deep Blue by JennDeep Blueifer Donnelly
Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Middle-Grade
Published By: Disney Press
Pages: 340
Format: E-book
Rating: ★★
Series: Rogue Wave (#2)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

The Waterfire Saga: Deep Blue is a book that I would recommend to girls of around ten to twelve years old. Although marketed as a young adult book, after researching the author’s website, her intention was to write for her ten year old daughter. With those criteria, I think she’s succeeded.

This book has a lot of elements within it that are important when writing books for children, for example, friendship and self belief. Set under the sea in a very developed (though not entirely explained) mermaid world, it’s perfect for girls that want a tame introduction to fantasy before they try their hand at ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ (A recommended reading age of at least 14.)

However, I found that the first 25% of the book (accurate due to Kindle) had a completely different feel to the rest of the story. Seraphina, the main character, is worried about fulfilling her duties as a princess and whether the guy she’s betrothed to still likes her. All trivial stuff, right? Then, wham bam, both her parents die in an assassin’s attack and suddenly it’s all ‘the-fate-of-the-world-is-on-your-shoulders’ type stuff. What?!

Although the book moved at a fast pace, with a new thing happening (and a new character being introduced) basically happened on every page, nothing was explained to its full extent, leaving me feeling at a loss for what was happening.

So, I got that the two main characters were on a quest, suddenly changing from weak willed to strong females in a matter of seconds with no real gradient of change, and they had to find four other girls to go and fight down this monster. The execution of this quest wasn’t exactly Rick Riordan standard. Although the girls were strong in their own way, they relied a lot on getting rescued and other people taking the bullets (or poisoned arrows) for them. They moved from place to place, in a constant state of ‘flee-the-bad-guys’ without any attempt at facing their problems.

When it came to finding the other girls, it happened very abruptly and clumsily. Ling, the first girl to join Seraphina and Neela, was just sat nonchalantly in a café! The other two girls, Ava and Becca, who at first I could distinguish between, were found together getting attacked by evil ghosts and the last girl, Astrid, was your classic non-believer and slightly evil one. Everything was just too quick and…

Convenient.

That’s the only word to describe this book. The girls discovered hidden powers at just the right moment, with camoflauge spells only working at the last seconds and guards wouldn’t do a full sweep of their hideout.

The ending also had a sense of convenience. How was it the six girls, barely able to use magic, were able to fight down the biggest threat and win as soon as they joined forces? Of course, the threat couldn’t be completely diminished, as this is only the first book in a series. The threat will return but in the meantime, what do all the girls have to do? You guessed it.

Flee.

Overall, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. Not impressed. I didn’t feel for any of the characters, primary or secondary, as we basically only learnt their names and the colour of their tails. Not much to get emotionally attached to. However, perhaps it was the fact that I’m seventeen, and not ten that stopped me from enjoying this book to the maximum.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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LandlineLandline by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Family
Published by: Orion
Pages: 310
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

‘Landline’ by Rainbow Rowell fits more perfectly into the ‘New Adult’ genre of literature. Due to there being no characters in the book between the ages of 15-20, ‘Young Adult’ may have been an understatement.

However, the fact that the characters were parents didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, although I felt I couldn’t relate to the characters as well because I hadn’t experienced a lot of what they were going through…like marriage. (It’s unfortunately impossible to propose to book characters.)

The story follows Georgie, a mother of two that has a time consuming career of writing scripts for TV shows. That was super interesting to read, as I never really imagine the people behind the jokes of sitcoms. Georgie is married to Neal and it’s safe to say their marriage is on the rocks because of Georgie’s job and the strain of having kids. (Wow, family life suddenly seems way more difficult than I thought!)

Although this is all quintessential to the plot, the really interesting idea is that Georgie has a phone in her present that can connect to a phone in Neal’s past. Through this magical device, she is able to talk to a younger Neal, who is contemplating proposing to Georgie. As anyone would, older Georgie takes this opportunity to smooth over younger Georgie’s mistakes and put right her relationship with her husband.

This doesn’t quite go to plan.

The scenes where Georgie was on the phone to younger Neal were quite repetitive. They’d follow the pattern of younger Neal, not knowing older Georgie’s downfall’s, convincing her that he loves her while the older Georgie tries to convince him that they’re not right for each other. I could read about this struggle once, but three times was kind of a push.

There are also parts of the book that are flashbacks to Georgie and Neal’s relationship at its roots, when they were first getting to know each other. These were the cutest parts, but as we were only reading from Georgie’s perspective, we didn’t get to see that Neal really really liked Georgie, though he wasn’t very good at showing it.

In a way, their relationship was unequal from the start, with Georgie thinking that she loved Neal more than he loved her, and with Neal thinking the other way around. The problem was definitely communication. They definitely needed to talk more. Thank goodness for this magical phone! If only Georgie would stop being so negative about herself.

The other problem with time travel is messing up the future. Georgie was under the impressive the phone worked in a ‘Back to the Future’ or ‘Meet the Robinson’s’ system but really, we were looking at your classic ‘Prisoner of Askaban’ contingency system, where every action is predetermined to make the future. Nice one.

All is resolved at the end, which is nice for the McCool family, but in my opinion, the whole book could have told the same story in a lot less pages, with less emphasis on Georgie’s life and more emphasis on her ability to fix her broke relationship (successfully, I might add!) For this reason, I’m going to give this book 3.5 stars, because although I liked it, the characters were much older than me. I couldn’t sympathize with them well and the story felt a little drawn out. Nothing to make me stop reading completely, but nothing like ‘Fangirl’.

Review: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

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To All The Boys ITo All the Boys‘ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I got everything that I was expecting with this book, except the promised plot. We were sold on the idea that boys would be receiving love letters from a girl who doesn’t love them anymore, but there were only five letters. Two boys didn’t bother to confront her about it. One boy was sweet about it, but fleeting in the story, and the other two guys ended up in a fight for Lara Jean’s affections.

What I wasn’t expecting was the classic ‘be-my-fake-boyfriend’ plot that steered the majority of the story. And what normally happens in this scenario? They actually fall in love. Did that happen? Is it really a surprise if I say yes?

Although I’m a fan of the fake bf/gf story line (like a good love triangle, when does it ever happen in real life?) I didn’t really get the purpose of this one. The explanation for it in the book was to ‘save face’. What does that even mean?!

The main character, Lara Jean, doesn’t really stand out for me as a character with much backbone. She’s super dependent on her sisters and kind of babyish. This naivety hinders her from doing things and speaking out when, really, that would make her a lot happier!

That said, I loved the relationship she had with her sisters. It was very equal and realistic and though I don’t know what it’s like to have older or younger sisters, I do have a sister and I know what it’s like to be angry with her! My favourite sister was probably Kitty, the youngest. She was adorable, determined and great at plaiting hair. I’d of much preferred a book from her perspective! J

The relationship between Lara Jean and her boy-next-door Josh went unresolved. He was one of her loves but the problem was, he was dating her older sister Margot. (Pronounced Mar-go or Mar-got?) They broke up. Both LJ and Josh were single. Did they get together once LJ knew Josh liked her too? NOPE! LJ did the fake bf routine with the most popular guy at school, Peter. WHYYY?!

Peter and LJ’s relationship was cute. I liked how they both were unsure and adorable to each other, with Peter really trying to impress LJ and Kitty. Josh faded into the background at this point, which was down right inconsistent, but he popped back up at the end of for the classic sister-betrayal fight.

A lot of clichés in this one. Sorry about that.

I originally thought that this was going to be a stand alone, but just discovered it was going to be a series. That’s good, otherwise I would have complained about the complete lack of satisfying ending. What happened with Josh? What happened with Peter? What happened with Margo? I had questions. A lot of them. Now, I guess, I wait for them to be answered.

Overall I’d give this book about 3.5 stars. I did enjoy it once it got going, but was surprised and the change of plot line from what was promised. Jenny Han has such a lovely way of writing family life and simple day activities, with a lot of emphasis put on food. LJ baked a lot in this book that made me crave cookies.

Generally cute, fluffy read with some substance. Definitely needs a sequel to tie up some very loose ends.

(Spoiler) Review: Pretty Series by Jenny Han

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The Summer

The Summer Series by Jenny Han
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Razorbill
Pages: 276
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Bee read this first a few years ago, and she said that she felt too young to really get the series. Now that we’re seventeen, she was interested to see what I would think of it. Answer: not that much.

The series is built around a love triangle between a girl and two brothers. In the UK editions of the series, the first book is blue, second yellow and third pink. I think they’re colour-coded by characters and who Belly, the main character (blue) ends up with.

The Summer I Turned Pretty was probably the best in the series, and that’s talking generously. I loved the flashbacks to her younger years at the summerhouse and at least the reader could understand how deeply rooted her love for Conrad, the older of the brothers, was. But the book was inconsequential for Belly’s love life. She has a summer fling with a boy called Cam, which was cute and summer-y with the purpose of proving she was a grown up fifteen year old and not a baby (which Conrad seemed to think.)
I don’t know how Belly could of loved Conrad. He was a jerk throughout the whole series yet could still claim he always loved Belly when it was convenient for him. Jeremiah, the younger brother, was no better. There was no hint of love between him and Belly, not really a hint of friendship either though they were meant to be best friends.

not summerYou can imagine my surprise when she ends up dating Jeremiah by the end of the second book. Can I even remember what happened in each book? Not really. They melted into one.

There’s always this subplot of Suzannah, the boys’ mother, who has a cancer relapse and sadly doesn’t get to live past book one. Grief was an interesting theme for the series, and keeping things exactly the same, which reminded me of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.

The third book was just ridiculous. Jeremiah, who seemed the perfect boyfriend in everyway and definitely was better for Belly than douche-y Conrad, did something completely stupid mainly so the brothers’ roles could be switched and Belly would actually be consolidated in preferring Conrad.

The third book revolves around a wedding between Belly and Jeremiah, though, as expected, it doesn’t go to plan. It seemed like the wrong message to be sending to teenagers: the way to fix a broken relationship is to stick it out and get married despite Grand Canyon sized cracks in the couple’s trust.

But really, has anyone experienced a love triangle in real life? They’re written about so much and I’m wondering what the inspiration was. Just imagine two boys being completely devoted to you. What would you do? Play them about for ages before admitting you preferred this one all along is not the right method.Always

In my opinion, Belly deserved neither guy. She was selfish, whiny and inconsiderate. She wanted to believe so much that she’d grown up but I believed Conrad all the way. She didn’t change. She didn’t mature. She just got her happy ending by default.

I’d give the series about 2.5 stars out of 5, because I really didn’t enjoy it, but wanted to get to the end to see the outcome. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have wasted my time. This is described by Sarah Dessen as a ‘beach read’. Does that mean a book you’d read at the beach and then leave there?

If you like love triangles that are badly built upon and convenience within plots, this is for you. If you’re looking for something light, that won’t take more than a day to finish and you want to flush your mind with some kind of romance, this is also for you.

Sorry for the negativity. This doesn’t mean Jenny Han can’t write a good book. I loved Burn for burn, co-written with Siobhan Vivian and am excited to read her newest venture To all the Boys I’ve loved before. Let’s hope for better!

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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Cinder by Macinderrissa Meyer
Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure, Romance
Published By: Puffin
Pages: 390
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I have recently become very interested in fairy tale retellings, and knew that there was a lot of hype surrounding the ‘Lunar Chronicles’ series by Marissa Meyer, containing four books: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter.

‘Cinder’, the first book in the series, is a retelling of Cinderella, who is my second favourite princess (the first being Jasmine from Aladdin) so I was super excited to dive into this book. I’ve never really read any science fiction before, but was intrigued by the cyborg/android element of the novel, which was a really good addition to the original tale.

One of the reviews in the front of the novel described ‘Cinder’ as a “fractured fairy tale”, which I think is the perfect way to describe it. There is no doubt that the content of the story is grounded within the fairy tale and your favourite parts can be found within this book, such as, the missing shoe (or foot in this case), the handsome prince, the wicked stepmother (politically correct term being ‘legal guardian’.)

Cinder, because of it’s sci-fi basis, is wonderfully fast paced. One of the story arcs is that there is this plague that is affecting the whole world and Cinder provides key scientific information about an antidote. This illness helped to add tension and fear to the novel, as Cinder’s sister, Peony, is claimed by the pestilence.

Both the reader and Cinder know little about where Cinder came from. It’s excellent to see her past unfold and her struggle with being a cyborg, a second class citizen that is bound to be looked down upon by the rest of society. There is quite a big twist in the story at the end, though the reader feels prepared for this, as they are fed little tidbits of information.

There are some extraterrestrials in the story, which want to wage war on Earth. (Seriously, there is so much going on, I can’t wait to read the next books in the series to see how it all pans out!) These aliens, called Lunars because they inhabit the moon, have brainwashing powers which can only lead to disaster.

All characters are wonderful. My favourites include Cinder (obviously because what’s not to love about that kick-ass girl?), her android friend Iko, who adds some light relief and the prince, Kai, who Cinder meets within the first chapter making for some great romantic tension all the way through the book.

It’s told in third person perspective, so a lot of the time the reader is with Cinder (the best place to be, she’s got a lot to do) but is sometimes in the presence of the prince, who has to diplomatically deal with the Lunars and their demands. Tough stuff.

My favourite part of the whole thing was probably the ball scene at the end of the novel. So much drama! So much excitement! What’s even better, there was no fairy godmother. Cinder went to the ball like a raggedy doll, with a foot that was too small for her and a dress coated in grease stains. Perfect. I loved how Cinder didn’t have to be beautiful like a princess and wasn’t treated like one. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cinderella, but it felt like Cinder was more deserving of a happy ending than she was.

What’s worse was that Cinder was left on a cliffhanger. The book ended in a ‘Darth Vader is Luke’s father’ kind of way before leaving Cinder imprisoned in the palace with a small hope of escape. I’m so glad that we’ll get to read more about Cinder and her *hopefully* happily ever after more in ‘Scarlet’. Speaking of which, Winter, Cress and a small mention of Scarlet was made within Cinder, leading to a few excited squeals from myself and Bee (we were reading this wonderful book together.) These small mentions will go a long way to ensure that the whole series flows together nicely from start to finish.

Bring on ‘Scarlet’!

Overall, I’d give this beautiful book five out of five stars, no question. It’s definitely made my favourites list and probably top 14 books of 2014 as well. I’d recommend this book to anyone who has read any Jackson Pierce books or just like fairy tales in general. They sure make for excellent reading!

Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

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Love Lettava-dellaira-love-letters-to-the-deaders to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
Genre: Contemporary
Published By: Hot Key Books
Pages: 327
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Love Letters to the Dead was….definitely an interesting if not slightly unexpected read. I went into the book (obviously not literally) expecting it to be a more adult version of ‘Love, Aubrey’ by Suzanne LeFleur and came out the other side having read a parallel version of ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ where all the main characters are the opposite gender. Definitely not what I signed up for.

My lovely friend, Jasmine, recommended this book to me. Jasmine isn’t really an obsessive reader like I am, so for her to say it was ‘good’ was like me saying it was ‘the universe cannot exist without this book’ (as I did with the entire Percy Jackson franchise).I thought: “I love books about sisters.” ‘Fangirl’, ‘Sisters Red’, ‘…and unfortunately, I am used to one of the sisters dying…’The Lovely Bones’, ‘Love, Aubrey’. I thought: ‘definitely the book for me!’

Unfortunately not.

The book contained a lot of themes that I was uncomfortable with, for example, underage drinking and drug use. This meant that I felt quite isolated from the characters and didn’t feel like I could relate to them at all. Sad. I know that these themes can be a realistic portray of some teenagers’ lives, but to me, their actions were too toxic and led to bad decision that I couldn’t feel as much sympathy for.

However, this book also conquers a lot of themes that I feel need more exposure in young adult literature, for example, homosexuality and abusive relationships. (Can you see where I’m drawing the ‘Perks’ parallels?) These topics are always interesting to read because reading about something and getting these kind of subjects out there is fuelling social change. Although Hannah and Natalie’s relationship held the same troubles as Patrick and Brad’s, this didn’t take away from the struggles the girls faced, even if it wasn’t the most original relationship dynamic.

Some of my favourite parts of the book was when Laurel would write about May when she was alive and young. Their relationship was built around Laurel idolising May, and May having to keep up the facade of her perfection for Laurel’s sake. The way that May died, or the cause of her death, remains slightly ambiguous but I like to hope it was the wind that broke her wings. I was fully submersed in the world that May created, and wasn’t at all surprised about how Laurel reacted to her sister’s death because of their close bond. It must be difficult to be the younger sister. Thank goodness I’m a twin!

The reveal at the end of the book….disappointed me. As I’ve said, it dealt with an abusive relationship that was similar to what Charlie experienced in ‘Perks’. I wanted Laurel not to feel so broken, because she had the power to make herself whole and it wasn’t helping that she wouldn’t open up to the one person who truly cared about her, Sky, the love interest. Sky also knew May, so there was an intriguing question building between the couple of whether Sky liked Laurel for herself or simply because she resembled May (to be honest, Laurel was wearing May’s clothes.)

Overall, I give ‘Love Letters to the Dead’ 3 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed the letter writing format. There was nothing more rewarding than when I knew who she was writing to. Two poems were also used throughout the book “The Art of Losing” by Elizabeth Bishop and ‘I carry your heart’ by E.E.Cummings. (Did Dellaira just watch the movie ‘In Her Shoes’ while writing this?!) and a few of the poets I will be studying next year, which let me classifying reading ‘Love Letters’ as homework.

Generally, a nice debut. Don’t go into this thinking it’s going to be like ‘Love, Aubrey’ but if you’ve already read ‘Perks’ then maybe there’s no need to read this one…unless you prefer a female protagonist, in that case, this is the perfect book for you.