Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

I have been reading about Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira on book blogs and on Goodreads for a while. I've been waiting patiently on the library reserve list for the past few months to have my chance to read this highly acclaimed book. And, well... I didn't love it as much as I had thought I would based on the reviews I'd read.

Laurel is just beginning high school and, as we know from nearly every other YA book out there, this is a difficult time. This transition is made even more formidable in the wake of Laurel's older sister's death. Not wanting to answer questions about the tragic events from that night, Laurel has transferred to a new school where she knows no one and no one knows her or, more importantly, her sister. Laurel and May were extremely close, but after their parents' divorce May changed and Laurel tried everything she could to hold on to her. Laurel's first English assignment of the school year is to write a letter to a dead person. The teacher implied that each student should write to a former president or other historical figure, but Laurel chooses instead to write to Kurt Cobain. She writes about her new school and what has taken her there. She writes about her sister and she writes about how lonely and heartbroken she is. She does not turn in the assignment, but keeps it for herself. The rest of the book continues in a series of letters to other dead people: Judy Garland, Elizabeth Bishop, Amelia Earhart, River Phoenix, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, Allan Lane, E.E. Cummings, and Jim Morrison. We do eventually learn the details of May's death and we come to see how awful the past two years have been for Laurel.

Presented as a series of letters, this book reminded me a lot of Stephen Chobsky's the perks of being a wallflower, and just like that book, I was irritated by the writing style. I understand we are reading the letters of a fourteen-year-old girl and the writing should match that, but I still found it difficult to read. As the story progressed, the resemblance to Chobsky's book became even more evident almost to the point that I felt it was nearly plagiarism. I was quite surprised when I got to the acknowledgements at the end of the book to read that Ava Dellaira thanked Stephen Chobsky as a "dear friend and mentor". I guess if he doesn't have a problem with it, I shouldn't either, but the similarities were much too frequent for me.

There were lines that were almost like poetry, along with actual excerpts of poetry. Here, Laurel is writing to Judy Garland:

You used your voice like glue to keep your family together. And then to keep yourself from coming undone.

About Amelia Earhart, she says:

They sent out search parties, and we've been searching ever since. It's a testament to how much we loved you that we are still looking seventy-five years after your death.

Laurel provides a lot of background information about each of the people to whom she writes. I learned things I never knew about each of these real people who somehow became characters in Laurel's life. Early in my reading, I did feel like I didn't really want to continue reading, but I did, mostly so I could find out what happened. I didn't love it and my continued reading didn't make me love it more. It was okay. I'm not sure what other readers found so groundbreaking, but I was disappointed. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you'll get more from it than I did. If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.