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Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel
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Published:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) 2014
Accelerated Reader:
IL: UG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 13
Lexile measure:
790L
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description

"Dear Ava, I loved your book." —Award-winning actress Emma Watson
Reminiscent of John Green, Kathleen Glasgow, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel.
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did.
Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her.
Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she begin to discover her own path.
Praise for Love Letters to the Dead:
"Love Letters to the Dead is more than a stunning debut. It is the announcement of a bold new literary voice." —Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
"A heart-wrenching celebration of love and friendship and family." —Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout
"Love Letters to the Dead leaves an indelible mark." —Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay
"Really, just go read it." The Guardian
"Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, get ready." ―Booklist, starred review

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
04/01/2014
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780374346683
ASIN:
B00FCR3M2O
Accelerated Reader:
UG
Level 4.9, 13 Points
Lexile measure:
790
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Ava Dellaira. (2014). Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR).

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Ava Dellaira. 2014. Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR).

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2014.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Ava Dellaira. Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2014.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
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Needs Update?:
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 15:27:00
Date Updated:
Oct 26, 2023 11:41:52
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 06:44:26
Last Metadata Change:
Dec 17, 2023 07:56:15
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      • bioText: Ava Dellaira is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. Love Letters to the Dead is her debut novel. She currently lives in Santa Monica
      • name: Ava Dellaira
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fullDescription

"Dear Ava, I loved your book." —Award-winning actress Emma Watson
Reminiscent of John Green, Kathleen Glasgow, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel.
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did.
Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her.
Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she begin to discover her own path.
Praise for Love Letters to the Dead:
"Love Letters to the Dead is more than a stunning debut. It is the announcement of a bold new literary voice." —Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
"A heart-wrenching celebration of love and friendship and family." —Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout
"Love Letters to the Dead leaves an indelible mark." —Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay
"Really, just go read it." The Guardian
"Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, get ready." ―Booklist, starred review

gradeLevels
      • value: Grade 3
      • value: Grade 4
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: BCCB
      • content: "Reminiscent of Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, this is powerfully emotional stuff."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Horn Book
      • content: "Dellaira's characters are authentically conceived and beautifully drawn."
      • premium: False
      • source: School Library Journal
      • content: "Best for teens who enjoyed Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower."
      • premium: False
      • source: Publishers Weekly
      • content: "Laurel and her friends' struggles and hard-won successes are poignant, and seeing Laurel begin to forgive herself and May is extremely moving."
      • premium: False
      • source: Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
      • content: "I simply loved this book. Love Letters to the Dead is more than a stunning debut. It is the announcement of a bold new literary voice."
      • premium: False
      • source: Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak
      • content: "A brilliant story about the courage it takes to keep living after your world falls apart. A heart-wrenching celebration of love and friendship and family."
      • premium: False
      • source: Jay Asher, author of 13 Reasons Why
      • content: "With beautiful observations of where life can take us, from grieving to celebrating, disappointment to wonder, LOVE LETTERS TO THE DEAD is a love letter to living."
      • premium: False
      • source: Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay
      • content: "Dear Ava Dellaira: Your book broke my heart, and pieced it back together. As with Kurt, Janis, Amelia and the others who are gone but still somehow here, LOVE LETTERS TO THE DEAD leaves an indelible mark."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        February 10, 2014
        Everything Laurel knows about high school, she learned from her older sister, but after May’s death, Laurel has to start freshman year on her own. After getting an assignment to write to someone who’s died, Laurel keeps going, and the book is structured as a journal in letters to Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, River Phoenix, Judy Garland, and others. Laurel uses the letters to talk about both the past and the unfolding present, especially the friends she makes, who are also struggling with the problems that played a role in May’s life and death. Debut author Dellaira gives Laurel a poet’s eye: when she first makes eye contact with the boy she has a crush on, it feels like “fireflies lighting under my skin.” Although Dellaria writes beautifully, the pervading melancholy feels one-note at times, and the letter format can get wearying, especially when Laurel tells the recipients about their own careers, the epistolary equivalent of expository dialogue. That said, Laurel and her friends’ struggles and hard-won successes are poignant, and seeing Laurel begin to forgive herself and May is extremely moving. Ages 12–up. Agent: Richard Florest, Rob Weisbach Creative Management.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        March 1, 2014
        Confiding in dead geniuses helps a teen process her grief and rage. Everyone in Laurel's family is processing her sister May's death differently: Her father retreats into silence; her mother moves to California to work on a ranch; and Laurel herself writes letters to dead luminaries, including Kurt Cobain, Amelia Earhart, Janis Joplin and John Keats. Too gripped by a potent mixture of sadness, guilt and anger to tell her parents what really happened the night May died, Laurel pours her heart out in missives to a growing group of late geniuses. Sensitive and insightful, Laurel reflects on building new friendships and her first love, while also grappling with her memories of May's death, her worry that she caused it and her anger, too. As she inches slowly toward detailing the truth of May's death wish and her own survival of grievous harm, Laurel's understanding of her late correspondents grows more nuanced. Eventually, she sees them in three dimensions, as gifted people crushed by terrible sadness. The epistolary technique is perhaps too effective at building and sustaining narrative tension: Laurel so delays explaining her feelings of responsibility for May's death that the resolution of her story feels rushed. A tighter hand would have given more balance to an otherwise effective and satisfyingly heartbreaking melodrama. (Fiction. 12-17)

        COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: School Library Journal
      • content:

        March 1, 2014

        Gr 9 Up-Debut author Dellaira's heart-wrenching epistolary novel begins with Laurel's freshman assignment to write a letter to a dead person. She starts with a missive to Kurt Cobain, who had been a favorite of her recently deceased older sister, May. Gradually, through the teen's letters to other dead celebrities (Janis Joplin, Amelia Earhart, River Phoenix, and more), readers will begin to piece together the history of her splintered family life, including her parents' divorce and mother's virtual abandonment following May's unexplained death. Laurel is devastatingly, emotionally fragile, but she makes friends at her new high school and even starts to develop a serious love interest. Her misconstrued hero-worship of May gradually evolves into a deeper understanding of her beloved sister's strengths and many imperfections. Beautifully written, although a bit choppy in sections, particularly regarding the dead addressees' lives, this powerful novel deftly illustrates the concept that writing is an especially valuable form of healing for those dealing with overwhelming pain and grief. Best for teens who enjoyed Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999).-Susan Riley, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY

        Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        Starred review from March 15, 2014
        Grades 7-10 *Starred Review* The assignment: write a letter to someone who is dead. Laurel falls into this classroom task deeper than she could have ever imagined, writing to deceased stars like Kurt Cobain, Amelia Earhart, Judy Garland, River Phoenix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, and others whose lives ended as abruptly as Laurel's older sister's did. Her methodology expands beyond simply writing to the dead. Rather, she researches each recipient, learning about their lives in order to make each letter relatable to the intended party. These quite savvy letters become Laurel's way of working through her emotions as she begins high school, makes new friends, deals with a crumbling family, falls in love, and continues to grieve for the loss of her sister. With the help of her fantasy correspondence, she is able to find common ground, express herself, and eventually discover the messages and lessons of the deceased addressee's livesas well as her own. Well paced and cleverly plotted, this debut uses a fresh, new voice to tell a sometimes sad, sometimes edgy, but always compelling narrative. Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han, get ready.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

      • premium: True
      • source: The Horn Book
      • content:

        July 1, 2014
        Laurel writes letters to a variety of dead people, from Amy Winehouse to Amelia Earhart. In time the letters begin to recount a life spiraling out of control as Laurel delves into her own dead sisters past. Dellaira's characters are authentically conceived and beautifully drawn. Teens meet situations of physical, sexual, and substance abuse with numbness, stoicism, and fury.

        (Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

      • premium: True
      • source: The Horn Book
      • content:

        May 1, 2014
        Laurel's first assignment in freshman English is to write a letter to a dead person, and she chooses Kurt Cobain, a favorite of her recently deceased older sister May. Instead of turning in the letter, though, Laurel builds on it, keeping a journal of letters to a variety of dead people, from Amy Winehouse to Amelia Earhart, Jim Morrison to Judy Garland. The letters begin in straightforward second-person address, as Laurel speaks directly to the dead about their own art and experiences. But in time the letters begin to wander; she forgets her reader and just starts writing, recounting a life spiraling increasingly out of control as she delves into May's past. She makes new, complicated friends, struggles to connect with her separated parents, and meets a boy tortured in his own way. Dellaira's characters are authentically conceived and beautifully drawn. Teens meet situations of physical, sexual, and substance abuse with numbness, stoicism, and fury. Broken adults flail and try. With her epistolary confidants Laurel confronts the circumstances leading up to her sister's death, and makes peace with her place in it. She learns that, however dark our secrets, the only way out from the shadows is to stand in the light. thom barthelmess

        (Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

popularity
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"Dear Ava, I loved your book." —Award-winning actress Emma Watson
Reminiscent of John Green, Kathleen Glasgow, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel.
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did.
Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her.
Only then, once Laurel...

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