Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences.

The scenes showcasing his emotional growth are too brief and, despite foreshadowing, the climax falls flat because he still gets incredible personal access to people he’s hurt. Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development.

He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. 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.Ī tighter hand would have given more balance to an otherwise effective and satisfyingly heartbreaking melodramaĪ teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas.

Eventually, she sees them in three dimensions, as gifted people crushed by terrible sadness. 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. 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.

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. Confiding in dead geniuses helps a teen process her grief and rage.Įveryone 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.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira