Book Review: 'Letters to the Lost' by Brigid kemmerer

Back again with another book review! And it's of one of my new favourite books.

**No spoilers in this review**

SYNOPSIS

Juliet Young has always written letters to her mother. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only thing that helps Juliet cope. Declan Murphy is the kind of tough boy you wouldn't want to cross. But while on community service doing landscaping at the local cemetery, he is haunted by ghosts of his own past. When Declan finds a letter left beside a grave, he can't resit writing back. Soon, he is sharing his point with a perfect stranger ... except they're not strangers, and when real life interferes with their secret life of letters, Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.

FAVOURITE QUOTE
"One day isn't your whole life. It's just a day."

RATING

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

REVIEW

When I first read what this book was going to be about, I had been expecting one of those young-adult novel love stories where a guy and a girl fall for each other, have some sort of conflict, and then make up at the end of the story. 'Letters to the Lost' was not fully what I had expected at all - it was so much better. There is a romance element to this story however this is not what the novel is actually centred on. This story focuses heavily on loss, grief and friendship. It talks about moving on and seeing past what is displayed on the outside. It's so much deeper than just a "love story".

The novel is written from two different perspectives: Juliet - a girl who recently lost and is currently grieving her mother and Declan - a "bad boy" type dealing with his demons from his past. Sometimes with dual perspective novels I get confused about who's meant to be talking but with this novel I felt it was pretty clear who was who (even though you would know who's meant to be talking from the way each chapter starts) but sometimes there would be two chapters in a row of the same person's perspective and that would usually throw me with who's the one talking but with this novel, I felt both of the different characters personalities throughout each chapter. 

Once I started this book I could barely put it down. The story was so gripping and realistic. I kept feeling the same emotions as the characters. I never cry at books usually, but I felt myself tearing up at parts. There is a lot of heavy topics mentioned and explored within this novel but the way the author chose to present these topics was done in a realistic, un-romanticised way.

The characters all had depth. I also loved the secondary characters, especially both Juliet and Declan's best friends: Rowan and Rev (I also just found out that the character Rev has his own story told in another novel by Brigid Kemmerer called 'More Than We Can Tell' which I will definitely be reading whenever I get the chance as Rev was a character that actually became my favourite). They were both so supportive of their best friends no matter what they were feeling or going through. 

The ending was also lovely - the characters problems didn't end with an immediate fix which I liked as in the past I have felt that some novels end with an almost "perfect" happy ending whereas this novel felt more realistic in that aspect.

I didn't want the book to end! The story was so engaging and compelling with so many different twists. I felt like I was there, on the journey, with the characters. Brigid kemmerer has such a way with words. I felt that this was overall a very beautifully written and thought provoking book and I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Bye for now, xo