Letters to the Lost Review

There are some minor spoilers in this review. I don’t normally have spoilers, but for this book, I wanted to talk about some specifics within the book. 

This book was heartbreakingly sweet. I’ve said before that I don’t really like letter and diary entry styled books, but this book is done so well. The letters are like a stream of consciousness from the characters. Their true thoughts and feelings. It’s such a new take on loss and broken families.

Life is messy and Kemmerer really captures that from the two characters she’s created. Both Declan and Juliet are beautifully broken, in a way that shows how even if something terrible happens, you can still find a way to survive.

I’ve read some of Kemmerer’s Elements books and I really liked the dynamics she created between characters. She also does a wonderful job capturing real problems accurately within young adults.

*These are the possible spoilers*

My biggest take away from this book was the representation of relationships between parents and their children.

I don’t know if this a look into my inner relationship with my parents or what, but I really appreciated how the broken relationships between Declan and his mom and step-dad, were the adults’ fault. It probably makes me immature but it’s not always the hormonal, lost, insecure, and angsty teen’s fault. I mean usually it is, but sometimes parents are just crappy. There is of course reconciliation, but the majority of fault lands on the parents, and I’m glad because they sucked. That sounds so bad of me to say about parents, but it was a new look on parents that I hadn’t seen before.

Juliet holds her mom up on this pedestal and in the end, she failed Juliet. All of the adults within Declan’s  life failed him and treated him like crap, blaming him for their bad decisions.

Overall, I ate this book up. The romance is achingly good and there’s great dramatic irony, all stuff I didn’t really focus on in this post.

What are your thoughts on this book?