Caite Dolan-Leach

"Ava Antipova has her reasons for running away: a failing family vineyard, a romantic betrayal, a mercurial sister, an absent father, a mother slipping into dementia. In Paris, Ava renounces her terribly practical undergraduate degree, acquires a French boyfriend and a taste for much better wine, and erases her past. Two years later, she must return to upstate New York. Her twin sister Zelda is dead. [But is she?]"--Dust jacket flap of hardcover printing.

A Novel

Dead Letters

"Ava Antipova has her reasons for running away: a failing family vineyard, a romantic betrayal, a mercurial sister, an absent father, a mother slipping into dementia. In Paris, Ava renounces her terribly practical undergraduate degree, acquires a French boyfriend and a taste for much better wine, and erases her past. Two years later, she must return to upstate New York. Her twin sister Zelda is dead. [But is she?]"--Dust jacket flap.

Heather Margaret

I could feel so much of myself in Ava and so much of what I wanted to be in Zelda. I could read another book of just Zelda’s writing. Such a clever book.

Geoffrey Froggatt

I’ve always been obsessed with stories about twins, especially stories surrounding twins who switch identities. I think I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of someone who looks just like you, who moves through this world in a different way, and how even when sharing a face, you can never truly know someone. While this novel is marketed as a thriller mystery, it’s important to know going in that it’s more of a slow burn character study with a splash of mystery in the background. In this story, a missing woman leads her twin sister on a twisted scavenger hunt in this clever debut novel with eccentric, dysfunctional characters who will keep you guessing until the end. The complicated and dysfunctional relationship between the twin sisters is the heart of this novel, and I loved how complex their dynamic was. I like the email aspect of this book and how Zelda taunts Ava throughout the novel. I like how we explore the deep history between these characters and their family, and I love how we see the hard relationship between the twins and their parents. This book often feels like a character study exploring this family and their history rather than a thriller or mystery. I love how Ava and a few people in the story immediately don’t believe that Zelda is dead, I like how the mystery of if she died or not hangs over the story, it makes it more interesting because the story could make a hard left turn at any point and go in a number of different directions. I like how the secondary characters are fleshed out and how they’re deeply explored in relation to their dynamic with the twins, it was easy to theorize about what happened to Zelda and who was involved, and why. I liked Wyatt as a character, and he was much more interesting than most characters would be in his situation, I liked how he was collateral damage in Ava and Zelda’s games. I liked how Ava was complicated and how the author wasn’t afraid of making her unlikable. Seeing her impersonate Zelda was great, I just wish it happened more often throughout the novel. I liked how Ava navigated being in her hometown and how most people assumed she was Zelda, and seeing how they reacted to her. I like how Ava was cunning enough to notice when people had a romantic or sexual history with her twin sister just by how they would look at her. The sex scene between Ava and Wyatt was crazy, but did a good job at portraying how messed up the twins were and how they brought Wyatt into their messy dynamic. Readers who need the protagonist or core cast of characters to be likeable should avoid this book, Ava is a messy character and her family and their dynamic with one another is just as messy. This book is the definition of a slow burn, I truly think that it could have benefitted from shaving off 20% of the story. Despite my gripes on the slow burn and the length, the length itself does give time to flesh out these characters and paint them as full human beings, thus making the story feel more lived in. I also think that certain story beats were beaten into the ground to the point of exhaustion; at first, I liked how Ava’s family described her as the one who “abandoned” the family, however it grew so tiresome after almost every character (even outside her family) acted like she left them all to fend for themselves when she was a grown woman who just moved away to start a new life. I would have DNF’d had I known where this story lead, the only reason I continued was because I felt like an impactful ending could had saved the novel, but that impactful ending never came. Ultimately, the climax and ending left me completely unsatisfied. This book’s entire story felt like a build up to a plot twist and a final confrontation between the twins that never happens. I don't get the feeling from the flashback portions that the sisters were even that close and didn't really seem to share much other than DNA, and certainly not close enough for Zelda to have a motive to terrorize and taunt her family for Ava’s abandoning of them. Working in the later angle of the mother's story and her own loss of a sister, didn't seem to hinge enough on why Zelda chose to toy with the emotions of her family and especially her sister. I walk away from this book, largely bored, and with no more clarity on the relationship of the sisters. What could have been more of a mystery with focus on the clues and adding tension, most of this book falls flat. We still don't know what happens in the aftermath. The mother is dead, Zelda still hasn't appeared, and the family property is about to be foreclosed on. While the story likes to blame Zelda's rebellion on the family alcoholism, it isn't enough to really pin down a solid story. This book simply introduced the characters and main ideas and treaded water until the end cuts off the story without getting interesting. Zelda’s final letter was the best part of the book but I wanted more from it, it didn’t pack the punch that it should have, even if I could see where the author was going with it. The biggest failing of this book was marketing it as a thriller, I genuinely love the idea of it on paper, especially the final chapter, but it never resonated because I wanted it to be something else. There were so many interesting ways that this story could have unfolded and so many routes this could take, so it’s so strange that the author chooses to explore none of them. Dead Letters wasn't a bad read in terms of the writing. Unfamiliar with other works of the author, I'm not sure if this is just a story I couldn't connect with or the author’s style. Setting my expectations for something akin to the follow the clues of a Gone Girl, Dead Letters never had that satisfying payoff that should come from a book of this genre. Where is Zelda? Does anyone even care? Where did Ava go from here? Does it matter? It really is a disappointment to walk away from a story like this with nothing.

Elodia

Kerri McDonald

I'm giving this book 2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this book. The mystery was engrossing, fun, and pretty witty. The writing was lovely and drew me into the environment of the book. And the descriptions were enchanting.

But then there was Ava. Fucking Ava. I just can't bring myself to truly like a book were I absolutely HATE the main character. As a matter of fact, I honestly didn't like *any* of the characters, excepting maybe Wyatt. Wyatt was alright. Everyone else was awful. Just. Awful. And Ava was pretty much the worst. Self-absorbed and thinking herself to be the cleverest of the clever. Hurtful but completely unwilling to forgive people who have hurt her. But woe to them if they don't forgive her! Then they're just assholes. She had moments of being a decent human being, but they were just too few and far between for me. Ugh.

So, yeah. Decent plot and nice writing, but I just couldn't with the characters.

Jolie

Dead Letters is one of those rare mysteries that have you guessing what exactly happened until the end of the book. This book will suck you in while Ava goes on a scavenger hunt that was orchestrated by her twin sister, Zelda. What the scavenger hunt reveals and what it forces Ava to face is what makes this book so good.

*********************************************

This isn’t one of those fun mysteries with likable characters and a happy ending. Not even close. This has to have been one of the saddest, complex books that I have read to date. Ava’s family has to be one of the more dysfunctional ones in all the books that I have read to date.

 

What I liked about this book was that it truly was a mystery and that the author had no qualms about throwing out red herrings left and right. Just when I thought I had the mystery of what happened to Zelda pegged, the book went in a totally different direction and totally screwed me up. This happened two times and both times, I had to put my Kindle Paperwhite down because the shock just got to me…both times. Well done, Caite, well done.

I was truly on the fence about liking Ava. She came across as so uncaring with her mother, father and grandmother (but she does have her reasons why) but when it comes to Zelda, the emotions just can’t stop. I do think that the scavenger hunt was maybe a little unfair to Ava but Zelda wanted to make a point. And oh boy, did she.

Marlon and Nadine were detestable as parents. Whenever Ava started to think about her past, all she could think about was how her father was checked out most of the time (and I mean checked out mentally) and how she had to walk on eggshells around her mother. No wonder the girls turned out the way they did.

I also should point out that the author did a great job portraying what living with an alcoholic is like and what growing up as a child of a functioning alcoholic is like and what it is like to be a caregiver to someone with dementia. Not easy subjects to talk or write about but she did it beautifully.

The end of a book was a huge surprise in two ways. Not going to ruin it for anyone but I had to get up and walk around after the 2nd surprise came around. Then I sat down and went “W.T.H.”

How many stars will I give Dead Letters: 4

Why: I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn’t put it down. I had to find out about what happened to Zelda, why Ava was the way she was and everything else in the book. Truly captivating.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Language. Also scenes of verbal abuse (which could be triggers in some people), drug use and some mild sex scenes

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Dead Letters A Novel

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