Dead Letters
by Caite Dolan-Leach
When I first started reading Dead Letters, I thought I’d love it so much I’d want to read it over and over again to pick up hidden clues I didn’t get the first time around. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m not sure I’ll ever read it again, but it was extremely enjoyable. Caite Dolan-Leach’s talent is mind-boggling. Every single sentence is carefully crafted, wise without being trite, cynical without being irritating, and knowledgeable without being pretentious.
One twin sister is called back home to her fractured, dysfunctional family when news of the other twin’s death reaches her in Paris. Her twin has always been overly dramatic, attention-seeking, and manipulative, so it’s a natural guess that perishing in a barn fire is too carefully planned to be real. Just when the live twin starts to guess her sister is still alive, she gets an email from her, leaving clues along a mysterious journey.
The premise is excellent, the execution is fantastic, but the ending was a bit lackluster for my taste. I guessed the final mystery almost immediately and was able to pick up the extra clues during my first readthrough that I would have normally picked up during my second. I’m still completely in awe of Dolan-Leach’s writing talent. She writes such brilliant phrases and incredibly vivid characters. Between the two twin sisters, she manages to capture a complete narcissist. One sister is manipulative and selfishly commands attention. She keeps score, punishes to gain and only granting favors when it’ll serve her. She thinks the world revolves around her, but just when you think she’s the real villain, the other twin shows another sick aspect of the mental illness: the resentful twin who never wanted to return to her family purposely hurts people with her words and actually feels pleasure to see the pain she’s inflicted. Dolan-Leach must have had a narcissist in her life, and those who recognize what she’s written will feel her pain. By splitting up the faults between the two sisters, she shows that the twins aren’t complete without each other.
Some people don’t like reading about dementia or Alzheimer’s disease—myself included—so it’s worth a warning that the matriarch has dementia, and her illness has quite a big part in the novel. For the most part, I was able to get past it, because the book was so well-written. There are 26 chapters, each starting with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Read the first chapter and see if you like it. If you like her writing, you’ll love the book.
One twin sister is called back home to her fractured, dysfunctional family when news of the other twin’s death reaches her in Paris. Her twin has always been overly dramatic, attention-seeking, and manipulative, so it’s a natural guess that perishing in a barn fire is too carefully planned to be real. Just when the live twin starts to guess her sister is still alive, she gets an email from her, leaving clues along a mysterious journey.
The premise is excellent, the execution is fantastic, but the ending was a bit lackluster for my taste. I guessed the final mystery almost immediately and was able to pick up the extra clues during my first readthrough that I would have normally picked up during my second. I’m still completely in awe of Dolan-Leach’s writing talent. She writes such brilliant phrases and incredibly vivid characters. Between the two twin sisters, she manages to capture a complete narcissist. One sister is manipulative and selfishly commands attention. She keeps score, punishes to gain and only granting favors when it’ll serve her. She thinks the world revolves around her, but just when you think she’s the real villain, the other twin shows another sick aspect of the mental illness: the resentful twin who never wanted to return to her family purposely hurts people with her words and actually feels pleasure to see the pain she’s inflicted. Dolan-Leach must have had a narcissist in her life, and those who recognize what she’s written will feel her pain. By splitting up the faults between the two sisters, she shows that the twins aren’t complete without each other.
Some people don’t like reading about dementia or Alzheimer’s disease—myself included—so it’s worth a warning that the matriarch has dementia, and her illness has quite a big part in the novel. For the most part, I was able to get past it, because the book was so well-written. There are 26 chapters, each starting with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Read the first chapter and see if you like it. If you like her writing, you’ll love the book.