Dead Girls Don't Write Letters

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: It's an absolutely excellent book. In fact just trying to sum it up in my own meagre words would do it a severe injustice. Just read it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: It's an absolutely excellent book. In fact just trying to sum it up in my own meagre words would do it a severe injustice. Just read it.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and chilling
Review: Scary, funny, and poignant, this tightly written mystery is another winner by Giles. The Reynolds family is overjoyed to welcome their missing daughter home. Everyone but the girl's sister, Sunny, who has good reason to wish she'd stay gone. The action takes place mostly in the house, and Giles uses this confined setting to creepy advantage. Family loyalties shift and secrets are revealed right until the end. Plan to read this book in one sitting.

Rating:
Summary: Do dead girls rise from the dead?
Review: Sunny was always in Jazz's shadow. Everyone thought Jazz was perfect. Jazz was beautiful. Jazz was stunning. Jazz had top grades. Jazz this. Jazz that. But Jazz has an evil sister side. She frames Sunny and even though she tells the truth, she always makes it seem like Sunny was the one who was bad. Then one day, Jazz dies in a fire. Just like that. The family falls apart and mourns... except for Sunny. Except for Sunny. Sunny lives life until several months later, when she recieves a letter from... "Jazz". It's the envelope Jazz uses... the same ink... same handwriting.. The letter says that she would be coming home and she's sorry for causing such pain. When Jazz walks through the door, there she was.... but... what is that nagging thought in Sunny's mind that "Jazz" could really be dead? That this girl was really an imposter? Who is this girl?

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Addition to the Teen Fiction Genre
Review: Sunny was secretly relieved when her older sister, Jazz, ran away to New York, and never returned. After all, it's hard to go through life with everyone referring to you as "Jazz's sister," and asking you questions about your older sister's achievements. But then Jazz's apartment building is burned to the ground, and she is presumed dead, yet no remains of her, or anyone else for that matter, are found. Suddenly Sunny's family, already damaged by divorce, is plagued with depression, and alcoholism, leaving Sunny to chase after her parents and pick up the pieces without any thanks at all whatsoever. Things go like this for months, until Sunny receives a letter from Jazz saying that she's coming home, which makes no sense, because Jazz is dead.

In a sea of teen fiction, and chick lit, it is wonderful to find something out of the ordinary, like a needle in a haystack, but that's exactly what Gail Giles' book DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS is. Filled with crazy new twists and turns on every page, and a fresh voice that will fill readers with mixed emotions; as well as a plot that is sure to scare, yet intrigue, and surprise all, DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS is a book that cannot be missed, for it is like no other out there.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

Rating:
Summary: do you love psychological intrigue...?
Review: Suspenseful, affecting, couldn't-put-it-down. Dead Girls is a fast-paced treat for everyone who loves family drama, authentic teen voice, a bit of an edge, and a puzzle. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with Sunny and Jazz, or rather not-Jazz. Maybe I'm still not sure, but there are a lot of things in life that make me wonder, question, and those are the most interesting. I'm still talking about it. And that's Giles' whole point, I think. Or at least a big part of it. How well DO any of us really know what's going on in someone else's head? An excellent choice for book groups.

Rating:
Summary: Dead or Alive?
Review: This book is about Sunny and her family. She has, well had, a older sister named Jasmine, but everyone called her Jazz. Their parents named them after flowers. When Jazz dies in a fire, their family falls apart. Then one day a letter arrives from Jazz. The return address says only, Jasmine. Sunny thinks it is really from her, because Jazz always thought everyone would know where she is. The letter said that Jazz was alive and coming home. Sunny doesn't believe it is Jazz, she thinks it is someone disguised as her. She finds out, that what she thought was true and the girl leaves. But her parents say they will talk about it again, and it never happened. So she calls her grandma, who no one, except her, likes. Her grandma says she thought it up. She shows her, the proof. Her grandma says she wrote it, because she can forge anyone handwritting.

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: Well I just got the book today. I thought that the way it kept you guessing almost all the way to the end was good. And the end was a little weird, but I wouldn't have had it finish any other way.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging psychological thriller
Review: You know that DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS will be a page-turner from the initial hook. "Things had been getting a little better until I got a letter from my dead sister," says the 14-year old narrator, Sunny Reynolds.

Sunny's older sister, Jazz, has presumably died in a fire in New York City, although her remains are never found. Soon after they receive the tragic news, Sunny's family begins to unravel. Her mother becomes severely depressed and her father starts drinking heavily. The family, already torn apart by divorce, becomes even more dysfunctional.

Sunny is the only one in the family who is not upset by the loss of her sister; she had been living in Jazz's shadow her entire life. So when a letter from Jazz arrives in the mailbox, announcing that she will be returning home soon, Sunny does not share in her parents' excitement.

The girl who arrives at the house is not Jazz, but an imposter. Sunny and her father quickly realize the truth, but Sunny's mother wants desperately to believe that Jazz is alive. The tension is heightened when Sunny matches wits with the imposter. However, the plot suddenly twists and turns in unexpected directions and the story is wrapped up too quickly, leaving me to question what really happened.

DEAD GIRLS DON'T WRITE LETTERS is a psychological thriller that will cause readers to analyze the ambiguous ending and reach their own conclusion.

--- Reviewed by Renee Kirchner ([e-mail])