Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles Sunny's manipulative older sister Jazz's building burned down. Police think that Jazz died in the fire. Sunny's family, which had not been terribly cohesive to begin with, falls apart at the news. Sunny's mother falls into a depressive funk. Her father moves out and drinks more than ever. Sunny herself does not miss Jazz, and so she's not really happy when she gets a letter in Jazz's handwriting. The letter says that Jazz had not been in the apartment when it burned down, and that she was coming to visit them soon. Sunny's parents pull themselves together at the news. They pick up a girl claiming to be Jazz. However, as soon as Sunny sets eyes on the girl, she knows that the girl is Not Jazz. Her mother is greatly cheered by Not Jazz, however, and so Sunny and her father unite to figure out who Not Jazz might be.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, having read
Shattering Glass by the same author. Whereas
Shattering Glass shows people to be inherently evil,
Dead Girls Don't Write Letters instead portrays characters with problems that they don't overcome, that don't make them evil.
Happy reading.
: 4:34 PM
