Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
No. Although it started out somewhat interesting, the main “mystery” reveal became very obvious very fast and the characters were so strange and unlikeable that I couldn’t’ discern or relate to any of their motives. I didn’t care what happened to any of them. But, since it was an audiobook, I continued to let it play on a long car ride. Had I been forced to quit 3/4 of the way through and never hear the end, I wouldn’t have cared at all. Throughout the book I dreaded what I was afraid the ending would be, but it was actually worse than I expected. The book spent its bulk creating what seemed like a mystery (but is in fact a very strange, implausible and completely unrealistic series of events) and then tried to explain all its characters motives in the last chapter. But, by that time, I was so exhausted of the silly game and awful people that I just didn’t care. And even if one happened to somehow like one of the characters, I do not think the attempted explanation of what they did in the book would be understandable or satisfying to that person.
Would you be willing to try another book from Caite Dolan-Leach? Why or why not?
No – the entire too-clever tone of the book and lengthy emails between the characters which attempted to be cute and intelligent did not intrigue me. Further, the overall style of the mystery (which wasn’t) and unlikable characters does not make me a fan or give me confidence that I would enjoy future titles from this author.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Made the characters seems more mature and in line with their ages. They seemed very young and immature – almost as though I was hearing an adult attempt baby talk.
Could you see Dead Letters being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
No. Unless the characters could be infused with some redeeming qualities and/or their motivations could be discerned and related to. I have no idea why any of them did anything they did in they book, even after the author’s attempt to bring it all together at the end.