Dear Edward
By: Anne Napolitano
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published January 6th 2020 by Dial Press
I adored this book. It made me happy it made me sad and everything in between- I hate the phrase, but this one gave me All the Feels!
Synopsis:
Eddie and his family are making a cross country move to LA from NYC because of his mom's new job. His older brother is 15- so an age where you certainly don't want to be uprooted right when life is just starting as a teenager. Eddie and his brother are extremely close and have been home schooled by their father, so their bond is strong. There is some distance brewing between Eddie's mom and dad, his mom flying first class to finish some work she procrastinated on before the move, leaving the boys to ride economy with their father. They board the plane and several other of the passengers are introduced. A manically focused overachieving businessman, a flight attendant who leaves little to the imagination, a mature woman running from her marriage, a young woman running to the man she wants to marry and a veteran who was injured on his way home.
Jacket copy, not a spoiler, the plane crashes and Eddie is the sole survivor. The remainder of the book is about his healing process, the people who rally around him and the people who were left behind by the other passengers.
My Thoughts:
As we read about Eddie (now Edward- trying to shed his former self) we learn about healing, grief, futility and hope. You cannot help but find a scrap of each character to love. We are invested from the start- even though we know everyone on that plane dies, Napolitano draws her reader in, and I found myself hoping in nearly every case for the result to be different. We want redemption for each of the characters, not just Edward, as more about each character is revealed we are heartbroken all over again, but in a sort of beautiful way. It's hard to explain but everyone's story is somehow wrapped up in a satisfying way, despite them having died. Edward himself is frought with survivor's guilt and is fearful of developing meaningful relationships with the aunt and uncle who take him in, but as he grows we see his broken heart start to mend. The only thing keeping this from being a 5 star book for me was the strange relationship Edward builds with the girl next door. I didn't find it super realistic, and will simply leave it at that in case you'd want to read for yourself, which I would highly recommend.
Who would I recommend this to?
Anyone who has a heart.
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