"More than a stunning debut. It is the announcement of a bold new literary voice"
—Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

My sister is the love of my life. She was in the school choir for this Queen musical that they made at her school. That’s why i decided to write to you, to tell you about my sister, who loves your music. I read ‘Love Letters to the Dead’, and it made me realize how much I love her. I hadn’t seen her for a week until a couple of days ago. She was at the Roskilde Festival, while we were in France. We picked her up at the airport, and I cried before I saw her, because I missed her so much. Reading ‘Love Letters to the Dead’, made me feel a fraction of how it must feel to loose your sister. I suddenly understood that your life could never be whole again after that.
The way that Laurel describes her sister reminds me of my own sister. She is the most precious thing in my whole life. We used to have all these games that we played when we were younger, which reminded me of how Laurel and May played, and how they were fairies. My sister is a fairy too.
I don’t know if you have ever loved somebody like I love her, and I can’t describe it. I can only try.
The love that I have for my sister is terrifying. It scares me, and it can make me cry, just to imagine her being sad, or her being gone. What terrifies me even more, is that I have no idea what I would do if she died, and I can’t promise that i wouldn’t die myself.
This Love also makes me cry. Not because I am sad, but because I love her so much that I just have to cry. Because that love is so beautiful. She makes me cry, because I can’t imagine anything more beautiful and wonderful than her.
When I read the book I cried, not because of Laurel moving on in the end, or the sadness I felt for her (The book did touch me in so many ways though, because Ava is such a good writer that her words make me shiver), but the reason I cried is that I could see my sister exactly how Laurel describes May, and I imagined in that moment, what if I was Laurel and my sister was May? And then I cried.
And now I am crying again, because just writing about this makes me emotional.
I’m going to finish this letter now, but it felt good to write to you. I have never talked to anyone about my sister like this before, but it felt appropriate to tell you.