"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

The point of these letters is to write to someone who is no longer here. And that’s you. You left me when I needed you the most. You were strength, happiness, wit, and so bold. You loved people more than you could understand. Your dreams were bigger than the sky. Then something bad happens and you leave me. All you are is a memory to me and everyone around me. I see the way people look at me now. I hear what they say. I’m not what I used to be and that’s your fault. Where was your strength when I needed you the most? I crumbled. I became hardened. My heart could no longer love in the ways it did before. I have walls around my heart. I have walls around me. I don’t let people see me. People don’t love me like they used to. I loved you. I loved who I was when you were inside me. I feel like an empty shell now. Why’d you leave me? Please please come back if you can.

I want a friend.

It’s been 9 years daddy… I miss you a lot. Most days I’m so lost without you and I don’t know what to do. Everyday I replay your death in my head thinking of things I could have done to save you… Everyday I feel more guilt and everyday I try to hide it more and more..I was ripped off in life, no doubt in my mind. There was so many things I could have done to save you, so many reasons why it’s my fault…I hope you’re dancing in the clouds daddy. I hope you’re happy and not in pain. I miss you so very much and sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who still remembers you.. You’re the one I need the most, the one I wish I could have a second change with. I wish you could come back but really it’s like I’m the one who killed you…

I hope you’re proud daddy. Proud of the man I’m becoming and how much I’ve learned. I’ve learned a lot about true love daddy.. I lost some people who were once really close to me.. But when I lost them it’s like it didn’t even hurt ... Read more

I know you didint get to live life with your mom and dad, but know they miss you and love you so much. if it was up to them you would still be here and i wuldint need to write this letter. you dont know me, but i know you. You where the little girl that would have made your moms and dads life amazing. you where their everything, you always will be. your a big inspration at the dance stuido yur mom owns. everyone was really effected by your death. including me, and a lot of the parents. i hope you like what your doing now, i hope your happy. will always miss you, and love you

I never really had heard of you in till you died. You were all over the news Because you were really known for your American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor. You had a major figure for over three decades. I’ve only just recently started listening to your music you have lots of different genres of music. Rock, R&B, soul, funk, hip hop, disco, psychedelia, jazz, and pop. I don’t really know what to write here but that you are well missed by everyone expressly your friends and family and your many, many fans.

Its been 4? ya, 4 years since you have died. you’ve missed a lot. Keni-lee had a kid, mom is being herself- doing the things she always does. You’ve missed a lot of my life. not a day goes by where i don’t think about you.

I think aunt jen misses you the most, you are her mother after all.

you where amazing, and always made sure i was happy. when i was with you i was happy. i wasint worrying about anything execept how i would convince you to make me mash potates for breakfast.

I worry a lot more, i worry about life, and school, and if you support me. support my dance- support me being bisexual- and support me being trans* cause im not your little girl anymore, im your teenage boy. and that must be hard for you. I will always love you, and will always miss you.

Pros.

This is probably going to be a pretty tough letter but, I might as well begin. My name is Tigerstar Massacre- I was a little girl when I discovered Linkin Park, I had grown up in a dysfunctional family and I believed at the time that my mother and brother hated me, so I drifted into music. I found Linkin Park when I was maybe 7-8 at the time, Numb had hit my soul and it impacted my life. I found your band, Slipknot and System of A Down to be the biggest influences throughout my childhood- even when I had been bullied for my looks (I wore black from head to toe, making me the only Goth in school) and the music I loved, I found peace within your lyrics, because I felt you understood what I was going through.

Then in 2006, I lost my cousin to murder and I remember that day as if it were today. All she was doing was coming home and this person stabbed her and robbed her for money. I remember feeling so upset and above all- angry. I wanted to hurt the person who put their hands on her. So I ... Read more

You and Linkin Park were the voice of a generation, and for a lot of us you raised us, you raised an entire generation of weirdos, outcasts, and freaks, and we are all proud to be weirdos, outcasts, and freaks. You gave me a voice when I didn’t have one, and you helped keep me alive after my sexual assault when all I wanted to do was die. All of the self-confidence I had was bullied out of me through 4 years of vicious non-stop, mean and hurtful comments, but you helped me get the self-confidence back. Thank you, Chester, for making me feel like I’m not alone. Thank you, Chester, for making me feel like I mattered, and thank you for saving me.

Thank you, Chester, I’m sorry we couldn’t be your voice and I’m sorry we couldn’t save you. Legends never die, and I’ll make sure you never do.

I never actually knew you. You died decades before I was born and really not much is known about who you were. But still I feel so immensely for you. Your books have been extremely close to my heart for years now and I cannot thank you enough for being a rock for my thirteen year old self. The way you wrote about isolation, loneliness, and loss of self ironically made me feel less alone growing up. I cannot stress enough what that means to me. I don’t really know what else to say except for “thank you”.