Dear Edward Book Review

“What happened is baked into your bones, Edward. It lives under your skin. It’s not going away. It’s part of you and will be part of you every moment until you die. What you’ve been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that.”
8.6Raw, Life-Affirming, Compelling

In particular I enjoyed the ending of this book, it felt incomplete in the same way life does, and throughout this novel the author echos the undeniable truth that life is never perfect and will always be filled with pain (and most likely grief), and, like they did Edward, those moments will shape and us and mould us into the people we become. A brilliant book, I will surely look out for more of Napolitano’s work!
Title: Dear Edward
Author: Ann Napolitano
Type: Fiction
Published: 2020
Pages: 336
TW: Grief, Plane Crash, Depression, Miscarriage

The exploration of grief in this book is raw and messy and seen through the eyes of a child, all the more heart-breaking. Edward as a protagonist was unsure of himself, as anyone in that awful situation would be, but I thought it was clever that Napolitano chose to make the protagonist a child and therefore allow the reader to see him grow older and see how the impact of his grief changes with him.