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My Thoughts On… Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

19 February, 2020

My Thoughts on... Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Hi All!

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Dear Edward and I am here with a review of this very interesting book.

**A copy of this book was provided to me for free in exchange for an honest review**

Title: Dear Edward
Author: Ann Napolitano
Publisher: Viking
Published: 20th February 2020
Format: Physical Book
Source:: Review Copy from Publisher
Add It: Amazon UK. Goodreads.
Summary: ​A heart-wrenching, life-affirming novel about a 12-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a deadly plane crash

One summer morning, a flight takes off from New York to Los Angeles. There are 216 passengers aboard: among them a Wall Street millionaire; a young woman taking a pregnancy test in the airplane toilet; a soldier returning from Afghanistan; and two beleaguered parents moving across the country with their adolescent sons. When the plane suddenly crashes in a field in Colorado, the younger of these boys, 12-year-old Edward Adler, is the sole survivor.

Dear Edward recounts the stories of the passengers aboard that flight as it hurtles toward its fateful end, and depicts Edward’s life in the crash’s aftermath as he tries to make sense of the loss of his family, the strangeness of his sudden fame, and the meaning of his survival. As Edward comes of age against the backdrop of sudden tragedy, he must confront one of life’s most profound questions: how do we make the most of the time we are given?’

My Thoughts

Dear Edward is one of those books that will probably stay for me for a very long time. It was emotional, deep and full of kindness that made me feel just a little bit better about humanity. It starts with a horrific, tragic event, and follows the young boy who has lost everything and how he learns to live with what happened to him. It has a message of hope buried inside it while we follow the story of how he heals. This event will forever be with Edward but it is possible to carry on afterwards. It was an incredible story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

One of the parts of this book that I really enjoyed was the way in which the narration worked. The book worked in that there was one chapter from Edward’s point of view – after the crash had happened – and another from the people who are on the plane while it is still in the air and the crash hasn’t happened. This was such an interesting and unique way of telling this story and I absolutely loved how the parallels came across in the story as well.

This book is a truly character-led story in that a lot of the story is about Edward and how he deals with this trauma that has occurred in this life. So, naturally, it was a book that I was completely drawn to. I very much empathized with Edward and enjoyed watching as he dealt with everything that had happened to him and was happening to him. But on top of that – I also absolutely love that we also got to know about some of the characters on the plane. It felt a little bittersweet because you know what is about to happen to them, but it also made you care more about the people on the plane. It was very well done.

Overall this was a book that I absolutely adored. I read it quickly, getting fully involved in the story and wanting to both wrap Edward in cotton wool but also – and please excuse this pun here – to watch him soar. I wanted to witness how he worked out how to live after this terrible ordeal. It showed how much strength and resilience he had. This book is truly wonderful and full of humanity in many forms and I cannot recommend it enough.

4/5

Will you be reading this book?

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