Review: Dear Dylan...

Author: Siobhan Curham

Edition: Electric Monkey (Signed) Paperback

Released: 2nd April 2012

Series: No, standalone

Pages: 302 approx.

Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Buy the book!

 

A first crush. An unexpected friendship. A dream come true...

Dear Dylan!

Thanks so much for your email and I'm sorry about my last one when I said I love you. I hope you don't think I'm a weirdo mentalist?!!! It's just that I was watching Oprah yesterday and she said we should all say we love each other a whole lot more. Not to everyone of course. There's no way I'd tell my scummy step-dad that I love him because that would be lying. But the thing is, sometimes when I watch you on TV, I feel as if you're talking just to me and it makes me feel less alone.

I know you probably get loads and loads of fan mail but I wanted to ask you - could we be e-mates?

Yours hopefully,
Georgie
xxx

This book has been on my wishlist for the longest time, so when I finally managed to get my hands on a copy (or in this case, win a giveaway for it!), I was over the moon! As soon as it arrived in the post, I could tell I had high expectations for it. Why, you ask? Well, I'd read way too many glowing reviews of it for me not to be excited.  Did it meet my expectations? YES! Yes, it did! If anything, it was everything I wanted and more!

 

So, yes, the whole format of this book is definitely worth mentioning. It's composed entirely of emails! Honestly, I was a little hesitant... I mean, how can an author give us a good sense of character, setting and even romance just through emails back and forth between two people?! But, Siobhan Curham managed to do just that. By the end of the book, I really knew Georgie. She was a strong, caring character. Always looking out for her mum and little sister. Easily one of the most admirable characters I've read about. Whenever she would reveal something about her family, my heart would go out to her a little more each time. I completely and utterly empathised with her.

 

As for the rest of the characters, I loved and hated some. I adored Nan and Jamie. Jamie was so sweet and I loved that he was there for Georgie, even when she thought he wasn't. He was exactly what she needed! As for the hated characters, those would be Jessica and Georgie's step-dad. Jessica - meant to be Georgie's best friend - was jealous and nasty while Georgie's step-dad was just plain mean/repulsive/every bad word you can think of! I even wanted to shake Angelica (Georgie's mum) at times! I didn't hate her though. I knew what she must've been going through - but that didn't stop me from wanting to reach through the pages and shake her for not seeing sense!

 

This sort-of leads me to my next point. There are quite a few delicate topics touched upon in this book. I don't want to give too much away about them, but they certainly added depth and much more emotion to the story than I was expecting. I completely appreciated the realistic way Curham wrote about them - it made you really want to hug the characters affected, namely Georgie and her little sister, Michaela as they seemed to be smack in the middle of everything. Curham's writing could get really poetic every now and again which I also really enjoyed. Here's one of my favourite quotes from the book:

 

"If you were a caterpillar then I was a moth - old and dusty and ready to fling myself into a flame. But you made me want to embrace life again. Despite all of the problems you were going through, your emails were so full of life and hope. I couldn't help but be affected by them. So thank you too, from the bottom of my heart."

Overall, I adored this book. It's a lovely, heart-warming tale which shows how two people can really affect each other. A story about true friendship, first love and always looking on the positive side of things. I really came to love both of the characters that emailed back and forth. It was lovely to see a real friendship blossom. With great, admirable characters, a sweet, adorable romance and a depth which gives real emotional meaning to the story, Dear Dylan is a book I certainly recommend.

FOUR STARS FOR THIS BOOK! :D

Happy Reading,
Rachel xoxo