Dead Girls Don't Write Letters - Gail Giles

Summary: When Sunny's older sister, Jazz ran away to New York, Sunny was secretly relieved. Everyone loved Jazz, talked about Jazz, wished they were friends with Jazz. Jazz was perfect and Sunny was...well, not Jazz.Then Jazz's apartment building burns to the ground and she is presumed dead. Sunny's family, already broken by divorce, unravels. Dad's drinking skyrockets, and Mom's depression hits an all-time non-functioning low. Sunny is left to cope.Then they get a letter from Jazz saying she is coming home. But how? Jazz is dead, right? (Summary from back of book - Image from http://www.randombuzzers.com/ - Book from the libarary)

My Review: I picked up this book after reading Kari's review and I definitely agree with her review. This is an incredibly fast read for two reasons. First, it's only 126 pages. I can personally attest to its "waiting room" readability. Second, the action starts immediately with the arrival of a letter from Sunny's presumed dead sister, Jazz. When Jazz shows up for a visit, any sane person can see that something is terribly wrong.

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters is definitely creepy and I could see it being tweaked a bit and made into an M. Night Shyamalan movie (that I would definitely go see). That having been said, I didn't "get" the ending. It was obviously a gigantic twist, but I had a hard time making sense of it and have heard the same from several other people. We were all left with a giant sense of "Huh?". I felt that Giles could have written a better, less ambiguous ending without hurting the story.

My Rating: 3.75 Stars For the sensitive reader: A scattering of profanity throughout - mostly of the "S" variety.

Sum it up: A book with great cinematic potential.