Dead Girls Don't Write Letters By Gail Giles

From Amazon reviews: Sunny's older sister has been presumed dead for several months when Sunny receives a letter from Jazz explaining that she was away working in a repertory theater when her apartment burned to the ground. Then Jazz, or Not-Jazz as Sunny calls her, returns home. Her mother has become addicted to sleeping pills and Dad has fallen back into the bottle since his daughter's "death." Sunny and her father soon realize that the young woman is indeed not Jazz, even though she knows a great deal about their family history and secrets. As Sunny investigates, she begins to discover who this imposter is and how she knows so much about their family. This novel is not of the same quality as Giles's Shattering Glass (Roaring Brook, 2002), and the ending is truly a bolt from the blue. Readers' reactions may range from shock to frustration to confusion to anger that they've invested time in this book. The plot is intriguing, but the ending is just too unclear.
Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI

I finished this book yesterday! It was a mystery novel. I'm not a huge fan of mysteries... Well, actually I think that I have mixed feelings about them. I mean, I was never a big fan of Scooby Doo! But I did like other mysteries. So I came into this story with an open mind. (Like I do with all novel) I was recommended to read this book by a really cool librarian. She told me that each and every sentence was PERFECT! She was right! I loved this book!

Characters: There aren't really that many characters. There are about Four main characters that the story revolves around.

Lily (The mother)- Her name is Lily, which is mentioned a few times, but mostly she is referred to as mom. I didn't like Lily. She was a horrible character. She seemed needy, and whiny, but I don't blame her because that is the way Sunny portrays her. Given the circumstances of realizing her daughter is dead, it feels like Lily has died as well. This is normal, but it's horrible for Sunny because that makes her the care-taker of her own mother. Lily in my opinion was selfish! Because even when Jazz was there Lily still was a bad mother towards Sunny, she still favored Jazz over Sunny and constantly ignored Sunny.

Dan (The father)- His name is Dan, but like Lily he's real name is only mentioned a few times, he is mostly known as Dad. I was mixed towards Dan. Because he was the first to mention that he knew the stranger pretending to be Jazz wasn't Jazz at all. But he was also the one, who always yelled at Jazz, even when she tried to be helpful sometimes. I liked his determination to get to the bottom of the whole mystery... until the end. What happens with the therapist really makes me hate both of Sunny's parents for lying.

Jazz- Is the star child of the family, even the whole town. Even though she never appears in the story she is mentioned a lot by the family. Mid-way through the book, the reader could tell who the real Jazz was, she was two-faced. On one side she was a perfect angel that was always nice to everybody. On the other side she was a bully to her sister, always playing little games with her when no one was really there. So in a sense there's a little sympathy when Sunny doesn't want Jazz to come back.

Sunny- Is the main character. She is also the narrator of the story, who in my opinion is the only one who could keep her ground. Even though she was bossy, she was by far the most normal person in the crazy family she lived with. She was my favorite character because she snooped around and really investigated the whole mystery. While her father helped i think it was really Sunny who figured the whole mystery out. I didn't agree with the decision she made in the end, but i think she regretted it too by the last line in the book.

Debra (aka the imposter) - There is nothing I can really say about this character... She was a little creepy. When you do discover who she really is, at first you feel sad, but then I thought "What a freak!" I actually liked this character in a strange way, I mean, I pitied that she will never now who she really is and that's really sad, but that isn't an excuse for what she did.

Overall: I really enjoyed reading this book! It doesn't go with my favorites but it's a book I think that I will remember! This is the first book I have read from this author but I hope to continue reading her books.

This book is...

Worth Reading (only if you like suspenseful thriller mysteries)

3 stars