Review: Dear Edward

Dear Edward
By Ann Napolitano
352 pages
Published January 6, 2020 by Dial Press
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Source: Purchased for myself from Book of the Month (Get your first book for $5!) 

From Goodreads:

ne summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.

Edward's story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery--one that will lead him to the answers of some of life's most profound questions: When you've lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

Dear Edward is at once a transcendent coming-of-age story, a multidimensional portrait of an unforgettable cast of characters, and a breathtaking illustration of all the ways a broken heart learns to love again.

 

 
I've heard nothing but amazing things about this book. I decided to read it during the COVID 19 quarantine because 1) my bestie also wanted to read it, so we read it together, and 2) what better time to read a book about a plane crash than during a time when you can't travel? But seriously, this book was absolutely amazing. The book alternates between the stories of some of the individual passengers during that fateful flight and Edward's life in the months and years following the crash. This allows you to connect to the other passengers on the plane and see how they impact Edward's life after the crash. The alternating timeline was brilliantly written and made the book what it was. It would not have had the same impact had it been written chronologically.

I absolutely loved Edward. The author handled serious subjects like mental health and PTSD beautifully. I loved watching Edward grow, change, learn, and adapt to his life after the crash.The book gave me all the feels and there were so many passages I had to stop and read again.  My favorite passage of the book was this:

"The man says, 'What happened is baked into your bones, Edward. It lives under your skin. It's not going way. 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.'"

This is absolutely going to be one of my favorite books of the year, along with Oona out of Order.  An absolute must read! I literally gave the book a hug when I finished reading it. You won't be disappointed!