Dead Girls Don't Write Letters
by Gail Giles

Subjects: Relationships (Sisters), Death 
Genre: Mystery

Things had been getting a little better for Sunny until she got a letter from her dead sister, Jazz.  That more or less ruined her day Sunny short for sunflower is Jazmaine’s younger sister; their mom had a thing for flowers.  Jazz ran off to New York to become an actress and died in an apartment fire a few months ago and Sunny’s already dysfunctional family fell apart.  Her dad moved out and is now a permanent lush, drunk most days.  Her mom has withdrawn and is so depressed that she hardly ever gets dressed anymore she just flips through Jazz’s scrapbook and cries.   Sunny can’t say she’s happy Jazz is dead, but she’s not sad either.  Her parents and everyone else loved Jazz, she was their shining star but Jazz hid her dark side from everyone but Sunny.  Jazz was good at breaking the rules and setting Sunny up to take the fall.  So when she got that letter telling her Jazz was alive and coming home she wasn’t exactly thrilled.  She was even more surprised when the door opens and it’s NOT JAZZ, but someone who looks like her and even knows intimate family details.  Who is this imposter and why is she pretending to be someone she’s not.  Why does her mom accept her without question?  The twist at the end of this book left even me wondering what’s real.  To find out whom NOT-JAZZ is and how Sunny discovers the truth, read Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters by Gail Giles.

Booktalk prepared by Janice Bailey, East Central High Librarian