Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

This journey could have started differently, but the fact is that it didn't.


Title: Letters Between Us
Author: Linda Rader Overman
ISBN: 978189386626
Publisher: Pain Views Press/2008
Pages: 165

Letters between us is an epistolary novel covering the lives of two friends. Katherine is found dead mysteriously and Laura, a writer is much saddened by it and tries to find why and how Katherine died. Laura starts reading the letters they sent to each other since they started their friendship. She tries to keep the letters in some chronological order so that she can make some sense into those.

From those letters, we can see their past in which they shared so much-friendship love, pain and so much more. Reading the letters and remembering the past is painful but Laura has to do it for her friend's sake. We read about secrets they shared and also about those they did not share. Katherine had kept a Journal too as had Laura. So we also get to read their innermost thoughts unknown to each other but themselves.

Everything from childhood secrets to sex and drugs, from which unexpectedly Laura comes out, the one person, who is impulsive and not expexcted to make it. The sensible Katherine turns out to be more troubled one. It is growing of age novel, with deep dark secrets and pain. Reading through the letters back and forth, Laura finally understands the strange compulsions of her friend and also about her death.

Maybe life comes full circle. Very vividly portrayed, intricately written, this short novel is powerful and very thoughtful. Not a book to breeze through. It does not cater to all readers as it a difficult read but well worth it once you begin it.

Also reviewed by
Sandra