The Last Letter Book Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! We have to talk about the saddest book I’ve ever read. The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros was a book club pick. If you’re familiar with Rebecca Yarros, she also wrote the Fourth Wing series. However, this book is far from fantasy and honestly just breaks your heart. So, let’s get into it!

The Last Letter follows Special Ops Chaos; he has no connections to anyone outside of the military, so his best friend suggests pen-palling with his sister, Ella. Ella is a single mom to two twins, Colt and Maisie; she’s making the single parent thing work, but things get harder with Maisie starts experiencing some health concerns. Both of them could use a friend. They strike up an unlikely friendship and slowly start to look forward to the next letter.

Things change when Chaos’ best friend and Ella’s brother pass away. When the letters stop, Ella is unsure what to do or even think. Has she lost both Chaos and her brother? Out of the blue, a man named Beckett shows up saying her brother sent him to help her. Ella is too headstrong to just accept a stranger’s help. But as things progress with her daughter’s medical condition, and her son needs to be taken care of, she can’t help but let Beckett take some responsibility. The more he helps, the closer they become. But what if Beckett’s past threatens to tear them apart?

First things first, this book is incredibly sad. I mean so incredibly sad. So, you have to go in knowing that. There are themes of sick children, death, grieving, and PTSD. I was still not mentally prepared for what happened. I had a whole other prediction in my head, and it was nowhere near close. You have to think Nicholas Sparks. Honestly, this really reminded me of The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks. The storylines are not very similar, but I think the overall tone and vibes are.

The Last Letter portrays grief as non-linear. As Beckett says in the book, “you have to feel the good because the bad will not give you a choice.” The characters are forced to navigate loss and rebuild their world in an entirely new way.

And also, healing is not immediate. There is no quick solution. Ella and Beckett feel the loss of Ryan in every way possible but have to find a way to continue on. For Beckett that was finding Ella and offering his help in whichever way she would take it. For Ella, it’s remembering her brother in a positive light and keeping her brother’s memory alive through her kids. They both also have responsibilities that keep them holding on.

I think an interesting thing to think about is how Ella and Beckett’s relationship is built on a deep shared pain of losing a loved one. Where traditionally, as we have dubbed in the reading world, there’s a meet-cute. Ella mentions from the very beginning how much she values honesty. She can’t stand liars. Then one of the first things Beckett does is lie to her and continues to lie to her about why he’s there and how he knows her. Which I kind of hated this. Their whole fight could’ve been avoided if he told her who he was from the beginning. It could’ve given the book a bit of an irregular structure, but I think it still would’ve worked. Ella would slowly start to lean on him; the kids would get attached. Colt still could’ve met Beckett by looking for his dog.

I do think this book does a really great job handling such heavy topics and does so realistically. The character’s grief journey is not linear, nor does it appear easy. They both had a lot to learn. They both held tight to their pasts, using it as a shield to deflect anything new and risky.

As always, Yarros’ writing is spectacular, and she does such a great job of building complex, emotional characters.

Overall, I give this 4/5 stars. I would recommend checking this out if you check the trigger warnings.

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next week for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)