Book Review: Letters from Skye

[Flora Burke]

Book: Letters from Skye
Author: Jessica Brockmole
290 pages

I've never found wartime novels particularly appealing. With the possible exception of The Book Thief, I've always found that it's basically the same story that is being told but just from different perspectives. This book was set during two world wars, so I am surprised that I liked it so much. I was interested in reading it for two reasons. First, I've wanted to take a trip to Skye for a while now and thought this would be a nice literary introduction to the place. The second reason was that the entire book was written in the form of letters. I thought this was a truly original format for the book, so decided to give it a try.

What I liked: Though not a lot of the book is actually set in Skye, the author gave beautiful descriptions of Edinburgh and American college life. She also does and amazing job of finding the voice for each character beautifully and consistently. A few times I was able to tell which character had written the letter within a few sentences. Considering that there were around eight characters all writing letter, that was quite an accomplishment. There is also a truly charming fable included in one of the letters, which was not only enchanting, but also captured the essence of the story really well.

What I didn't like: I am not sure why I couldn't give this book 5 stars on goodreads, but I guess it has to do with the conclusion. Things wrapped up a little bit too neatly for my liking, which made this a love story like so many others.