REVIEW: Dear Dylan by Siobhan Curham

A first crush.
An unexpected friendship.
A dream come true.
Dear Dylan! 
Thanks so much for your email and I'm sorry about my last one when I said I love you. I hope you don't think I'm a weirdo mentalist?!!! It's just that I was watching Oprah yesterday and she said we should all say we love each other a whole lot more. Not to everyone of course. There's no way I'd tell my scummy step-dad that I love him because that would be lying. But the thing is, sometimes when I watch you on TV, I feel as if you're talking just to me and it makes me feel less alone. I know you probably get loads and loads of fan mail but I wanted to ask you - could we be e-mates? 
Yours hopefully, Georgie xxx.

I've been dying to read Dear Dylan for ages - all I had read were glowing reviews of the book. And, well, this is going to be another glowing review! 


I loved everything about this book. The characters, the format, the storyline, the writing - this author can do no wrong in my eyes! I loved Georgie  - she was such a brilliant main character  She was kind and brave, and I thought Curham portrayed her as a teenager perfectly. I think I'm quite like her - I felt I could relate to her and some of the issues she had - that's probably one of the main reasons I loved her character so much!

There was another character who was my joint favourite with Georgie - I just couldn't pick between them, they were both too fantastic! I'm not going to say who the character was, because it's actually a a spoiler - but if you've read the book you'll know who I'm talking about. This character was so wonderful. They were kind, thoughtful, helpful and caring. 

Dear Dylan also had a very realistic and well thought-out set of secondary characters; I didn't like Jamie at first, but once we got to know him he really grew on me!  He was great for Georgie and was just all-round lovely. I hated Tone-Deaf (Georgie's step-dad), with a passion - he is definitely one of my top 5 most hated characters of all time! I also really disliked Jessica, Georgie's 'best friend' she was so horrible and mean and a really bad friend to Georgie, especially when Georgie  need her most. I wasn't sure about Georgie's mum - she was quite selfish, and didn't appear to care about Georgie's feelings  but she showed she was brave in the end, and I began to - sort of - like her better.

I really liked the e-mail format. I thought it was a fun and different way to read a book. I liked the way some things could be included that wouldn't really be included in first person narrative, because Georgie and the other character were talking to each other - it's difficult to pinpoint what exactly, but it was just things that would seem strange if they were included in a first person book - but they fitted in this book, since the two characters were talking to each other. It was a really clever way of writing a book too - the (mostly) short enough e-mails made it very difficult to put the book down, and I flew through it!

The dual narrative was fantastic - it was interesting to get to see things from both characters point of view, I loved that element. And I just LOVE Siobhan Curham! She's such a fab writer - she makes the reader not want to stop reading, she makes the characters come alive on the page and feel so real - and she writes beautifully! 

Dear Dylan is heartbreaking, heartwarming, funny, and original. It deals with real life issues such as domestic abuse and bullying, and it will move you!  It is one of the best books I've read this year, and one of my favourite books of all time! Siobhan Curham is an amazing author and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.  If you're looking for a good book to read - don't hesitate to read Dear Dylan. Trust me - you won't regret it!

 Rating 5/5

Source: For Review - a massive thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288 

Age group: 11+

Official Publication Date: 2nd April 2012
Publisher: Electric Monkey