Dead Letter Office in The Coliloquy Book Group

Mar 11, 2013 Kate (VerbVixen) rated it it was amazing

Do you like:
New Orleans? Ghost stories? History? Mysteries? Choose your own adventures? Stories set in high school? Magic? Swoon worthy boys? Girls with gumption?

If you replied yes to ANY of the above then you’re going to love Dead Letter Office!

The first book in the Parish Mail series throws you right in with a killer first line: The dead man smiles at me. WELL THEN why don’t we just get started, eh? Who doesn’t love a good old mystery or a ghost story. Great news: this is both! While certainly Do you like:
New Orleans? Ghost stories? History? Mysteries? Choose your own adventures? Stories set in high school? Magic? Swoon worthy boys? Girls with gumption?

If you replied yes to ANY of the above then you’re going to love Dead Letter Office!

The first book in the Parish Mail series throws you right in with a killer first line: The dead man smiles at me. WELL THEN why don’t we just get started, eh? Who doesn’t love a good old mystery or a ghost story. Great news: this is both! While certainly unsettling from ghosts to zombies, evil fiends to Voodoo, there is no shortage of the creepy, supernatural or paranormal here. However, I wasn’t scared out of my wits mainly because my curiosity for the mystery and my inner historian took over. We also have a leading lady who doesn’t wallow, who is recklessly brave, endearingly hopeful and most of shines with an inner strength and resolve that we often don’t see in heroines in contemporary YA these days. Add to that mix THREE boys from which to choose (no, literally it’s part of the choose your own adventure aspect) and an equally impressive best friend in Tilly. I’m hard pressed to find a reason NOT to read this series.

And now time for a little fan girl rant: Snyder does an amazing job of capturing the setting—-New Orleans, where and I may be paraphrasing the past brushes up against the present and sometimes it pokes through. Having been a dedicated NOLA obsessee for years now, I can say with all honestly this book does the town justice. From the mansions of the garden district to the cities of the dead in the cemetery, every description takes you to the place itself. I can almost smell the moss and sweet tea.

Lastly, as a Coliloquy title, Dead Letter Office, features that hallmark choose your path points in the book where we as readers influence the story’s direction. This book however has many more of these points than other Coliloquy titles I’ve read and that’s a great thing. It felt quote like reading a Goosebump choose your own adventure and I loved that!

You don’t want to miss out on this series. And if you do, well then something is seriously wrong with you.

Overall: A ...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Kayleigh Meade rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-s-books, reviewed

Before I start, please note that this book was given to me free by the publisher in exchange for a review. What I have written is my honest opinion.

This is the first 'Active Fiction' e-book I've read. It gives the reader an option of the direction they want the plot to take. The last time I read a book (let alone an e-book!) in any way similar to that was when I was about 10, reading an Enid Blyton Famous Five 'red herring' book. I was therefore really intrigued as to what to expect. Would there Before I start, please note that this book was given to me free by the publisher in exchange for a review. What I have written is my honest opinion.

This is the first 'Active Fiction' e-book I've read. It gives the reader an option of the direction they want the plot to take. The last time I read a book (let alone an e-book!) in any way similar to that was when I was about 10, reading an Enid Blyton Famous Five 'red herring' book. I was therefore really intrigued as to what to expect. Would there be red herrings? Would it make the book worse? Well, no and no, as it turns out. I'll get to that in a bit.

This is a brilliantly written story that centres around Celia, who has just lost her father and moved to New Orleans with her mum so she can get to know her father's side of the family. Celia soon has 3 friends (2 of which are potential love interests) and bounces well off the other characters. Snyder has included the obligatory 'popular crowd', but added unusual details to a few of the group's members that makes it interesting, and slightly more dangerous than your average 'death-by-gossip' group.

Starting from the beginning, this was one of those books I knew would capture my interest as soon as I read the first line:

"The dead man smiles at me."

The rest of this page draws me in further, and I went from there. An odd thing I liked (and noticed fairly early on) is that Celia doesn't ruin the first person narrative she's got going on by telling us what she looks like. It's good enough for me to know she's pretty enough to have a surfer dude boyfriend before she moves away, haha!

Coming back to the reader choices, I was a little startled when the first one came up, but that's just me not being used to it! I liked the sense of power I got from helping Celia make the 'right' choice. They were also placed really well within the story, at pivotal plot moments, so there wasn't too much or too little of them. There was only one (right at the end) that I thought was pointless, although having re-read the description on Goodreads, I now know that it's a vote the author wanted so as to establish reader preference on Celia's love interests. Lucky Cee!

I must admit, I did read all the alternative versions, so I can say that there are no 'red herrings'. Some choices lead you to the answer faster than others, and sometimes there'll be a quirky scene that comes with one choice, but is barely mentioned in the other. Without wanting to spoil anything, something key to the background knowledge of Donovan and Peyton's relationship is only mentioned in one of the choices. I haven't quite decided if this is a good thing yet - that little piece of knowledge was good to know, I thought!

Overall, Kira Snyder has built a great sense of anticipation between the main characters, and has set the foundation for future crime/mystery-solving. It was a brilliant book and I'll definitely be reading the next in the series. ...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Erica rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars

I have been so impressed by Coliloquy thus far, because their books are just fantastic! And Dead Letter Office was no exception! Dead Letter Office was such a great read and I am very excited to hear more from Kira Snyder and the wonderful cast of Dead Letter Office.

The plot of this one was so unique – it wasn’t quite like anything I have read before. I loved Kira Snyder’s portrayal of ghosts, as it was very cool. Discovering what would happen next and trying to figure out what exactly ...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Waynn rated it it was amazing

Celia Macarty is one of the best realized thriller female protagonist since Veronica Mars. I love how loyal she is to her friends, while solving centuries-old mysteries and still being a teenager all the while, and I love that as a reader I get to read multiple scenes and really get inside the head of the author. I always wonder how they end up writing such compelling characters, and seeing how a character acts in many different scenarios helps flesh them out in a way that a regular book doesn't ...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Books about ghosts usually freak me out but I really enjoyed Dead Letter Office. The rich historical backdrop makes it both realistic and fascinating. It's the story of Celia, a teenager whose life has been turned upside down by the loss of her father and a move to New Orleans. As Celia attempts to place herself in the new social hierarchy and to connect with her father through his roots in this mystical city, she stumbles upon a historical connection that puts her in a very difficult place: she ...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Literally Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: from-publisher

22%: Uh oh. I've come to my first "what happens next?" question, and I'm stumped over what to choose. After getting to know the character, I think I know what she would do. But what she does and what she really wants to do are two very different things. AGH!!! This is so, so much harder than I thought it would be.

41%: *bites nails* I'm nervous, I'm nervous! Both of these choices I could make seem like good ones. I'm really curious about both of them, but I am making my choice based on whom I wan ...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Sherry rated it liked it

Shelves: part-of-a-series, read-2013, kindle-read, paranormal, read-4-review

This review and others can be found on my blog She Has A Knack For It

I found this book to be a nice, fun, quick, and easy read. A few parts were a little creepy, but it wasn't a scary story. Example: Celia is in the cemetery and feels someone put a hand on her shoulder, but when she turns around no one is there.

The above description explains the basic storyline, so I won't go into that. I will tell you that I liked all of the characters in the book. Celia seemed the most developed. While I felt This review and others can be found on my blog She Has A Knack For It

I found this book to be a nice, fun, quick, and easy read. A few parts were a little creepy, but it wasn't a scary story. Example: Celia is in the cemetery and feels someone put a hand on her shoulder, but when she turns around no one is there.

The above description explains the basic storyline, so I won't go into that. I will tell you that I liked all of the characters in the book. Celia seemed the most developed. While I felt like I needed to know a little more about Tilly and Donovan. I think some of that is related to the choose where you go. I think it cut down on some of the usual character building. I fully expect to get to know them better as the series goes on. I also liked Luc. As I knew this was a paranormal type of story, I had no problem believing in the ghost aspect of it. The mystery as a whole could have been thought out a little better and I'm still not sure what the connection was between the old murder and the present day one (did I miss that somewhere?). I once again wonder if some of the simplicity/missing/jumps were part of the drawback to the choose where you go.

I definitely hope there is further information in the next book of the series. I could tell there was clearly more going on with Celia's family (her grandfather, clearly knew more than he was telling). I felt the author did a pretty good job with the struggles between Celia's Mom and Celia's Paternal Grandparents.

This was the first "choose where you go next" type of story that I've read. Overall, I liked my options, but it was still a little limiting. Sometimes I wanted a third option that was a combination of the two or a completely different third option. These choices do give you more options for readability later on. You could easily re-read the story and pick a different option on where to go. Even though it's suppose to get you to the same end, there was one part near the end that I pretty sure was more in reference to an option other than the one I picked. It was related to Tilly.

Overall I was amused and I wouldn't mind reading this type of story in the future and possibly further into this series itself. A Solid 3 Stars, as it definitely has potential. ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Jaylee rated it liked it

Shelves: reviews, indie, ghosts

Read this review and more on my blog - J Reads Ya!

Diversity Ratings: | POC Chars - 2+ | Queer Chars - 0 |

This book is a sort of “choose your own adventure” novel. It was really fun and easy to read, but it felt less like a book and more like a game. A lot of the things I love about books (deeper characters, complex relationships, beautiful writing) was absent in this book. It was still fun an entertaining, but it felt like it was missing its heart.

The beginning is actually everything I want in a ...more

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