This is my favorite book of the year, so far, and I will be surprised if I am able to replace it. It has everything I want in a book, great characters that I just love, a wonderful story that is very well told, terrific pacing and I am going to tell everyone to put it on their TBR list. I am just so disappointed that I cannot read it for the first time again. Everything just worked for me. Read this book!!! It will touch your heart!

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano is a 2020 Dial Press publication.

A sad, uncomfortable, and heartrending journey- but ultimately a story of hope and inspiration!

Twelve- year old, Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash, which took the lives of 191 people, including Edward’s parents and older brother. Now living with his aunt and uncle, Edward is faced with the daunting task of recovering physically, mentally and emotionally. This story follows Edward's coming of age journey, as he copes with the aftermath of the crash.

Along with his devoted family, Edward also finds an unexpected support system through his friendship with Shay, one his neighbors. The two become inseparable, when Shay offers Edward her unconditional support, honesty, and love. Their relationship defied convention at times, but Shay became Edward's rock on so many levels.

Edwards’s present -day journey is alternated with the stories of a select group of passengers who were on board the plane with Edward, giving the reader a bit of insight into their personal lives leading up to the flight, and how they co-mingled on the plane before the crash.

This book was inspired by true events and is understandably melancholy. The story is centered around grief, the way it affects people in different ways, and how they cope. How will Edward come out on the other side of something this traumatic?

Right from the beginning, I wanted to hug Edward and comfort him. What a resilient soul, so broken, but also brave and determined. If the story had stayed centered on Edward and the obstacles he and his family faced and how they worked through their grief and all the psychological pain of recovering under the glare of the media spotlight, I would have given the book all the stars and a rave review.

However, I have some mixed feelings about the airplane sequences. It was very uncomfortable to read about these people under those circumstances. I wondered if there might have been a different way to introduce them- perhaps telling their story as a prelude to the crash, before turning the spotlight over to Edward.

I felt it would only be right to give the reader some insight into Edward’s life before the crash, and naturally I could understand the impulse of the surviving family members to reach out to Edward, to want to ask him questions, but these passages made me squirm with unease and kept the book shrouded in pain and darkness longer than necessary- often overshadowing or disrupting insights into Edward’s progress.

I also found it a bit curious that the author chose to relate the story in such a neutral, disconnected format. Except for Shay, the other character's backstory and interactions often seemed to take place at a great distance, save for one or two moments of intimate conversations.

However, as the story progressed the grayness slowly lifts, and the sun gradually begins to peek out from behind the gloomy clouds, eventually lighting Edward’s world with long overdue, but generous warmth.


Edward's journey is long, slow, and painful, but he finds strength and wisdom through many avenues, building mental and emotional fortitude with grace, despite his profound grief.

But, of course, he didn’t do it alone. I would be lying if I didn’t admit, that for me, Shay steals the show. What an amazing character!! In this whole drama, she was the bright light that led Edward out of the tunnel of darkness. That is not to say that others in his life weren’t as essential- because they were. It took all these special people, who stayed solid and committed to Edward, for him to become whole again- and he was worth every bit of the effort! Their work and support paid off and I think each of them was blessed and touched by Edward as well. I loved the way the story concluded on such a wonderful and positive note. This story is a testament to the human spirit, and to the power of love and friendship.

Although, I felt the story was too remote much of the time, it did eventually morph into a stirring, inspirational and uplifting novel.

I’m very conflicted about my rating here. The book has some issues that were big enough to take me out of the story at times, but it was so moving and profound, I hate to lower my rating. I’ve been waffling between a 3 or 4- which usually means I seek middle ground with a 3.5- but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to round up or down. Ultimately, despite some reservations I’ve decided to round up because the story is one that has lingered in my mind for days, which, for me, overrides some of the book’s weaker areas.

3.5 rounded up

Thank you for the opportunity to read this one. Former flight attendant me couldn’t resist, and then I literally couldn’t put it down. What a stunning read. I will highly recommend this to patrons!

I’ve heard so many great things about Dear Edward by @annnapolitano and now I know why. While it wasn’t my absolute favorite, it was a great read. I especially loved Shay’s character and the fact that she didn’t treat Edward any different despite what he had been through. The friendship that developed between them was so enjoyable to watch unfold. Worth a read for those who enjoy good character development! Thanks @netgalley for my free copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very well written story about Edward a boy being a sole survivor of a plane crash. There were a few times it seemed like the story was dragging however, I was not able to put it down. I loved the friendship that Edward and Shay shared and I loved that her mom was so welcoming of Edward. I really felt sorry for Edward what he had been through but at the same time his character was a little annoying throughout the story.

I really enjoyed this tough story of survival, and learning to live anew without completely letting go of the past. At 12-years old Edward found himself an unwilling traveler on this journey through a life he never wanted to live. By shear luck he survived a plane crash that should have killed him, but instead left him alive, and without those he loved most. Edward’s aunt and uncle gave him a home and their hearts, but his void remained too large to fill.

At its core, Dear Edward is a story of relationships and Ann Napolitano did a beautiful job building those. Foremost was the relationship between Edward and the girl who lived across the street from his aunt and uncle. Somehow Shay got him, even when Edward had nothing to say, providing a comfort no one else could give. Many other relationships sparkled, including those between Edward and his uncle, John, and between Edward and his high school principal.

I loved that as much as everyone wanted to, and tried to help Edward, he finally had to find his own way. Without really knowing he was doing so, Edward eventually uncovered the things that would allow him not exactly to move on, but to move forward. I thought Napolitano did an especially great job with this part of the story and the almost philosophical takes Edward eventually came to feel about all the lives lost around him. Dear Edward is a book that will move you in unexpected ways and have you rooting for this boy who lost everything and had to find a way to survive that.

Note: I received an electronic copy of this book from The Dial Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book tracks the life of Edward over the course of 6 years, from the time when he was 12 and the only survivor of the plane crash that killed his parents, older brother and over 100 other people. I was drawn to the story of how he found a way to handle his grief and to form new connections. However, that story alternated with the stories of several other passengers. I had zero interest in them, their inflight conversations and flirtations, or their backstories. Their inclusion was disruptive. I also found this book terribly slow and I skimmed it from the 60% point. I know that other people found it moving, but it did not have that effect on me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing a review copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is one of those books that you just can't put down. 

Twelve-year-old Edward Adler is the sole survivor in a tragic plane crash. His aunt and uncle take him in and Edward has to figure out who he is without his brother and parents.

Luckily, he finds a wonderful friend, Shay, who is his new neighbor.

When they discover a bag of letters, addressed to him, he realizes that many of these passenger's families have been writing to him for answers on those final moments.

As Edward battles the mental consequences of this trauma, he begins to find healing through replying to these letters. 

Lucky for him, he has a faithful sidekick (Shay) that helps encourage him through these difficult moments and wants to help Edward find closure and peace again.

Honestly, this coming-of-age story is just beautiful.

Alternating perspectives between the passengers and the crew really help the reader understand how this tragedy happened and what the passengers were feeling and thinking in those final moments.

A beautiful and quiet book - I loved this story, particularly towards the end. Edward (Eddie) is 12 years old when the plane he’s on with his family crashes. Edward is the only survivor. The story is told alternating between the flight before the crash, and Edward’s life in the years after it.

This sounds very depressing - and while there are certainly sad parts, it’s also more than that. It’s the stories of their lives and it felt real and true and the emotions also felt real and not forced.

Thank you to The Dial Press and Netgalley for the advance reading copies.

Twelve year old Eddie, his mom and dad and his older brother Jordan, board a plane one summer day in New York, along with 183 other passengers.
They are bound for their new life in Los Angeles.
The plane crashes over Colorado, with devastating results. The only survivor is Eddie.
He goes to live with his Aunt Lacey and Uncle John in West Milford, New Jersey.
As he recovers from his physical injuries, his mental healing falls behind. His grief and survivors guilt are overwhelming. Now wanting to go by Edward, Eddie died in the plane crash, his profound suffering is eased slightly by neighbor Shay, a girl his own age.
The book alternates timelines, between the passengers on the plane before the crash and Edward's ordeal to survive afterward.
The most touching, emotionally moving story of hope and despair.
It broke my heart and put it back together again.
This captivated me with its beauty and power. It will be one of my top reads of the year.
Thank you to The Dial Press for the e-ARC via NetGalley.

5 BEAUTIFUL STARS!

Wow! This book is sure to stay with me for a very long time. The storyline was so captivating and the characters were so so special!! My heart was heavy reading it but in a good way. All the feels. I highly recommend checking this one out!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up loving this heart-wrenching story of twelve-year-old Edward (formerly Eddie) who, as the only survivor of a plane crash in which his parents and brother are killed, along with over a hundred others, struggles to come to terms with his loss, and, eventually, the loss of other passengers on the plane.

At the beginning, I wasn't so sure I would enjoy the book, as the chapters switched between the passengers' experience on the plane to Edward's experience after he was rescued and began recovering from his injuries, both physical and psychological. As I perused the chapter titles, I noticed that chapters titled with different time stamps from the day of the crash were interspersed with chapters about Edward. I thought, oh no, the tragedy part is going to drag on throughout the entire book, and my heart sank.

However, it turned out that getting to know details about some of the passengers' lives was more interesting than I thought it would be (though at times with a few too many details for my liking,) and ended up tying into Edward's journey of recovery (told in chapters that jump in time) over several difficult years in a very beautiful way.

I enjoyed glimpses of Edward's inner experience as he processed through his grief and survivor's guilt, particularly for his older brother, and somehow was able to go on living and come through it all, moving into maturity and embracing his transformation into a complex and caring adult.

Especially touching and true was Edward's realization that his healing had been immensely facilitated by the people who connected with and cared about him, from the girl and her mother next door to his aunt and uncle's where he was brought after the crash, to the plant-loving principle at the school who took him under his wing, and not least, to family members of other victims of the plane crash.

When I finished the final pages of the Epilogue, I sighed with satisfaction and a full heart.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random house, The Dial Press, for providing me with an eGalley of this novel. It was a privilege and an honor to have early access to such an amazing work of fiction.

I A compassionate and realistic look at a young boy confronting paralyzing grief and survivor guilt. His family, moving from New York to LA, are on an airplane, when the plane crashes and Eddie, 12, is the only survivor. Taken in by his mother's sister and her husband, a couple that has suffered their own private grief, he no longer feels as if he fits in his own skin. Shay, a girl his own age, his new neighbor may be the door that allows him to find a way to move forward.

In alternating chapters we meet some of the people on the doomed flight, a look into their personal lives and hopes for their future and regrets from their pasts. Such great characters, this author has created, people who try to help Eddie and people who his life touches. The way to healing is hard, but Eddie is never alone, something he needs to realize for himself. Fate is not in ones control, and a tragedy such a this touches many, not only those involved. This emotional novel does a fantastic job showing how essential human connection is, and how it can be of benefit if one can open themselves to acceptance. Friendship, love, and hope. The ending had me teary eyed, despite the sadness, I loved watching these characters heal and grow.

ARC from Dial Press/Random House. this on Edelweiss so decided not to review here as well.

I received a reviewer copy of Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano from the publisher Random House in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash of a commercial airplane. The book follows Edward as he deals with his trauma and grief. The book switches between pre-crash and post-crash.

What I Loved: This book is just a masterful novel. I was immediately pulled in which I haven't been since Miracle Creek and lo and behold Angie Kim also loved it! The writing is beautiful and it is a really powerful look at grief and family and the mundane and exciting moments that our life is made. I just truly was so moved and touched by this book.

What I didn’t like so much: I think I would have liked some more of the on the plane moments and meet all the characters and recognize them, I don't want to spoil the book but I think that it would have been better if we specifically knew more characters.

Who Should Read It: People who love literary fiction. People who want a great fictional take on grief. People who love great writing.

General Summary: A masterfully crafted novel with excellent writing telling the story of a young boy who lives with his grief and the burden of being the lone survivor.

This one took me a while to get into. I did feel that some of the reactions of other characters towards Edward, and some of Edward's reactions themselves, felt unrealistic and tended to pull me out of the novel. However, I ended up being really moved by Edward's story, and I liked that the scenes in the airplane itself leading up to the crash did seem quite realistic and detailed but never veered into graphic sensationalism.

This is a book about grief.

Edward is twelve when he becomes the sole survivor of a plane crash. His life is now under the microscope--for others because he survived and for him because he wishes he hadn't--as he attempts to navigate a world where his close-knit family of four now consists of only him.

On his way to finding something resembling a life that isn't solely defined by his grief and the massive tragedy that was a plane crash, Edward finds a safe harbor in the form of his new next door neighbor, Shay.

Shay is unconventional in the ways she chooses to deal with people but is immediately connected to Edward's brokenness in a way neither of them can possibly understand--at first. Over time, their friendship transcends the accident and becomes the foundation upon which Edwards begins to find the strength and motivation to heal.

Shay becomes one of the people Edward appreciates for her ability to treat him as something more than a novelty or a head case.

She was a bit much in the beginning, and there were times I didn't much care for her, but their conversations offered the best insight into how well Edward was progressing. Otherwise you were forced to spend too much time in his head and that was a very unpleasant place to hang out.

His Aunt and Uncle, Lacey and John, are also try to offer Edward a sense of normalcy, but they struggle, at first, as their are personal obstacles within their own relationship and those unresolved issues are more a hindrance than a help.

This is a depressing story. I won't sugarcoat it and say it's redemptive and uplifting. It may want to be that but, for the most part, it's heartbreaking and sad. There's far too much loss to truly ever feel "happy" about how things play out for Edward.

By the time the end came, I was ready for it, because I was tired of feeling drenched in sadness.

It was ... a lot.

However, it shows how delicate and varied the healing process can be. There isn't a straight line and it doesn't always happen in a linear way.

Edward takes a step forward and two back. It's frustrating and painstaking to see but it's real and you feel him trying to find a place in a world where nothing makes sense anymore.

Along the way, there are flashbacks to the plane, before the crash, as it makes its way towards the inevitable.

It was tough to read the voices of those whom you understand, from the beginning, will perish; part of me was still hoping for a miracle: that they would all magically survive and the whole story would have been inside Edward's mind as a "what if?".

Ridiculous? Absolutely but, given the fact Edward was the sole survivor of a commercial plane crash, I figured anything could still be possible.

Plus, reading with full knowledge of such loss was emotionally draining--Edward's brother Jordan was especially hard to accept--and I suppose that was the point ...it's not supposed to be easy. The journey for Edward isn't about acceptance but about learning how to live with something you can't accept.

What happened is baked into your bones, Edward. It lives under your skin. It's not going away. It's part of you every moment until you die. What you've been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that.


This is a heavy read. Make sure to consider that before picking it up. It's certainly not something you want to dive into without being in the right place mentally and had I not been invested from the start, I might have stepped away and come back to it later.

Overall, it was a good read.

Thanks to NetGalley for this advanced e-Galley. Opinion is my own and was not influenced.

This is the beat book I’ve read in months. It really got to me, and I couldn’t put it down. Told from the point of view of a young boy and his internalized thoughts just broke my heart. It just really rigged at my heartstrings. Thank you for sharing this book through NetGalley.

Dear Edward tells the story of 12-year-old Edward, the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash that never should have happened. Told from the hours on the plane and from Edward after the crash and forward, it alternates to give a more complete picture of what has happened and how Edward's life has changed after losing both his parents and his brother.

I appreciate Edward's part of the story a lot, it was poignant, and very well told. While this may sound harsh, I didn't much care for the stories of the people on the plane. The people the author chose to tell their stories didn't captivate me, there wasn't anything earth-shattering or meaningful in their lives to me. I really would have rather had more of Edward's story as the title didn't come into play until towards the end of the book.

I felt for Edward, so young to lose so much. I could understand the struggle he went through just trying to make it through each day. I appreciate his story and it was well told. But as I said previous, I didn't love the alternated viewpoints as I normally would. The other characters weren't multi-dimensional and they didn't have an engaging story. I think the touching moments in Edward's story is what made this a 4-star read.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano is an insightful novel that will leave you thinking about your life in so many ways. What would you do if you were the only one to survive a crash? How would you react if you lost your entire family ? Are you living your life to the fullest.? What would you do if you inherited a large sum of money? The main character, Edward, must confront all of these questions in this unique novel. I know that I will remember this novel for a very long time. If literature has the capacity to change one’ s perspectives then this novel achieved this and so much more. I am confident that readers will enjoy this novel. I have been given this novel by the publisher and net galley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

*The following titles were free copies provided by the publisher. All opinions are m own and do not reflect the views of the publishers or authors.

Quick Take: Twelve year old Edward Adler is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his entire family and everyone else on the flight. The book essentially follows Edward as he grieves his family, struggles with survival guilt, and just growing up. Told in two timelines, one detailing many of the passengers’ last moments together, and the other following Edward as he grows up this book as simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful.

What I Loved: Napolitano’s writing style is at once accessible and succinct. Edward’s character was complicated and I appreciated the respectful way she handled the difficult subject matter. I was unsure of how I would feel about this book going in, I had heard mixed reviews and I fly often enough that I was deterred reading this book for a little while. But honestly, I think Napolitano did an amazing job.

What I Didn’t Love: I think it could have been shorter. I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that I just don’t love character driven novels the way I think I do. I keep picking up these books that are purported to be character studies and even though they center on plots that sound interesting, I often found myself getting bored. I think it in this case its just an instance of right book, wrong reader.