My Love Letter

The Book

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I normally don’t write about a book until I’m finished reading it. I’m not sure why, something about momentum, or superstition, who’s to say. However, every now and then, the author’s writing makes me literally stop in my tracks and reread a particular passage or turn of phrase over and over. Dean Koontz does this to me all the time with his writing.

This time, however, it’s E. Lockhart who’s made me pause long enough to talk about it first. I’m reading We Were Liars and it’s the first of her novels that I’ve read. I find her writing to be poignant and lyrical and I came across this passage written by the teenage protagonist, Cadence, recounting a love “note” she received from her first love, Gat (p. 30).

“Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.
Also, here is a green toothbrush tied in a ribbon.
It expresses my feelings inadequately.

Better than chocolate, being with you last night.
Silly me, I thought that nothing was better than chocolate.
In a profound, symbolic gesture, I am giving you this bar of Vosges I got when we all went to Edgartown. You can eat it, or just sit next to it and feel superior.”

I just love this love “note”. I love the youthful innocence and earnestness. I love the sincerity. And, I love the feeling of that first love magnitude. Nothing was better than chocolate, then came you. Reminds me of that feeling, that first love that you knew with the certainty of the tides would last forever. The rush. The pull. The buoyancy.

And, I’m not even a chocolate lover. But, I’ll spare Cadence the prediction of what’s to come.

Soon to come… The Bite. (No pun intended.)

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