The best epistolary books written from the gut

I am loathed to say, I had to put this book down at first. The writing was there, but it was a confusing mash-up of–I don’t even know how to describe it: post-apocalyptic, post-gender, romance-spy thriller, time-warping science fantasy? Usually too convoluted for me. But that writing…it was so poetic and eloquent that I gave it another go and was rewarded for it. Told from dual perspectives, two spies out to destroy one another in rotating dimensions, taunt, tease then fall in love with one another by leaving the most undiscoverable letters, letters so deep in wanting and loneliness that their pain becomes ours. This quick, but rich read ends as a tour de force and a hallmark of team writing.  

This is a stellar example of YA pushing boundaries with a simple twist to epistolary devices. The protagonist Brynn, seeks answers and a place to vent through letters to Rachel Maddow. While this starts off as an assignment, the book’s hilarity is immediate, and her vulnerability and voice are quickly established. At times raw and edgy (trigger warnings of family violence and homophobia), Kisner morphs this coming of age story into several directions, not the least of which are a treatise on political representation, class, and diversity. Queer and teens with disabilities will find ample representation and prominence. 

This racial identity awakening book reminds me of The Hate U Give.

Justyce McAllister is going places as a rare student who is Black in a very white thinking and acting milieu. He is victimized by police brutality and racism and slowly roused to the wider, more complex world around him. He tries to channel Dr. Martin Luther King by writing to him.

The book’s strength is in how Nic Stone captures the voice of Justyce and his cohort. Stone nails teen angst, confusion, and anger while simultaneously stirring readers, especially those on the pathway to ‘wokeness’.

This is the only title I’ve selected that was written pre-social media. I say this because this is one of the forerunners of a highly intimate, tell-all, the hell with any personal boundaries kind of story that is almost essential among consumers of mass, social media. Charlie, our passive, wallflower hero writes to an unknown recipient. He reveals a precarious balance of trying to live and run from his life, a familiar anthem of teendom, which includes first dates, family dramas, drugs, friends, and mental health. A lot has happened since and because of Wallflower, but this is a good marker of when YA epistolary made a significant turn.

You’ve probably seen this much-loved film adaptation of an astronaut Mark Watney stranded on Mars. What you don’t get in the film is the protagonist chronicling each and every move and thought into a series of videos. These show off his ingenuity and resourcefulness as he tries to make air, food, survive dust storms, and a whole whack of life-threatening stuff. Watney is a wall of American can-do and armor, a humble hero. He doesn’t emotionally bleed out helplessness and abandonment like the other epistolary titles mentioned, but it’s a highly entertaining page-turner.