Kirkus’ Best Indie Books of 2019
2019 Maxy Awards Best Young Adult
2020 Best Book Awards Finalist – Young Adult
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Published by: Black Rose Writing
Release Date: January 3, 2019
Pages: 172
ISBN13: 9781684331727
Kit Kat was born in Athens, Greece. Her mother was a prostitute, and their protector was a pimp. After an early childhood marked by violence, homelessness, and time in an orphanage, a Greek-American woman adopted her and moved her to New York. Neglected and isolated, Kit Kat sought refuge in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This book saved her life, and at fifteen, Kit Kat begins to write letters to Jane Eyre as a means of surviving a childhood she still remembers, the family she left behind, and the new mother who refuses to acknowledge her past.
This coming-of-age and semi-autobiographical novel is about family, loss, forgiveness, and the power of a good book.
PRAISE FOR DEAR JANE
“With sophisticated prose, this gritty coming-of-age story blends the familiar and the unthinkable as the lead learns to use her voice.” Kirkus Reviews (Best Indie Books of 2019)
“Dear Jane’s subject matter is dark and troubling, but it’s artfully written by Marina DelVecchio, and its protagonist’s connection to literature rescues it from being depressing.” IndieReader
“No subject is off limits for letters to Jane in this soul-stirring epistolary novel by Marina DelVecchio. Dear Jane is a book full of wondrous prose and uplifting courage.” Donna Kaz, author of UN/MASKED
“Dear Jane is a heart-wrenchingly beautiful exploration of what it means to not only find the pieces of yourself, but to put them back together.” Sara Lunsford, author of Sweet Hell on Fire
“You are a seven-year-old urchin living on the streets of Athens, the child of an unhinged and violent prostitute. You’ve known few moments of security in a life filled with privation and violence, when you are ripped from this world and put into an ostensibly safer one. But is it? This is what the protagonist in Marina DelVecchio’s trenchant and moving autobiographical first book, Dear Jane, must navigate.” Nancy Rommelmann, author of To the Bridge, a True Story of Motherhood and Murder