<P> Laurel lives with her father and every other week with her Aunt Amy, her mother's older sister . Laurel's mother, she reveals, has divorced her father in order to pursue a dream of acting and moves to California to do so after Laurel's sister dies . </P> <P> At the new school, Laurel makes friends and continues to write letters to dead people documenting the changes in her life as well as sharing her confusion and grief over the loss of her older sister . </P> <P> With each letter, Laurel opens up a little more about the circumstances of her family life, her relationship with her older sister May and what happened the night May died . Finding other dead people to write to, Laurel explores how they died, what their childhoods were like and connects with each person's story in different ways . </P> <P> On the one year anniversary of May's death, Laurel has reached the point in her letters to dead people and with her friends, that she tells the whole story of how May died . On that evening, she and May went to the theater, as they often did . May met her older boyfriend Paul, leaving Laurel with Paul's friend Billy who took advantage of their times together to molest her . On this evening Billy sexually abused Laurel . On the way home from the theater May was agitated and wanted to stop at a bridge over a river where she and Laurel had played Pooh Sticks . There is friction between the sisters and Laurel tells May that Billy molests and abuses her . May goes out on the bridge railing, falls into the river and drowns . Laurel has struggled to understand if it was an accident or suicide . </P>

What is the book love letters to the dead about