Best War Story Fiction Book Reviews From BookViral

Unopened Letters From Dead Men By Jeff Regan

Recommend  for the coveted BookViral Crimson Quill. To make your recommendation simply click on the award badge below..…. 

SUMMARY: Set in January and February 1968, Unopened Letters from Dead Men is the story of a father and his two sons struggling to cope with their lives a year after the family matriarch was killed in an accident. Al Jr., the eldest son, enlisted in the Army after his father blamed him for the accident. The youngest son, Billy, is the best player on the varsity basketball team, and he has struggled with maintaining his enthusiasm to play.

The BookViral Review: Genre – War Story Fiction

A novel with tremendous emotional impact Unopened Letters from Dead Men proves a genuine literary gem as Regan takes us back in time amid the domestic turmoil of the Vietnam war. His narrative broadly focusing on the lives of Billy, Al Jr. and Big Al whilst at its heart lies the fundamental changes within Billy as he faces the stark reality of a country at war. His life becoming a series of confusions: lost direction, self-pity and angry confrontations which Regan approaches with merciless honesty.

Regan isn’t the first author to tackle his subject and he won’t be last and whilst there are countless traps similar authors have run into Regan falls into none of them. His story sneaking up on us with a series of incidents from daily life – moments that on their own might not lead anywhere in particular, but together blind-side us with their powerful emotional impact.

Given the backdrop to Regan’s novel, you would expect there to be tangible pain and suffering and he certainly doesn’t sugar coat it but it comes from a philosophical core and doesn’t rely on dialogue to convey sentiment. And on this level it is not a story about wounds or recovery, but about people coming to terms with loss and change, expectations and familial bonds.

A story that comes vividly to life and leaves an impression that lingers long after the last page is turned, Unopened Letters from Dead Men is recommended without reservation.

Recommended Book Reviews
In The BookViral Spotlight

US Literary Fiction

It is easy to analyze the mechanism of a good story but more often than not more difficult to explain why a select few are as moving as they are. Yet with The Breedlow Legacy, it’s not only the manner through which the characters are revealed to us but McNamara’s fascinating exploration of memory.

Read More »
Action & Adventure Literary Fiction

Action & Adventure Literary Fiction

A whimsical fantasy bound by human relationships, adventures and desires, ‘Tiger-wolf’, by Brien Cole, plays with time and space as fact blurs with fiction and the world expands and shrinks in response to both past and present.

Read More »

Author Publishing Tips & Recommended Book Reviews

Author Blogs
Editorial Team

Should Authors Blog Or Is Blogging Dead?

When Huffpost Editor-in-chief Jimmy Leach announced the closure of its blogging platform he said that “publishing thousands of blogs has been a distraction from the delivery of impactful, targeted investigations, explainers, breaking news and lifestyle and entertainment journalism.”

Read More »

Book Reviews That Readers Trust.

From humble beginnings in 2002 as a book review club BookViral has grown to become the first choice in book reviews for authors around the world and one of the biggest book review sites on the web. BookViral reaches millions of potential readers through best practice SEO and a trusted social media presence ensuring readers get unbiased, critical recommendations they can trust. 

BookViral also offers a full suite of author services, including, book editing services for unpublished and self-published authors, website design and bespoke SEO that help authors get discovered by more potential readers as well as industry influencers, such as publishers, agents and film executives. 

© Copyright 2019 BookViral Reviews. All Rights Reserved.