Our Yellow Tape Letters by Caitlin Miller

 Read Time: 6-10 minutes 

Our Yellow Tape Letters by Caitlin Miller 

| A bookish review |

Hello, Sweet Friend! 

Today I am sharing my book review of Our Yellow Tape Letters by Caitlin Miller!!! AHHH! I love this book SO MUCH!!! It is so good and I HIGHLY recommend reading! It's a WW2 novel and is written as letters, telegrams, and journal entries! It's so good! You just need to read this book! 

Now, I’m going to stop rambling and get into this book review!!!

“I’m learning that forgiveness will take my heart from a graveyard to a garden—from a place of death to a place of life. Where things can grow and heal.” 

― Caitlin Miller, Our Yellow Tape Letters  

Rating: ★★★★★

Cleanness: ★★★* 

What words do I have to describe this beautiful story? This story of loss, beauty, forgiveness, siblings, friendship, war, peace, and second chances? What words do I have to describe this book of letters that makes me want to cry? 

Caitlin writes such a beautiful and touching story. It’s a story of love and forgiveness. It’s a story about faith. It’s a story about finding home. It’s a story about guilt and learning to move past it and HEAL. It’s a story about loss that makes you remember the loss you have gone through and know to heal. 

I don’t have enough words to describe how much I LOVE this story. I’m so incredibly thankful for my sweet friends Mady (@salted_caramel_novel) & Ella (https://ofwitandwrittenwords.wordpress.com) who recommended this book to me! Thank you!!! 

Story 

The story is incredible! I love how it was written and how it is in letters, journal entries, and telegrams. When I first got it I had no idea it was made of only letters. At first I didn’t know if I’d like it but I grew to love it! It’s so beautifully written and feels like you are just reading these found letters and are reading a story. I really loved that! 

This is set in WW2, one of my favorite time periods. I love (and hate) this time period. I’ve always been fascinated by it. It’s the one time in history I always want to learn more about and is a sure way to get me crying. One day—Lord willing—I want to write a story about this time. Honestly, Caitlin has inspired me to look back at my old story notes. I always hoped I would go back to that unwritten story. Thanks to this book that may just happen. So, thank you Caitlin for inspiring me to go back! 

Characters 

Jeremiah Sparrow is amazing! I love his character and his BACKSTORY !!! He has such a sad backstory of being abandoned, an orphan, and not having any friends or family. His life was changed in the army when he met his best friend Ben. He carries massive guilt because his best friend sacrificed his life to save him. He has such a beautiful and redemptive story. I love the friendships he built and his strong character. 

I also love that he is a deaf character who learns ASL. I can’t remember if I’ve read about a character who is deaf and I thought this was just amazing. I love that the people around him—the people who care about him—learned ASL with him! That melted my heart. <3

I also love that he had a crush on Lucy for years. That was SO SWEET! 

I have to say the ENDING was my FAVORITE!!! It is the sweetest thing and I just wanted to cry. 

**Spoiler: (to read spoilers go to my goodreads)**

I love Lucy! She is such a good character! I love how her story was really about forgiveness. She went through the worst possible thing—losing the person she loves most in life—her big brother, Ben. I loved getting to see their history together and see just how much she loves her big brother. It was absolutely devastating losing Ben and she blamed Jeremiah—the man her brother sacrificed his life to save. Her journey is learning to forgive him and those she lost and the future she never will have. I thought that was really impactful. Sometimes you need to forgive people for what they did to you, but others you must forgive for what they didn’t do or what you will never be able to do with them. That was so beautiful and I LOVE how important forgiveness is in this book! 

“Forgiveness—real forgiveness—is costly.” 

**Spoiler: (to read spoilers go to my goodreads)**

Ben!!! Ben is my FAVORITE!!! He is sweet, kind, loyal, caring, a best friend, and the sweetest big brother! Ben made me want to have a big brother because he is just the best! I love how much he loves Lucy! Their relationship is precious. I love how he and Jeremiah became best friends and like brothers and how Ben showed Jeremiah what it meant to be open, vulnerable, and have a family. 

His letter to Sage. *crying* That broke me. That was the sweetest, most saddest thing ever. I wish there was a different ending for them but still I love this story! 

**Spoiler: (to read spoilers go to my goodreads)**

Ben also deals with heavy depression. I thought that was really well written. As someone who has gone through depression I know how hard it is and how you really do feel like you are “sinking…into a hole of mental darkness.” I love how Jeremiah was there for him, supported him, and kept him from falling. 

**Spoiler: (to read spoilers go to my goodreads)**

Sage is so sweet and such a good friend! I love how she was always there for Lucy and praying for her and encouraging her to forgive Jeremiah. She is such a good friend. My heart breaks for her and Ben. I wish there was another way. Still, I love where her story ended and how she is learning to move past her loss and FEEL emotions still. I love the friendship between her and Lucy. 

“I loved him then, and I still do now.”

All in all this is such a beautiful story and I love these characters! There are so many other good ones but these are my favorites I wanted to talk about! 

A Note On Content 

So I feel like I need to write a note on content and trigger warnings before continuing. This is such a wonderful story and I highly recommend reading but there are things I want to warn you about. 

First this is a story about loss and going through losing a loved one. There is also abandonment as a child and being an orphan and not having parents. The main part of the story is how Ben died and how that affects all these people around him who are mourning his death. This can be triggering if you have gone through loss (I know I was thinking of a loss I went through while I was reading and that was very emotional to me). 

This story is also set in WW2 and talks about war, fighting, killing, loss, wounds, bleeding, etc. This is all talked about. It is not done in a gory or frightening way but it is a part of it and is very heavy. 

Characters go through a ton of trauma—physical and mental. That is a challenge for them and could possibly be triggering. 

Finally, depression is a heavy theme in this book. As I wrote above when talking about Ben, I think it was beautifully and accurately written and I really appreciate that. I will say it can be triggering. I know I was triggered while reading and felt depressed while reading (the characters were depressed and that makes me depressed). This isn’t a really bad thing because it moves past really fast but did happen. I also felt this while reading You’ve Reached Sam (another book about loss and depression that hit me). 

I just wanted to warn you ahead of time if you struggle or have struggled with any of these things then this book can be triggering but I also think it’s healing. So, yeah! Just wanted to let you know! 

Some Quotes I Love:

“…It was in situations like this where we didn’t need to hide our brokenness. We needed to embrace it—because embracing help isn't a sign of outward weakness; it’s an indicator of inward strength.” 

“…true friends don’t leave when things get hard. They stick by.” 

“That’s how it is with those closest to you—you sense they’re even when you can’t see them.” 

“I don’t want to be angry anymore. I want to heal—and that means letting go.” 

“Shadows had always been a home of sorts for me.”

“He simply spoke the truth over me when I needed it most.”

“Family makes up all the people who you care about because they’re the ones who care about you and stick with you no matter what.”

*Cleanness: 

This book is clean!  

The romance is sweet and cute and nothing bad (the characters don’t even kiss. They just touch foreheads *melts*). 

As I wrote above, this is set during war times so there is war and topics relating to war and death and killing. There are also themes of depression and going through that. I go in more detail above in the “A Note On Content”. 

There is very little curing and nothing really bad. Darn, dang, hell, and heck used a few times. “Dirty japs” is used twice & “jap lover” once (both used negatively). 

These are just a few things to note. This is a really heavy book, though beautifully written and depicted. I highly recommend reading! 

The Pinterest board : 

Okay, if you know me, you know how much I love book aesthetics! So without further ado, here is my Pinterest board for OYTL!  

https://www.pinterest.com/fablerosemc/book-%2B-fandoms-part-ii/our-yellow-tape-letters/ 

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Discussion Time

I hope you liked this book review!!! Thank you so much for reading this post! <3 

I want to hear from you! Meet me in the comments and tell me what you thought of this post? Have you read Our Yellow Tape Letter? If so, who is your favorite character? If not, do you want to read it? I would love to chat! 

ALSO, if you have any topic you’d like me to cover—writing help or tips, book/movie reviews, thoughts on faith/life, anything—please let me know down in the comments! I want to write posts that can help you and that you would find valuable in (I’m also always looking for new post ideas to write about)!

AND make sure to come back this Friday because I am going to be talking about anxiety and how I have dealt with it. Maybe it can help you too. 

If you have any questions or want to talk, make sure to comment down below! Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week. ALSO, If you want to hear more about my writing and read snippets from my stories, make sure you are subscribed because I am doing special updates for BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! 

Love, Moriyah 💛