Dear Aaron by Mariana Zapata

Narrated by Callie Dalton & Teddy Hamilton

11 Things about Dear Aaron:

1. It’s an epistolary novel set in 2008/2009 for the most part. Aaron is a Staff Sergeant deployed in Iraq and Ruby Santos from Houston writes to him as part of a pen pal program for soldiers serving overseas. The first part of the book consists entirely of email. Over time and once they become friends, the pair move to IMing each other. Callie Dalton narrates the emails and IMs from Ruby and Teddy Hamilton narrates the emails and IMs from Aaron.

2. The protagonists don’t meet in person until well into the book. After Aaron returns to the States, the book moves to the traditional Mariana Zapata style – first person from Ruby’s perspective. Callie Dalton narrates this section in it’s entirety. I admit that was a little jarring after only ever hearing Teddy Hamilton do Aaron’s voice.

3. Ruby is half Caucasian and half Filipino (through her dad). There is hardly anything in the book about her heritage however and I thought the representation was underwhelming, to say the least. There is a scene where a group are out for dinner and they talk about gross food. Ruby’s contributions are of some Filipino cuisine and, while it may well be that those particular foods are an acquired taste, it is also the case that there was insufficient positive representation of Filipino culture in the book so the food discussion and the scant references to Ruby’s heritage felt problematic to say the least.

4. Ruby is 23 and Aaron is 28 when the book begins but both of them mostly come across as younger than their stated ages. This is particularly noticeable with Aaron after the pair finally meet. (I’d have thought a nearly 30-year-old guy would have been much more interested in boning her already but it took ages for them to even kiss!)

5. Ruby has led a relatively sheltered life. She was ill as a child and her family are extremely protective of her. She also had a massive crush on her older brother’s best friend and she was so busy mooning over him, she didn’t have any relationships with boys as a teenager. After the brother’s BFF finally told her he wasn’t interested after YEARS of knowing she had feelings for him (he really was a tosser by the way) she was heartbroken. As a consequence, Ruby has never had a boyfriend. This also makes her seem much younger than 23.

6. Although Ruby has friends, there are very few details about them in the book. This left me with the impression that she basically lived in her room and had no life before Aaron challenged her to be brave. Which means that Aaron is cast in the role of saviour and this didn’t sit well with me. Ruby is very passive for most of the story and not the go-getter that I’m used to seeing in Mariana Zapata heroines.

7. Despite the problems I had with the novel, I still enjoyed it, on balance. This mainly is the result of excellent narration from Callie Dalton and Teddy Hamilton. I’ve enjoyed Ms. Dalton’s narrations before in Zapata books and this one was no exception in that regard. Ms. Dalton helped me be far more sympathetic to Ruby than I might otherwise have been. I felt more connected to Ruby via Ms. Dalton’s voice in my ears and cut Ruby a bit of slack as a result.

8. Teddy Hamilton was a wonderful surprise. When Ruby and Aaron first start corresponding, there is some mutual stiffness and reticence as they begin to know each other. Mr. Hamilton’s Aaron is initially friendly but somewhat distant. By the time Ruby and Aaron begin IMing, Mr. Hamilton had changed the way Aaron spoke to Ruby to be far more intimate and flirty. I loved it when Teddy Hamilton (Aaron) called Ruby “Ruby Cube”. I really could hear Aaron’s feelings for Ruby develop by voice alone. Sure, the words made a difference too but there was a delightful softening in the way Aaron “speaks” to Ruby that was a pleasure to listen to.

9. When Ruby and Aaron were IMing, it is represented on the page like this:

April 30, 2009

            AHall80: Hey

            RubyMars: Hey you.

            AHall80: What are you up to?

            RubyMars: Nothing. On the couch, eating my troubles away while I watch TV.

            AHall80: Want me to let you go?

            RubyMars: No.

            AHall80: What are you watching?

            AHall80: Someone put on the first X-Men movie today and I thought of you.

However, on audio, both Ms. Dalton and Mr. Hamilton only used the character’s respective IM handles once at the beginning of each interaction and thereafter they skipped those unnecessary identifiers. As Ms. Dalton said Ruby’s words and Mr. Hamilton said Aaron’s it truly was unnecessary and I very much appreciated that they didn’t bog the listen down with extraneous details I didn’t need to hear. Brava!

10. The HEA was a little disappointing. Mariana Zapata is the queen of the slow burn romance but I’m used to more of a payoff when the romance finally arrives. Dear Aaron has an extremely abridged “happy” section at the end and then the book just finishes. I needed more. I had questions about what their life was like, where they were and what they were doing but I also wanted to wallow in the happy and I didn’t get a chance to do that.

11. Dear Aaron is not Mariana Zapata’s best book. In fact, I don’t think it is very representative of her books generally. Most of her heroines are more fully fleshed out and much more kickass than Ruby. However, I am a sucker for an epistolary novel and I did enjoy the narration. Overall, I’d recommend Kulti, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me or Wait For It over Dear Aaron. It certainly has fun moments and it counts more in the win than loss column. At the same time, there are problematic elements that troubled me and I really needed more of that happy-ending-wallowing.

Kaetrin