This all started back in the COVID Times, 2020-2021, back when we lived in Klamath Falls. We still were getting our monthly haircuts and stopping at the local bookstore, Canvasbak Books, and I picked up a book called “Falling Woman.” It told the story of one person who may have survived the midair explosion of a passenger jet on a cross-country flight and the NTSB agent who searched for them. I thoroughly enjoyed that story, so a couple months later when I found another book along the same lines, I snatched it up.
This one was called Dear Edward and is about a 12-year-old who is the lone survivor of another cross-country air disaster. I also enjoyed the heck out of this book too. In this book we get the backstory of his family and several other passengers too. It follows our survivor and what happens in the aftermath. We also get the stories of the other passengers before and their families afterwards. The title stems from the letters our “miracle boy” gets from around the world asking if he saw their relation onboard and other questions. His aunt and uncle kept him in the dark about them.
On another splunking expedition poking around on Apple TV+ I found a limited 10-part series called Dear Edward. Yup, it is based on the book. So of course I started watching it. Aside from the ludicrous-looking plane crash site and the finding of Edward, it started out pretty good. In the book Edward and his next-door female friend, Shay, discover the letters he’s been getting and decide to write back to some and even physically meet some.
The show really highlighted a lot of the survivor’s feelings in the aftermath. The letters get a brief mention in episode two, and he finally gets his hands on the letters in the last 5 minutes of episode nine. He and the cohort actually start the reading of them in the last 5 minutes of episode ten, the last episode. Around episode five I started anticipating the letters’ plot line. Around episode number seven I was going to bail entirely on the show, but I stuck it out just to see where the letters got into the hands of Edward and Shay.
I think I’m going to re-read the book again to maybe get the sour taste out of my mouth.