13 Little Blue Envelopes Book Review

Like The Name of the Star, 13 Little Blue Envelopes was a book I picked up because I was (and subsequently have) going to meet Maureen Johnson and it’s not really the sort of thing I read but I stuck with it.

First of all, we’re introduced to Virginia ‘Ginny’ Blackstone., who has recently learned that her artistic Aunt Peg has died and has been directed to a package containing, you guessed it, 13 little blue envelopes (well 12 considering the first one lead her to the package). The rules are as follows:

Each envelope must be opened in order and can only be opened after the task in the previous envelope has been completed. Envelope one contained $1000 for a one-way ticket to London from New York, a passport and a backpack. So, armed with her purple and green back pack filled with a practical assortment of essentials recommended by guide books she wasn’t supposed to have read, Ginny embarks across Europe following the instructions in the letters and each time learning a little something about her runaway-Aunt.

In London Ginny stays with Richard Murphy at his house in Islington in Aunt Peg’s old room. Whilst there she meets Keith, an older, kilt wearing and slightly excentric student of the arts when she buys up all the tickets for hisStarbucks: The Musicalunder the instruction of one of the letters. From there Ginny is whisked up to Edinburgh to meet Aunt Peg’s artistic idol Mari Adams who gives Ginny a temporary ink tatoo or a lion on her shoulder which she endeavours to keep for as long as she can.

From there it’s Virgins in Rome, a cafe in Paris, Knapps in Amsterdam, windmills, karaoke and endless sun in Denmark, then it’s doubling back to Venice to jump on a big red boat bound for Greece.

But then disaster strikes and Ginny’s bag is stolen and inside it was the mysterious 13th envelope unopened. Having kept her barclycard and passport in her pocket she’s able to withdraw her last 40 euros and called Richard who gets her back to London. Keith visits and as Ginny is explaining her Aunt’s favourite painting to him, a print of which is hanging in her room, she finds a key behind it. A key that opens a cupboard in a Harrod’s store room Richard would let Aunt Peg into (he works there) to paint, revealing a collection of Aunt Peg’s work and a business card with the words CALL NOW on it.

Ginny then finds herself in an auction house watching the paintings be sold and wonders if it’s the right thing to do. Richard says the paintings show the end of Aunt Peg and that’s not how they should remember her, he also reveals that he and Aunt Peg were married, which makes him Ginny’s uncle. The collection sells for £70, 000 (c. $133, 000) and leaves Ginny in a daze of what to do with it.

In the end she decides to do what Aunt Peg never did, go home.

In the end of the book Ginny writes a letter to Aunt Peg, a letter it’s clear she knows she can’t post to anywhere but sums up her feelings over the month long journey she’s made.

‘At the same time, you pulled off this incredible trick. You got me over here, made me do all of these things that I’d never have done otherwise; And I guess even though you were telling me what to do, I still had to do them on my own. I always thought that I could only do things with you, that made me more interesting. But I guess I was wrong. Honestly I pulled some of this stuff out of my butt. You would have been proud. I’m still me…. I still find it hard to talk sometimes. I still do incredibly stupid things at inappropriate moments. But at least I know I’m capable of doing some things now.’

In summary, although Keith does appear in London, Edinburgh and Paris as the romantic interest his presence isn’t much else felt and Ginny is often unsure of where she stands with him. This is a change from the ‘girl falls for guy everything is perfect candyfloss and paper hearts for everyone’ mental state and makes Ginny more relatable. That said, the romance isn’t the focus of the book, it’s Ginny’s journey and the letters. Admittedly I got to the end of the book and it didn’t really feel like an end, it didn’t feel like a story, it felt like I’d just read a book about a month of Ginny’s life with little visible change in her. But maybe that’s the point.
13 Little Blue Envelopes takes a girl out of her comfort zone and shows her it’s okay to make mistakes, these things happen and life goes on but in a very subtle way. Ginny hasn’t faced monsters or near death experiences or romeo-and-juliet perils of the heart she’s just faced life and come out the other side knowing a little bit more about herself and what she’s capable of. A whole world of opportunity has been opened up in her eyes, not just by the money, but from the sheer act of doing what she’s done. From that perspective this book presents not only en enjoyable read but a learning experience and I’d recommend it.

There is now a sequel where I believe the purple and green backpack has been found with the envelopes inside entitled The Last Little Blue Envelope. It will be on my to-read list this summer.