Book Summary
A magical realism story about grief, death, and second chances. We meet Wallace, a stubborn lawyer who only cares about himself and his career, never seeing there is more to life until it's too late. He suddenly passes away and has an out-of-body experience at his funeral when he meets a reaper to take him to Charon's Crossing, a tea shop for the dead to pass through before they ultimately cross over. Wallace has only one week to right his wrongs and learn how precious life really is.
Book Review
I LOVED House in the Cerulean Sea so I needed another TJ Klune book immediately. I didn't want to get my hopes up and assume this book would leave me breathless like the other one did, but it still did not disappoint for me to understand the important message of this book. I liked the writing enough to enjoy it, BUT I did not save any quotes from this book! Sometimes, I did laugh and appreciated the book for its message, but if you're looking to cry because of the theme of death, maybe listening to it would be better. It's also pretty slow getting to the main character's actual challenge of only having seven days left until he has to cross over, but everything that happens in between this supernatural world is interesting.
4 stars:
- Mei is my favorite character!
- Grief
- Death
- Suicide
- Fantasy element
- Long chapters (was okay for me if I was in the mood to read all day/night)
- Funny, witty, emotional writing
I think everyone should give this book a chance simply for the beautiful messages of this story- live and love every moment of every day, tell people you love them, hug and kiss someone a little longer, laugh a little louder, bad moments are just that; temporary. Be happy!
Enjoy and happy reading!