9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 7, 2008
This review is from: All We Know of Heaven: A Novel (Hardcover)
I have read and reviewed many books over the past two years that have impressed me. I have read only a handful, however, that have touched me as deeply as ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN. This is a book that's hard to describe in detail, due mainly to the fact that I don't want to give too much of the story away. Suffice it to say, however, that it's a story that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
Two girls, Bridget and Maureen, who are so similar and yet so different at the same time. They have nearly identical body shapes, have the same colored hair and eyes, and even share many of the same mannerisms and characteristics. They've been best friends for several years, and yet there's a part of Maureen that understands that Bridget considers her to be her friend out of convenience, and for what she can provide for her.
Then there is an accident, a deadly one, and the lives of two girls and their families are forever changed. One girl dies, one girl lives. One family buries their daughter, one rejoices and yet fears over the fact that their daughter, now forever changed, lies unconscious and unknowing in a hospitable bed. Yet through it all, interspersed throughout the pages of the story, are the tangled thoughts of a young woman, who is unable to grasp even the simplest words and put them to the images she sees, yet who understands the concept that she's not the girl everyone seems to think she is.
The wrong daughter buried, the wrong family rejoicing. Fear, regret, heartbreak, happiness, hope -- and with it all, through it all, tinged by it all, lies guilt. Guilt that one girl survived, and one didn't. Guilt that one mother once hoped her daughter might die, to spare them all the pain of a long recovery. Guilt that one family's prayers seemed to be answered, and another's joy was cut short.
Guilt that one girl is not the other, could never be the other, and yet seems to be stepping into the life that girl left behind.
Jacquelyn Mitchard can write. She writes so well, in fact, that the reader is unable to step outside of the story of Maureen and Bridget once they've begun reading it. You can feel the pain, the happiness, the sorrow. You understand, and you grieve, and you rejoice, right along with the characters of ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN. This is a story you won't soon forget -- nor will you want to.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some good qualities, some bad - a mixed review, April 17, 2009
This review is from: All We Know of Heaven: A Novel (Hardcover)
First off, I wish I could give 2 1/2 stars because I feel equally divided on this book. I agree with those who say the first half was good and the second half wasn't as good.
The first half was very well written and I especially liked being "inside" Maureen's mind as she tried to find her words and tried to figure out what was happening to her. The hospital stay and her rehabilitation in the hospital were so touching.
I had a problem when she left the hospital. The love story between Bridget's boyfriend and Maureen was too contrived. It absolutely did not belong in this book. I would have rather seen him as a strong friend figure who helped Maureen deal with the loss of her best friend. I also hated the Flannery's disgusting behavior towards Maureen for living. Maureen didn't kill Bridget, it was an accident and their anger was grossly misguided. It just didn't sit well with me at all.
I guess the second half was so disappointing to me because I had followed the Cerak/Van Ryn case and read the book. I was so drawn to their story because of the way the two families banded together in the end. They were so inspirational and their behavior was beautiful and I guess I would have rather seen that in this book than the bullying that took place instead.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
First half great, second half not so much., November 24, 2008
This review is from: All We Know of Heaven: A Novel (Hardcover)
As one of the other critical review stated, this book was definitely too rushed in the second half. I liked the first half a lot; the similarities between the story and the Whitney Cerak/Laura Van Ryn true-life story were definitely obvious, but not problematically so. The parts with Maureen emerging from her coma are touching and well-written, as is the reveal of the mistaken identity. Once Maureen is out of the hospital, the book goes downhill fast. It hops from today to a year from now to six months later to... you get the idea. The author tries to cover too much time, with too little detail, in too few pages.
I didn't think the "love story" was a necessary addition to the book. I'm sure the reader is supposed to believe Danny when he insists that maybe he was in love with Maureen all along, but I certainly couldn't buy into that idea. One day he's waiting anxiously for the girl he believes to be his longtime girlfriend to awaken, the next day she's awake and not the girlfriend - so he's immediately just as much in love with Maureen as he was with Bridget. It's not believable. I don't blame the characters who accused him of using Maureen as his Bridget substitute, because that's exactly what happens.
I also didn't care for the use of dozens of characters who appeared once or twice then never again, giving us little sense of who is and isn't important in the main characters' lives. One girl is set up as a villain at the beginning, then basically vanishes for the rest of the book. The family members, with the exception of the girls' parents, are virtual strangers to us from beginning to end. I would have much rather had fewer characters and much more character development.
Overall, the book would have been much stronger if we'd learned more about the girls and their friendship before the accident and seen more of Maureen's struggle to cope with the loss of the friendship afterward. As it is, we don't know much about them before the accident, and Maureen seems to seamlessly slip into her deceased friend's role with a definite minimum of grieving and loss. I'm sure there are elements to the Cerak/Van Ryn story that the general public didn't see, but it seems to be a cheapening of their tragedy to basically retell the story but with more emphasis on the "love story" than the loss and learning to live again.
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