Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves

“Death is personified as a quiet, unassuming man named Travis. He’s there when people pass over and he’s never cruel or judgmental, just a steady calming presence. When he befriends the woman across the hall, Dalia and forms a friendship with her and her two daughters he knows it’s foolish but he does it anyway. Though I struggled with the last half of the book, the ending more than made up for it.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pros: Some of the deaths were sweet, others crushing. Reeves has a real gift for pulling at the heart strings/Travis was like a genuinely caring person, though he often struggled when faced with difficult emotions/The ending was so well done.

Cons: It wasn’t told in a linear fashion so much as it seemed to jump around a bit/Dalia and Layla could be rather abrasive at times/I struggled through the last half of the book.

Full Review

Travis is death. He finds people and is there when they die. He’s not the catalyst of their death but he’s there to help them go to whatever’s next. Some people are prepared while others are not. Regardless Travis is simply there to take their hand as they go and lead them into the afterlife.

Things become complicated when a cat climbs through the window of his apartment and won’t leave, forcing him to knock on his neighbors door and ask if they have any cat food. There he meets Dalia, a somewhat harried but good hearted mother of two girls, Layla and Neda.

Layla takes a shine to him, asking him to play a video game with her, asking him to her birthday party etc. And though Travis is reluctant at first but he eventually realizes that he’s growing close to this little family but he knows how it will all end because he knows everything.

There were some good parts, some deaths that really tugged at the heart strings, while at other times the narration was all over the place and hard to follow. And honestly, the characters of Dalia and Layla could be rather abrasive at times. I liked Travis for his quiet, gentleness and understanding but the book started to lose its pull about halfway through. I stuck it out to the end though and I’m glad I did. It was a good one.

Comments

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