All We Know of Heaven: A Novel
Jacquelyn Mitchard | 2008-05-01 00:00:00 | HarperTeen | 320 | Family Life
Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend's loss and pray for the other's recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died.
Based on a true case of mistaken identity, All We Know of Heaven is a universal story that no one can read unmoved: a drama of ordinary people caught up in an unimaginable tragedy and of the healing power of hope and love.
Reviews
After reading this book--in less than 24 hours, I might add, which is something I stopped doing more than a decade ago--I was stunned to learned the "brick and mortar" stores were shelving it as YA. What are they thinking? The protagonist may be 16, but the themes--Who are we? Is our identity related to our ability or our outward appearance, or, as Mitchard seems to be saying, are we defined by the choices we make when tragedy strikes and we have to pick up the bits and pieces to find ourselves in what we have left?--make it appropriate to an adult audience, as well.
The story is fascinating. Entirely fiction, it is inspired by a case of mistaken identity after two teens who looked almost identical were injured in an car crash. When some months after the accident, the living teen awoke from her coma and the mistake was caught, one family's grief turned to joy but the other family's hopes were suddenly dashed, and the town found itself grieving all over gain. Mitchard sets clever clues for the reader in the first chapter, then makes them wait for those around the hospitalized girl to figure out the truth. Once they do, the story is far from over--Mitchard is just getting warmed up, and with equal control, she takes the reader on a roller-coaster journey through what lies ahead. This ability to tell a story, first demonstrated in the bestseller THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN, sets Mitchard apart from other authors, and to my mind, this is her best book yet as she grapples with the issue of what it means to be disabled and how it feels from the person who's struggling to cope with handicaps others don't have to face. Let me tell you, as someone who's worked closely with the brain injured in the past, Ms. Mitchard nails it!
All the characters are rich and well-developed in this story, which is the kind I envision becoming a "major motion picture"--the sort that gives rise to multiple best actor/actress and supporting actor/actress nominations. It should become a classic; it's worth reading again and again.
Reviews
Ever since I read "The Most Wanted" years ago I've been in love with Jacquelyn Mitchard's writing style. Her use of words and sentence structure to convey atmosphere, her excellently constructed complex human relationships and maybe most of all-the way she portrays teenagers as real people in their own light-as adults who are just undergoing a lot of change. There's a real sense of respect for her younger characters and as a teenager I just adored her for it. It can be frustrating when in adult novels teens come off as lesser beings.
I'm not a teenager anymore and "All we know of Heaven" isn't one of Mitchard's adult novels but one I read about the plot I couldn't resist it. Based on a real life accident that occurred some years ago this book is the story of two best friends, Bridget and Maureen. Bridge and Maury live across the street from each other and do everything together. They even look alike and are the same height and weight-and have the same body type thanks to their cheerleading. So when the girls are in a horrific car accident and mangled almost beyond recognition they're identified by who was sitting in what seat in the car-Maureen's car.
The driver dies. The passenger lives, but is in a coma and horribly damaged. And everyone thinks they know what's going on when all of a sudden the passenger wakes up.
And she's not Bridget.
The case of mistaken identity stirs everything up. One set of parents is elated, the other broken. Friends are confused. And Danny, Bridget's boyfriend and Maureen's friend doesn't know what to think. Maureen is physically, emotionally and mentally damaged, terrified, angry and hungry for life all at once. We watch, as over the course of two years Maureen, and the whole community, struggle to get back to their new normal.
This is a really fantastic novel. It's a story of tragedy and hope, renewal and death, romance, growth and forgiveness. And strength most of all. I've never read a book where so many difficult emotions were portrayed so clearly and vividly. The grief of the families and friends, joy mixed with sorrow, hatred, love...it's all there. And it's so wonderful-the characters are so vivid they might be right in front of you telling you their story. Be prepared to cry.
My reasons for loving Jacquelyn Mitchard still hold true. Teen or adult, it doesn't matter. I think I'd read anything she wrote.
Five stars.
Reviews
Jacquelyn Mitchard has created another beautifully written, heartbreaking story. Maureen and Bridget are practically sisters, having grown up together and being best friends. When a car accident kills one of them and leaves the other in a coma, everyone mourns Maureen and prays for Bridget's recovery. Until they find out that Bridget is the one who died and Maureen is in the coma.
More than once, this book had me in tears. Maureen's story (and it's Bridget's too) is heartbreaking, but hopeful.
Reviews
I have never felt the need to write my opinion about a book, but I feel like I just wasted $9.99 and hours of my life on this one.
I read the description and, remembering how amazing The Deep End of the Ocean was, thought to myself "Wow, this will be a great book."
This was an incredibly tragic story, even more so because it was based on actual events. But this book was terrible, I'm sorry. It was beyond cliche and her "recovery" was utterly ridiculous and not believable in the least. I can see how this would be a good book for young teens - middle school age maybe. And if it took place in the 1950s. But no teenager on the planet acts the way these kids do in this book. With maybe the exception of the girl who sells Maureen's picture to the tabloids. The dialogue was incredibly cheesy - straight out of a soap opera. The entire storyline felt rushed - as if the author just wanted to get it written and published as soon as possible.
It's really a shame, this book had the potential to be so moving and inspiring and whatever else and, in my opinion, turned out to be crap.
I'm so disappointed in the author.
Reviews
wonderful characters, great story
If only real life could be so tidy at the end!
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