2 stars
I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven a few years ago. I remember really enjoying it, but honestly I don’t remember anything about it. While this is a sequel to the first book, it is only loosely connected and can be read as a standalone.
Overall, I thought this book was okay. The writing was lovely and there is no doubt that Albom is a great writer. But I just didn’t really connect to this one. Probably because every other section recounted some mistake Annie made with the heading “Annie Makes a Mistake”. Yes, I realize that was the whole point of her learning experience, yada yada, but hearing about how much she messed up repeatedly was a bit irritating and didn’t make me respect her as a character. I also listened to the audiobook, in which you can’t just skim through the boring annoying parts. This may have influenced my reading experience as well.
Aside from that, the book just felt like bad thing after bad thing. As inspirational as it set out to be, it was kind of a downer.
I do want to reread the first one now that I realize how the second connects to it. Not sure if I didn’t like this one because my tastes have changed over the years or if this one just didn’t live up to the legacy of the first. Either way, this one was just okay to me.