Review-All We Know of Heaven

All We Know of Heaven by Jacquelyn Mitchard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars






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This book tells the story of teenagers Bridget and Maureen. They are best friends who do everything together. They even look a little like sisters. One day, while Bridget is driving them to a cheerleading competition, they are involved in a terrible car accident. One girl dies, and the other one lives, but will be brain damaged. At first, everyone believes that Bridget has lived and Maureen has died, but it is actually the other way around.

The beginning of the book gave a lot of background information on the girls, but I would've liked to see less exposition and more actual action. I wanted to get to know the girls more before the accident, and while we do learn more about Maureen while she recovers, I felt as though we never truly got to know Bridget. The middle of the story was very slow, and I felt that everyone finding out about the mistaken identity was kind of uneventful. There were too many peripheral characters to keep up with. The book finally did pick up some towards the end, when Maureen starts to feel the backlash from the community and Bridget's family for being the one who lived instead of died. I would have much rather they focused on this aspect more than some of the other things. Maureen also kind of hints at the end of the book that she was a little resentful towards Bridget and that she wasn't the perfect angel everyone thought. I would have liked for that to be explored more as well.

I didn't care too much for Maureen and Danny's relationship, and I wonder if they really are true love. I think he's still hung up on Bridget and she is actually his first love despite what he says, but whatever.

It was a quick read and I did semi-care for the characters, so three stars.