mckaylakatharine's reviews
129 reviews

‪- definitely a mess‬
‪- a little hard to follow, might be because I listened to the audiobook‬
‪- slow at times‬
‪- interesting enough to finish‬

‪- so digestible ‬
‪- easy enjoyable read‬
‪- mostly quick and to the point ‬
‪- surface level characters, doesn’t go in depth much ‬
‪- some loose ends ‬
‪- wish the author went more in depth and made the story more complex‬

- I don’t like Ruth Wares writing
- way to descriptive, everything is described to death and it’s annoying
- first half is slow and boring
- second half is decent
- interesting twist, kind of predictable though
- thank god I never have to read this book again

- characters/plot lacked depth
- I just didn’t care about the characters or story
- boring for the most part
- interesting at times
- I listened to the audiobook, I probably would have liked it more if I read the physical book

- very poetic writing, not my vibe
- gross (peach scene, age gap, etc)
- romanticizes sexual assault/grooming
- predatory/manipulative
- creepy
- made me uncomfortable
- boring
- love LGBTQ+ representation but this isn’t it

Very interesting and juvenile.

The writing was decent, although it made the story seem very juvenile. Some information was very vague and at times the novel was boring and slow.

Upon further researching, I found that this novel is not historically accurate (not that I thought it would be).

There are many ways to look at this book and I do not want my personal feelings and expectations (that it did not meet) to taint the research. With that being said, here are my opinions.

As a piece of academic writing, it is fantastic. It is relatively easy to understand and you do not need to be used to academic writing to grasp the concepts; however, previous exposure to academic writing will improve your experience and add more depth to this research.

For the most part, I found the research interesting. There were some parts that were boring, and some that I just didn’t care about. Still, I enjoyed the research.

Now onto my personal feelings. I picked up this book because I’ve heard many people express that it helps with grief. Having lost my dad years ago and my aunt last year, I felt that this book could help me grieve. I did not experience this at all while reading the book. I can see how it could help people but it did not help me at all, in fact, there were times that it made me feel worse.

Overall, the book was good but just not as good as I hoped. It was well organized, researched, and written in an approachable way. But, it did not hit the mark for me when it comes to grief. Granted, the books purpose is not to deal with grief, but to deal with near death experiences. This is why I do not want my review to taint the book in any way.

If you are interested in learning about near death experiences and what happens when you die, give the book a try, but do not go into it expecting anything more than that.

Twitter review:

- well researched and organized
- very approachable
- interesting
- boring at times
- went into it thinking it would help with grief (that’s what reviews said) and it didn’t

Honestly, just watch The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, it’s much better.


I think the plot is interesting but because of how short it is, nothing really happened. I was left feeling empty at the end because surely there was more right? No. Every aspect of this book was underdeveloped. If it weren’t for watching the show first I would not have cared or been able to connect to the story and characters. Not to mention the old timey hard to understand language, it’s just not my vibe.


Twitter review:

- just watch The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix
- it’s so short that nothing really happens
- confusing language
- felt undeveloped
- characters and story are hard to connect to