Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt has been on my tbr pile for quite a while, I wish I hadn’t taken so long to read it. I’ll let you know what I thought about it below but first, about the book.
Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Publication date : 3 Jun. 2027
Edition : Main
Language : English
Print length : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1805465821
ISBN-13 : 978-1805465829
Travis lives an unassuming life with his cat in a small English town. Travis also happens to be the cosmic force of Death, visiting people in their final days and hours of life, before shepherding them into whatever happens next.
He listens to their stories, doesn’t judge, and never tries to change anyone’s fate… until he meets a young, single midwife called Dalia and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter, Layla. As he gets closer to this small, seemingly unremarkable family, Travis begins to learn what it is that makes life so worth living, and so what it is that is irrevocably lost in death.
Full of compassion and deep magic, Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt might be a novel about Death, but it’s also about the joy of being alive – appreciating each day we have, from the people around us to the strange wonder of our spinning world.
My Review of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
I can see why this book is seen like Marmite. I loved it but reading other reviews I can see why people didn’t like it. It is full of flaws, yet full of beauty. It was confusing but amazingly clarifying. It was incredibly sad yet full of joy. It was about death but also about life.
Travis is an anomaly, he’s supposed to be a type of grim reaper, but he’s an ordinary man in a flat with a cat. He visits people when they are about to die and can’t do anything about it but is their to guide them into ‘nothing.’ Death is not romanticised in this book, it’s harsh and cruel and most people don’t want to die, but some people do. There are some deaths that hit hard. One old lady just wants to die, her husband had died ten years previously, she was 89 years old and she just wanted it to be over. But Travis just visits her and makes her tea and she gets annoyed because she knows who he is but he doesn’t let her die.
Travis becomes friendly with a young mother of two little girls, Dalia. They don’t have a relationship, but they do spend time together and he plays with her daughter, Layla. Her other daughter, Neda, is just a baby. He follows Dalia and becomes involved in her life. I can’t say much more without giving away spoilers but Travis’ relationship with Dalia is important throughout the book.
A lot of the book jumps from place to place, person to person. So many lives that are taken away, and it seems at first that the book has no purpose other than to confuse you or just make you sad. It certainly makes you think about life and death.
There are parts of the book that are really sad, and other parts that are quite beautiful. The ending left me in tears, It’s a twist that I should have noticed, I even flipped back through the book wondering why I didn’t notice it.
