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Alexa Roberts

Book Review

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a story about an 83-year-old


mans life and actually begins on his last day of his life. Eddie is a
maintenance manager of an amusement park at Ruby Pier. He has had this
job most of his life in spite of the fact that he never planned on this. The job
is really all he has left in his life since he has outlived all his friends and
relatives. Although he tries to act as if he is unhappy in his life choice his coworkers and the visiting children all see through the exterior and he in turn is
loved by all that surround him. His job, being everything to him is taken very
serious and he is ever so proud of the care he takes in maintaining the safety
of the equipment he is in charge of. That all changes suddenly when a
missing Ferris wheel car key damages the structure of a ride called Freddys
Free Fall. This tragedy is the basis for the story behind the book. The
accident on the Ferris wheel leaves a car dangling in the air threatening the
safety of all the children in and around the Ferris wheel. Eddie happens to be
there when this is occurring and in the franticness of screaming children and
parents Eddie tries to save a young girl from being crushed by a falling car.
He remembers attempting to save her and as suddenly as the tragedy began
his life has ended. The genre of this story would be action and adventure.
In my opinion the author does a great job telling the story of this 83year-old man and his take on what happens when you die. The story plot
takes place at different times in Eddies life, the people he met and the
events that influenced him at that time. Eddies first time travel is 75 years
ago at the same location Ruby Pier when Eddie met the Blue Man who was

Alexa Roberts

Book Review

part of the amusement parks side show when Eddie was only 8 years old.
The second time travel takes him into battle where Eddie meets the
commanding officer of his World War II platoon, whom he called Captain. The
third person Eddie meets is in a scene outside of a diner filed with various
people from different eras and walks of life. He realizes he is seeing his
father but also realizes he is unable to communicate with him. He then
meets Ruby who it turns out the Pier is named after and she sheds light on
how Eddies father actually died. Eddies fourth person he meets in heaven is
actually his wife who died suddenly of a brain tumor at age 56. She is there
to teach him about the power of eternal love. The fifth and final person Eddie
meets on this incredible journey of afterlife is a young girl named Tala. She
turns out to be a child that Eddie saw in a burning tent in the Philippines
during the war. The significance of Eddie meeting these five very different
people all from different times of his life is what molds the very interesting
and twisting story line of this novel. It is a book that captures your attention
and makes you not want to put it down. I found this story very thought
provoking and interesting and would recommend it to many different types
of readers.

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