1/08/2020

it's a wonderful death // sarah j. schmitt

published: 2015
pages: 306
read: 12/18-28/2019
book: 71 in 2019

SYNOPSIS
Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll.

But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options: she can remain in the lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires, or she can replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will result in a future deemed worthy of being saved. It sounds like a no-brainer. She’ll take a walk down memory lane. How hard can changing her future be?

But with each changing moment, RJ’s life begins to unravel, until this self-proclaimed queen bee is a social pariah. Is walking among the living worth it if she has to spend the next sixty years as an outcast?


MY THOUGHTS

aaahhh!!! 
LOVED THIS BOOK! 

broken record alert!: i had actually wanted to read this since it first came out but like always, i forgot. and then i got an email for the ebook deals and it was there and i read the synopsis and i was like hmmm... this sounds cool. so i looked it up on goodreads and what do you know? it was on my tbr list. lol. 
so i got it from my library. 


loved 
this 
book. 

i was not expecting any of what this book gave me. (but isnt that what i always say?)
at first, i was irritated with RJ and i wanted to strangle her for being such a stuck up little bitch but then it gets better and you see that well, yes that's who she is but it ends up being  a charming story that packs a hella punch. 
and that ending!
W O A H!!!!
i was expecting the first part but not the second part. i think the ending made the book for me that much better. 

i loved this book so much, i bought a copy before mine was due back at the library. i loved this book so much that i was crying as i finished it. i loved this book so much that i already want to re-read it. (man, 2019 was a win!!!) 

its funny, but endearing. all of me wanted to strangle RJ but then i also wanted to hug her and tell her that it would be okay and that she should tell Felicity to fuck off. 
i also really hope that for the most part, the process into heaven or hell is something like that. 

anyway, ill cut this one short because i think I'm done for the next few days, because i don't think ill be able to do a proper review other than "i loved this read" and honestly, i just want to go play spyro on my switch. 

thanks 2019 for the amazing reads! i hate you for other reasons (like breaking my fucking toe 28 days into the year) but i love you for all the wonderful reads. 

jump over for basic spoilers.
Thanks for reading!
(i just realized that all the books that i want to re-read, i don't really want to do spoilers for. but all the ones I'm okay never reading again have in depth spoilers. woah.)
S P O I L E R S 
RJ is collected on accident after a psychic pushes her in front of the Grim Reaper in order to avoid being collected herself. 

she goes up into the lobby waiting to be processed where she meets Sandy. (short version: Sandy is waiting for her fiance James to meet up with her but knows he wont because his parents are keeping him on life support. and the only reason she still remembers him (because once you reach the lobby you start forgetting your earth life) is because she still has the ring he proposed to her with. (he proposes to her and then a car skids into them. she gets pinned underneath the car in the lake and he...gets hit? idk his detail but he was hurt) 
anyway, she hears about RJ and so she begs her to take the ring and find a way to get James to get to her. (spoiler: she does and i fucking cried!) 

but so RJ starts a whole thing in heaven and so they set up a trial for her and she has 3 tests to pass in order to make it back to earth and to make this short, she does. 
she passes all 3 tests and after all the hoopla, she goes back "home". 

but when she wakes up, she wakes up on the day that they are burying Madeline. Madeline was a girl from her first life who had cancer and in that timeline, RJ, a popular cheerleader, decided to throw a some fund raising events to raise money for Mads and her family. they ended up raising more than they had promised so everyone decided to take the extra and throw a major party. in doing that, they spent all the money, Madeline learned to hate and basically her family went kaput. BUT in the do over, to make this short, she stood up to Felicity and in doing that she changed things in motion. 

anyway, she wakes up to the day of the funeral, they bury her and RJ gets to spend the day with her parents. 

first after the funeral, her and Daniel (he was test #2 and i don't want to get into it BECAUSE READ THE BOOK!) don't want the day to go to "waste" so they decide to get coffee and treats for a random floor in a random hospital. 

long story short....they end up in the hospital where James is currently at. 
RJ ends up giving a coffee to his mom she happens to tell her that she just came for a funeral for her friend and how shes passing out coffee and such to honor her. then James' moms asks her what she should do about James and RJ is all wtf! im a kid. how can i give you advice!? 
she freaks out but she just tells her more about Madeline and how she decided to live her life in her own terms. eventually that meet is what allows the parents to let James be free. 

after the hospital, they go back home. 

RJ has dinner with her parents and her parents come clean to her. through out the whole book, RJ is only really "friends" with Felicity because Felicity keeps blackmailing her. see, RJ's mom is having an "affair" and Felicity tells RJ that if she doesn't do what she says she'll tell everyone and her father. 

turns out that the dude who the mom had an affair with was Felicity's dad.
it wasnt an affair. 
it was just a kiss. 
and her mom told her dad and they've been going to therapy. (although now that i think about it, she altered the time lines. so....in the first timeline....maybe the affair was worse? 

anyway.....so yea, parents come clean. everything is good. 

they're about to pop on a movie when RJ lets her parents know that she wants to go for a walk to take a breather. 
she goes. she runs into some kids who are trick or treating (and literally until this moment, i had no idea it was Halloween) but the sisters have left their little brother behind who is struggling with his costume. RJ just walks to the park and talks to the sky. 

she decides to walk home finally and she runs into those kids again. the sisters are ahead and the little dude is struggling behind. 
he trips on his costume and he falls on the street and around the corner comes a car hauling ass. 
the car wont see the kid and the kid wont make it alive on time so she pushes him out of the way. the kids survives, RJ gets fucked up. 

she ends up dying. 

after all the shit she went through to come back.....she only lasted 1 day on earth. 

she goes back to the lobby, shes sees James, reunites him with Sandy. (its the best! but im lazy!)
....she gets a job working with Death himself.... 

i left out a lot. 
but its gooooood. 
READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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