THE GIRL WHO SAW HEAVEN

A spiritual memoir about a near-death experience that offered a young girl a glimpse of the afterlife.

Ari Hallmark was 6 years old when a tornado lifted the house where she and her family were sheltering and sent it spinning through the air. Ari survived, but her other family members did not. Ari emerged from this terrible ordeal with an incredible story, narrated by Reburn and Tresniowski. Ari remembers being ripped from her father’s arms and spun up by the tornado; then, she says, “I got to walk with my whole family up to Heaven.” Much of the imagery she describes sounds like a child’s vision of heaven, but the text struggles to communicate the ineffable—e.g., how angels fly, colors that don’t exist on Earth, a peaceful sense of perfect rightness. Ari believes that she was returned to this world to deliver a message: “You are going to see your loved ones again. Your time on earth with them is not your last time with them.” Ari’s first-person account of her experience takes up 13 pages. This is one of the only times we hear her voice, as most of the tale is related by Reburn, a retired educator who became close to Ari in the days after the storm. Much of what the authors write about seems superfluous. There’s backstory filled with details that clutter the narrative rather than illuminate it, and there is far too much repetition—including a chapter in which Ari describes her time in heaven once again. There is no doubt that some readers will be so inspired by Ari’s story that they will read the book in one sitting. Other readers will find that this could have been a long-form article rather than a 300-page book.

A balm for Christians but unlikely to move or inspire nonbelievers.