My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for an advance copy of this travel guide to all the wondrous places a person can go, once they are dead.

On of the biggest trends in publishing over the last 12 years or so are books that list all the great things one is supposed to do before dying. 100 movies, 100 graphic novels, 100 beers, 100 coronet solos, 100 milking stools, all to be watched, read, consumed, heard, and admired before leaving this mortal coil. That's a lot of pressure. And unfortunately even death will not give on rest, there seems to be a lot to see on the other side. Current host and legendary champion of the show Jeopardy Ken Jennings has in 100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife detailed the places that one might find their soul, body, or just spirit travelling to, drawing on fiction, religions, philosophies and other thoughts about life after death.

Presented in essay form the book is broken in sections, religions, mythologies, fiction books, movies, and more. One starts under the sea in Adlivun, where the bad souls go in Inuit mythology. Maybe the soul misses paper work, red tape and long meetings that could have been done in an email, so the Chinese idea of Diyu might appeal. Limbo, Nirvana and the Bardo are discussed. From literature there is of course the Inferno, The Null from Stephen King, and a personal favorite Riverworld from the classic science fiction novels from Philip José Farmer, books I loved as a kid, even though I might have missed a lot. And many more.

The book is funny and actually a good overview of the idea of afterlife and where people think they might end up. The research is quite good, as is the writing, thought there are a lot of Dad jokes, and some other stabs at humor, that well don't work. Again this is really a tour not in-depth guide, but the book really covers quite a bit. Various cinematic universes, most of the major religions, and ideas, with a few odd ones that seem strange until one starts to read and they totally make sense. A very good idea, one that is handled well, with humor and filled with a lot of interesting facts and is quite fun and informative.

A book that would be good for aspiring writers, for story ideas, and for ways to develop characters. Also a great guide for role players, there is a lot of good ideas for adventures, or again more ways to give player characters depth and back stories. The writing is good, the humor might be a little too much, but all in all a very fun informative read.

Entertaining and educational. Mr. Jennings gives us an enjoyable look into the possible after-lives
of any and every possible place I have ever heard of and more. Using mythology, religions, and entertainment as the basis for possible locals to visit... after.

This was well written, captivating and informative told in a way that one could imagine yourself on a tour bus
listening to a charming guide telling about all the sights as you pass them.

I would definitely would recommend this delightful and thought provoking book.


I received this ARC from Scribner and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you so much.

Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame writes a book about the various beliefs regarding the afterlife. It is clever, with dry humor playing on the idea that this is a travel guide. I found some sections very informative. The first to sections are great as brief synopsis for beliefs in mythology and religion. In Mythology areas chapters include Valhalla (Norse), Diyu (China), Hades (Greek) and more. In Religion thoughts from Latter-Day Saints, Hinduism, Kabbalah and others. But the other main sections are more arbitrary with ideas for afterlife based on Books, Movies, Television, Theater and Misc.

This is a book where you can flip to a section or idea that you are interested in and doesn’t need to be read straight through. I learned a lot in the first two sections. But once it moved on to fictional ideas like Heaven based on All Dogs Go to Heaven or a rock and roll song my interest waned. Especially if I wasn’t familiar with the move, book, song etc that the chapter is talking about.

I am glad to have read the book and did like little trivia or tidbits Jennings adds here and there. Thank you to Scribner for the ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

(3.5 Stars)

Very entertaining! Jennings gives short, funny, fact-filled descriptions of the afterlife as viewed by groups as diverse of Zoroastrians and D&D players. I trust Jennings research and I found the jokes scattered throughout to be good-natured fun rather than mean-spirited blasphemy. If you like NF this is a good choice.

Well researched, well written, with just a bit of mischievous gleam reflecting from his pen, Ken Jennings satisfies all your curiosities about hell (and heaven) without you having to die. I recommend pacing out the reading of this book. You might want to know about all these afterlives, but they can flow into one another if taken together too quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for making an advance copy of this title available for an honest review.

Ken Jennings always does such a great job taking a familiar concept (in this case the afterlife) and putting an unconventional spin on it. This book offers humor while also tackling pretty heavy philosophical concepts in a highly effective guidebook structure. It's comforting to think that Mr. Jennings could always have a back up career writing for Fodor's.

An interesting take on a travel book, each chapter guides the reader through a different type of afterlife experience. I liked that it was far reaching in the cultures represented since you don't always learn about that. The little extra things like day trips were interesting. Overall, fine and good for random trivia.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, but all opinions are my own.

While this guidebook doesn’t examine the more typical destinations, Northwest native Ken Jennings takes readers on a tour through a variety of afterlives. From mythology and literature to imaginative pop culture mainstays, no stone goes unturned in this quirky exploration of the great beyond. Accessible and funny, Jennings makes sure to sprinkles gentle jokes alongside plentiful facts.

Very interesting book. Not exactly what I thought it would be but still enjoyable.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley.

Not sure what I was expecting when I requested this book but what I got, wasn't it. That definitely wasn't a bad thing though. I enjoyed hilarious looks on historical events from the past. It was enjoyable to read and I really like that I was learning something while reading. Excellent book and would definitely recommend this to people interested in that sort of thing.

What a great idea from Ken Jennings, possibly the smartest person alive, at least if ultimate Jeopardy! champ is your measuring stick (as it is mine). The high concept: instead of the classic 100 places to see before you die (which I have already seen), here are 100 to see after you die -- a travelogue to that many versions of the afterlife from mythology, religion, movies, TV, books, and every other source you might imagine.

The results are necessarily hit or miss -- personally, the TV and movie afterlives resonated the most for me, no doubt because I could so easily visualize them if I'd seen those movies or TV shows, while the religious and mythological ones are so outrageous and alien to my thinking that I didn't particularly get into them. Overall, the pop culture references were the most fun, those from the classics not so much.

But your mileage may vary. As Ken says in the introduction, there's no need to read these in order, you can cherry pick your favorites as you please, and delve into the others as you like, if at all.

The one constant -- Ken's sense of humor, which is articulate and erudite in addition to being what it's supposed to be, funny (and often punny, as you might expect). Organizing the sections as a travelogue gives Ken a consistent platform from which to land his zingers, always maintaining some distance from the underlying ideology by describing them as places you haven't been to.

In truth this is probably a 4-star read for me because as I said I could not relate to some of the sections, but for the world at large, this is an unqualified 5-star experience. I wonder if there are pictures in the actual book that I couldn't see in the Kindle ARC so kindly provided to me by NetGalley? That would only make it better.

What a fun and incredibly interesting book! We homeschool and we started reading a bit of this each day since it has Afterlife places not only from TV, but from works of literature as well. The end of the school year is always a challenge to find things to keep the day fresh and this was a perfect, fun addition!

That was the one thing the world’s oldest civilization had figured out about death: that it was extremely permanent.

from 100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings
Okay, just seeing this book cover made me laugh and I had to get inside it. And, it’s by Jeopardy champ and host Ken Jennings.

It is a book best taken in bites, because, after all, how much time do you really want to spend in places where people are subjected to endless pain and suffering? Like the Inuit’s Adlivun where you meet Sedna’s old man who will pull you under a bearskin rug and torment you for a year. Or the Chinese Diyu, a purgatory where you might be sawed in half. Or worst of all, observe your home town that has happily forgotten you.

Sure, there is the opportunity to get to some really nice places, where you are assured a good hunt at the other end of the Milky Way path to the heavens. Your dog even has his own route there. If you are one of the lucky 144,000, the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe you will govern heaven next to Jesus. Swedenborg had visions of communities for the good and the bad; nice parks and gardens for some, shantytowns and thieves for others.

Jennings has scoured sources of all kind–of course mythology and religion but also literature and art and comic books and video games and D&D and movies and television like The Good Place, which my husband and I absolutely loved.

Humanity has imagined a multitude of possible afterlives, but most seem to involve the same dichotomy: we will be punished for our sins or rewarded for good behavior–or after we atone for our sins.

So, as Pascal posited in his wager, it’s better to err on the safe side, and you’d better be good.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy of 100 Places to See After You by Ken Jennings.Jennings uses his own brand of wit and sarcasm to describe the afterlife’s place in mythology and religion . My favorite part was how the afterlife is described in books, music, movies, Broadway plays etc. It is a wonderful read for trivia and history lovers like me.There are short individual chapters which lets the reader pick and chose to read whatever strikes their fancy..Highly recommend.

A book of serious trivia told in a tongue in cheek way by Ken Jennings? Yes, please. What a treasure house of info!

A witty exploration of the afterlife in various forms, quirkily presented as a guidebook. I have enjoyed each of Jennings' books and this was no exception; his signature humor is on full display here and I laughed out loud several times. The book got off to a slow start for me with the mythology and religion sections, but things started to pick up once the focus shifted to books and I had a blast with the chapters covering movies and television. Reading this made me want to rewatch The Good Place, re-evaluate Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, see Hadestown, and start watching The Leftovers.

Broken down into sections on Mythology, religion, books, movies, and more this book was entertaining and educational tour through the underworld. Laid out like your traditional travel guide this title gives brief overviews for each location as well as traditional travel guide fare like "must see" and "places to stay". You will see many familiar places as well as some new ones. One of my favorite things about reading nonfiction is finding one that makes me want to learn more about the topic, and this one had me adding a couple of books to my "to be read" list and a couple of movies to my "watch list".

You can read the book straight through (I did) or pick and choose what you are interested in, either way this a great book to prepare you for the last let down.

From a master Jeopardy champion comes a collection of knowledge about the afterlife. I’d best describe this as an encyclopedia of afterlife rather than a narrative structure. Lots of great info though!

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC ebook.

Ken Jenning's cheeky humor shines through the 100 vignettes of the afterlife. Separated into 7 sections, the reader gets a little bit of everything: Mythology (e.g. Hades, Hel), Religion (e.g. Limbo, Nirvana), Books (e.g. King's Cross Station, Inferno), Movies (e.g. The Bogus Journey, Iowa), Television (e.g. The Good/Bad Place, Heaven Inc.), Music and Theather (e.g. The Afterlife, Rock and Roll Heaven), and Miscellaneous (e.g. The Djalia, The Outer Planes).

I enjoyed the small snippets and fun facts for each location. The mixture of mythology, religion, and pop culture kept my interest in what would otherwise be a very existential-anxiety-inducing topic.

4/5 stars.

This book is a humorous travel guide to the afterlife based on accounts of what happens after we die as depicted throughout history from religious traditions and mythology to more modern accounts from books, movies, TV and other works. The book is divided into categories based on the topics above, then further divided into specific examples. The humor and historical tidbits sprinkled throughout help to make the book interesting. The chapters are short, and nearly everyone contains a box with special advice to the traveler on topics such as: Best to Avoid, Time Saver, Meet the Locals, Savvy Traveler Trip, Souvenir Shopping, etc.

I enjoyed reading through the book but after a while it seemed to get a bit bogged down, especially in the chapters that were the ideas of a particular person that didn't seem to have any more insight than the rest of us (Paul Simon?). Overall, this is an interesting book that is best devoured over time in small chunks, rather than in one sitting!