I am grateful to have received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book offers a perspective of comfort, connection, and alternative insight into the experiences of loss and grief. It is a heartbreaking and heartwarming story of sudden loss, navigating the process of grief and the experience of finding a way to continue after that loss. I did lose my connection with the story at some points due to the level of additional details about the characters' daily interactions and experiences, however, I recognize that for some this causes disconnection and distraction while, for others, this increases the reader's involvement and connection with the story. Overall, it offers an incredible perspective to explore.

It's not easy for me to review Through the Darkness. On one hand, reading of Isaac's death, and how Charlie tortured and blamed herself (and then his hospital) for his death was excruciating. The possibility of receiving messages and signs from those who have passed is a beautifully comforting thought. And Charlie needed comforting signs and messages. This woman was dealt blow after blow.

I apologize if what I write next offends the author, but there were so many unnecessary details that bogged the story down in Through the Darkness. For instance, reading about Chris cracking open a beer every night when he got home from work. Or Charlie and Chris cleaning up the dishes, saying they needed to go to bed, putting on their pajamas, and then going to bed. Those two things were repeated too often. Having Charlie eating chocolate-covered coffee beans throughout the book was distracting to me, as was the Scrabble game where Charlie shared the words she and Chris had come up with, as well as how many points they were getting.

Does this mean I didn't like the book? Not at all! I enjoyed getting to know Charlie, Chris, and Isaac. The thought that signs can be sent to survivors is incredibly comforting. A good editor could cut out the extraneous details, and much of the repetition, making Through the Darkness a beautiful book that "acts as a road map for navigating through grief to a place of renewed hope and purpose in life," as the publisher said.

A brilliant, well written novel that was impossible to put down. The novel encompassed the journey of grief and pain, soul searching, spirituality and life after death. This book is highly recommended to all readers who are seeking hope and purpose in life or struggling with grief.

I am both pensive and reeling after reading this awe inspiring book. It is not enough to say that this work is rich. The author takes us seamlessly through a world of both soul deep pain and hope via alternating chapters depicting her daily struggles and triumphs, and ideation of that of her son's afterlife. Peppered throughout are facts, fables and poems on art, science, religion and spirituality, as well as philosophy, nature and history.
If you have ever desired an understanding of what this life is about and what comes after it, you'll find a painful sense of delight in this read.