Whimsical & Beautiful

The Beforelife Of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson is a very unique and beautiful contemporary offering that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep.

The novel surrounds four siblings in the beforelife. The reader gets to know them as the tale is told through the eyes of one of them. We witness the love and the rivalry. We see their desire to exist and their questions about what happens if they are never born.

This is a novel about love. It is not your conventional love story but it is a love story as we witness the ultimate in sacrificial love. This reminds the reader of Jesus’ words, “Greater love hath no man but that he lay down his life for his friends.”

This is also a book about parental love – and the lack of it, in some cases. Some people just do not have the capacity to love, treating their offspring with indifference at best, verbal cruelty at worst. The children are forever left wondering if the lack of love was their fault. This persists into adulthood as a grown up character says “all I needed was for you to be there.”

In contrast there is a father who loves deeply. His pregnant daughter asks for advice on parenting. “How did you get it so right?”… “I just loved you… I loved you more than anything else.” Her father expands further. “Making one decision after another, but if you base them all on the love you feel, I don’t think you can go far wrong.” Good parenting is nothing to do with the size of a bank balance but it is all about the love in our hearts.

There are difficult decisions to be made in young lives as we witness the internal process of choosing. Our decisions should be based on love and not on what the neighbours think.

A strong bond exists between siblings, where the veil between this world and another sometimes grows thin.

All the characters were well drawn and likable.

There was an ethereal beauty to the book that sinks into the reader’s soul.

The Beforelife Of Eliza Valentine was a whimsical, unique read that I loved.

JULIA WILSON