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Location: United States

Member Since: March 24, 2013

Terry Suruda

Smashwords book reviews by Terry Suruda

Annette Opens the Door on April 13, 2013

"Annette Opens the Door" was a different book than I expected. This is the story of messages delivered through a medium to the parents of a child who died thirty years ago. It details the changes in thinking and beliefs of Sonia, the parent receiving those messages. Clearly she is as delighted as any parent would be to be reassured that Annette continues to be Annette, and is still connected to her family. Sonia gives Annette her wish. She writes the book so that others, especially those dealing with devastating loss, will know that life continues. She offers conviction through experience that death is not the end. Many will take comfort from this message of hope. What I did not expect was the material about Sonia's own advancement as a medium, and her thoughts about reincarnation, Tarot cards and Edgar Cayce. Those threads in the book took it in a different direction, more of belief persuasion than simply telling Annette's story, of which there could have been more. To me the most memorable connection to Annette in the book is not in her recent messages, but in the story of how she sat up before she died, so happy she could jump with joy. I wanted to know that Annette better, the beautiful girl who made such an impression on medical staff that they remembered her 30 years later. Annette’s ongoing existence resonates with my Christian (Episcopalian) beliefs in eternal life, the cycle of life/death/ resurrection. Having recently read “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife” in which Dr. Eben Alexander describes the experience of being in the presence of God, of being infinitely loved; I wanted that part and missed it in “Annette Opens the Door”. Where is God in Annette’s ongoing life? Arguments for reincarnation were distracting; they could have waited for another book.