Check out these insightful independent reviews of Tomorrow Comes.
A raw, moving, emotional reading experience … Mebane’s words will stay with you long after you turn the final page …
When 19-year-old Emma wakes up one morning, she has an amazing clarity that allows her to reflect back upon her full, rewarding life. She revels in reminiscing and cherishing memories about her family and planning for her future. But when the clock doesn’t move off of 4:04 am and her long dead dog shows up at the back door, Emma begins to realize that she has begun a new chapter in her life …
This is a great read for people who have wanted to try Alice Sebold’s Lovely Bones but have been hesitant because of the violent storyline involved. The books are similar in that they both trace a family’s journey through the grief process … But Tomorrow Comes: An Emma Story has a personal touch that Lovely Bones lacks …
This is book about the death of a vibrant girl, but at its heart it is about her family’s path towards healing.
See complete Portland Review.
With its honesty, beauty, and hopeful outlook, Tomorrow Comes … will resonate with anyone who has ever lost a close friend or family member.
The book is about a 19-year-old girl named Emma. She’s spunky, vivacious, and full of life … that is, until she unexpectedly dies in her sleep …
What makes Tomorrow Comes especially heart-wrenching is that it is based on a true story. Donna Mebane, the author, had a daughter named Emma who died in the same way. The book seems to be a result of how she coped after Emma’s death: by imagining another world for Emma, one in which she can still be herself – happy, vibrant – Mebane was able to move past her grief. Despite the fictional elements of Emma’s spiritual world, only someone who has experienced loss could write such heartfelt words. It took an act of incredible bravery to publish something so personal …
See complete San Francisco Review.
This is a compellingly written, honest book about a family undertaking the long road up from unimaginable grief to a place of some peace.
This contemporary work is part fiction, and also, sadly, the truth about the untimely death of Emma Mebane, who at age 19, went to sleep one night and never awoke …
The fictional aspect of the story describes Emma’s life in “AFTER” … Unlike biblical depictions of heaven as a place of peace, love, and light, in Emma’s AFTER, there are hovering relatives who explain “the rules,” tears, and Facebook entries that spur Emma to devise ways to communicate with those left behind. The author capably reproduces the voice of a young woman suddenly taken away.
What author Donna Mebane does exceedingly well is to create a poignant image of an extraordinarily close and loving family, and she brings Emma alive for those who never knew her … Tears are inevitable for any reader, but comfort and encouragement, too, may be found here for those who share a similar loss.
See complete BlueInk Review.
An emotional novel about grief and the enduring power of love after death …
Nineteen-year-old Emma Mebane is a bubbly, well-liked college student … home from school for the summer when the unthinkable happens: She dies suddenly in her sleep. However … she awakens … in a place that she calls “After” …
With help from her late relatives and other old and new friends, Emma learns that love doesn’t end when life does but in fact grows stronger …
Each family member offers a different perspective on the process of mourning … The stirring moral of each journey remains the same: It will all be OK …
See complete Kirkus Review.
Tomorrow Comes is an emotionally visceral masterpiece … Move over Harry Potter!
If you are a fan of YA serials like Harry Potter, the Hunger Games and Sweet Valley High, then you simply must meet Emma, the heroine of Tomorrow Comes: An Emma Story. The best part of this debut novel is Emma’s voice: bubbly, funny, likable and infinitely relatable, Emma is destined to become one of your best literary girlfriends along with Hermione and Katniss …
A must have for any middle school classroom library.
See complete Amazon Reviews.
A celebration of a young life and a peek into one possibility of what the ‘next life’ might be like …
The approach Donna Mebane has taken … is a style that I am not sure that I have seen before. Part of the book is factual, the events, the aftermath, and how people reacted … The other side of the story is told by Emma herself … It does not take Emma long to discover that she can look down on the ‘before’, she can even read Facebook posts …
I am greatly impressed by Donna Mebane. Her writing is from the heart …
See complete BloggerNews Review.