Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves is both beautiful and devastatingly poignant.

The novel follows Travis as he witnesses the final moments of those nearing death. He narrates the story himself, a quiet personification of death. What resonates most is how Reeves shapes Travis as a symbolic presence, exploring the many ways people relate to death itself. There is a universality here, expressed in prose that feels poetic yet accessible. Travis, as death, is rendered human: ordinary, familiar, even faintly comforting. Given that death touches everyone, this choice feels both fitting and deeply affecting.

Ultimately, the narrative traces the evolving connection between Travis and his neighbour, Dalia. Their relationship is handled with wonderful sensitivity. I found myself moved to tears more than once. The characterisation is hauntingly vivid and beautifully realised.

The shifts between intimate, individual episodes and the broader narrative are handled with ease, giving the novel a fluid, engaging structure. Quietly powerful and deeply affecting, it stands as one of my favourite reads of 2026 so far.

I had such high hopes for this book because of all the praise I'd seen about it.

Firstly I will point out that there are no speech marks, which I generally hate. This does use other punctuation marks to show when it changes from prose to dialogue, but not speech marks, and I can never figure out why that's a choice. Now, normally this would automatically deduct at least one star, but the rest of this book is so fabulous that it usurped that.

I am fascinated by death and what comes next and so the exploration of that in this book was really interesting. Death is frightening, of course it is, our own and our loved ones'. But having lost quite a few people over the years, I've got used to it. And it's not quite as frightening for me. And that's what I oved about this, how positive it was. That death doesn't have to be as scary as we think and it can be just as positive as life.

I also loved the range of deaths, the range of ages to show that death is not discriminatory, sadly we don't all get to live to 100 before we toddle off, and he's not hidden from that.

It's narrated by death, and the face that people can interact with him as a man, but also as death when the time comes, I found interesting. This idea that death could literally be round the corner.

I mean, it's a book about death so why am I so surprised that it made me cry?

For a book about death - the person and the concept - it is surprisingly uplifting for the most part, and life affirming. It talks about making the most of each day, of living the life you want and not the life that makes others happy, to love who you love, and just to live. As someone with depression, I find it difficult to see the positives in life but this book has just put them on a plate for me to pick from.

This is such a perfect book that I'm not sure I'll ever find its equal. It will stay with me forever I think.

you know when a book comes along and you know, you somehow know within those first openings the book that this will be beautiful. it will be all things that is beautiful about books and writing and the world. this is one of those books. one of those books i dont want to try and write a review for as it will be doing it a disservice. my words will never do justice for whats found behind this front cover. im more than sure other people will word it better. because all i want to do is sit at the wall and stare just at that for a while so i can be still, do nothing, not have my view skewed so i cant just sit and think about this book.
Oh Travis. how have you released something in me that was alot like fear. how have you made death beautiful. you are beautiful Travis! just wow.
Travis is a man you would pass on the street. literally just pass him. hes nothing stand out. except Travis most definitely is. because his presence is the one that brings peace to those who need it. hes a comfort. and he leapt out the pages and put some peace into my old soul too.
ive faced death. my doctors told me i was going to die. i wish i had a Travis at that time.
when Travis starts having a hard time within his own way of doing things, thinking things because of what enters his life i wanted "life" to come along and help out Travis!
better to have loved. better to have been loved. love is love. its everything.
the people Travis goes and sits with at the end of their time. the pair across the hall. every single bit of this book was a privilege to read.
Ben writes this book like somehow im floating on my bike being drifted along by the gentle ripple and current. im at peace. im in lyrical heaven. the flow just moves with you and moves you.
its one of those books you want to read more and more of so you wish for you brain to take it in quicker. but then you come to that point where you remember this has to end,soon. oh no. dont leave me!
this is a book you know will change you. even if you cant describe or pinpoint why,
this is a book of all the whys you need of how wonderful books are.
this is a book to cherish and somehow feels like it is cherishing you.
this is a book im struggling to describe how that stone in my gut of emotions it has bought to me somehow feels wonderful.
i loved this book. i loved. this. book.

In this novel, the reader gets swept away into a story of love and Death that is both beautifully written and imaginative. It is a touching and humane exploration of the subject matter by Ben Reeves. It would be difficult to find a more interesting character than Travis, and the relationship between him and his daughters – Dalia and Layla – is very realistic. This book is not just beautiful; it is also filled with hope for life.

I thought this was a really fantastically written, emotionally satisfying read. Stylistically, I enjoyed the fragmented narrative, this made it a real page-turner for me. The characters were easy to become attached to, I genuinely cared about what was happening to everyone.

I can actually see this appealing to a wide variety of readers, including Romantasy fans, as it was vaguely reminiscent of “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue”.

An easy five stars.

Everyone should read this book at least once in their life. Exploring the joy of living through the eyes of death (our protagonist, Travis), the story is a reminder that life is short and you only get one.

The book is written in a way that slows you down when it wants you to sit with a chapter and jolts you forward to bring you out again. Scenes are built so you connect with a character you've only known for a couple of pages before Travis takes them and then you move forward without it feeling rushed or skipped over.

It deals with the heavy themes of grief and death in various forms and phases of life. Emotional prose that had me sobbing is followed by brief moments of levity that balance the heavy subject matter with more uplifting storytelling. For example, anyone who has experienced loss more than once will know funerals are awful but sometimes some small thing will happen and inappropriate laughter is the only way through it.

You'll want to be in the right headspace for this but it's a cathartic read that lives up to its title.

I very much enjoyed this beautiful
Novel which tells the story of Travis whose job it is to oversee people’s deaths. A Grim Reaper character as it were although he’s not grim ,he’s friendly, a man in the street he wouldn’t notice him if you didn’t know to look for him but when you’re dying, you immediately know who he is and what his presence represents


The Story gives us a sequence of small minute beautifully observed vignettes of a life, precise detailed and so very real. To begin with all these stories are stories of a person‘s death, but then gradually stories are introduced for people who are not apparently going to die immediately so you wonder and you keep on reading .
It’s so sad, but in the same moment it’s hopeful and optimistic. I loved the way it’s tells us of the highlights of people’s lives and of the infinite worth of every single life. I really adored this novel.
Oh my goodness, the end has me in tiny pieces. It’s so bright and probably the best ending of a novel I’ve ever read.
This is a book that I will remain my memory for a long time, and I will be recommending to all my friends
The author has a beautiful flowing lyrical writing style the novel is a pleasurable immersive read
I would recommend this novel for those who like primarily character based emotional novels it’s not unique in using a Grim Reaper character to tell people’s life stories but I think this is the best novel of this type I’ve read
I’m pretty sure that the book is going to be in my top reads of 2026.
I read any copy of the novel on NetGalley . The book is published in the UK on the 2nd of July 2026 by Atlantic books.
This review will appear on NetGalley UK, Goodreads, StoryGraph, and my book blog bionicSarahSbooks.wordpress.com. After publication will also appear on Amazon and Waterstones online.

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt
By Ben Reeves
Published by Atlantic Books

I’m guessing some of us think about death more than others.
It’s part of our life cycle.
But Ben Reeves has written something so poignant and moving that it has changed my mind about the concept of dying.
We all have choices: to live our lives to the best or the worst.
To be happy, grateful, kind and compassionate.
To be angry at everyone and everything.
To feel lost, lonely and unworthy.
To feel loved, wanted and included.

Travis is the cosmic force of Death, visiting people in their final days and hours of life, before taking them to their next chapter, who knows what or where?
He visits, listens to their stories, shares a drink, never judgemental.
And he never tries to change anyone's fate... until he meets a young, single midwife called Dalia and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter, Layla.

This original story layers our real life experiences and choices whilst maybe questioning about the end life.
Ben Reeves shares so many tales of loves lost, moments missed, chances cast aside.
He writes the “what ifs of life as we know it” beautifully, creatively, thankfully.

But Travis gets close to Dalia. Too close. He enjoys being part of her everyday. He wants to heal her wounds that life has cast her. And he begins to learn what it is that makes life so worth living. He sits, listens and begins to care.

Full of emotions, compassion and deep questioning for me - nothing I have read compares.
Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is full of Death, and what it means to so many. But it is more about the joy of living - appreciating one another, noticing everyday we have, from the people around us to the strangers that cross our paths within this wonderful world of choices.

Thank you is not enough because you have touched my heart and my mind.

Joanne Bardgett - teacher of littlies, lover of Children’s literature.
#Netgalley

Oh my days, I'm not crying you're crying. What an astoundingly beautiful, thought provoking book. Written with thought, compassion and love. This should be part of the school curriculum. I loved this and read it in two days. Go and buy it, enjoy it, think about it but more importantly keep a tissue with you.

You have twenty minutes starting now....

Beautifully beautifully written.
A refreshingly different take on death which actually came at the perfect time for me having just lost my pet.
The stories of the people collected slotted throughout the main story were so moving.
Travis’ character was a great representation and his story and relationships along the way were wonderful to watch.
This is one of the best books I’ve read this year, up there with My Friends.
If you’re a fan of Fredrik Backman you will love this.
This book is going to stay with me for a very long time.

'Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt' follows Travis, a quiet, ordinary man who happens to be Death in human form. His role is simple but profound: he visits people in their final moments and gently guides them from life to whatever comes next. As he moves through these encounters — each one a small portrait of love, regret, fear, or acceptance, Travis begins to form an unexpected bond with a woman named Dalia and her two daughters. Their presence unsettles the careful distance he’s always kept, forcing him to confront what it means not just to witness life, but to truly feel it.
Beautifully written, moving and unexpectedly hopeful.
I am grateful to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced reader copy of this great debut book.

Quite possibly both the most devastating and yet uplifting book I’ve read in quite some time!
Travis is with people in their dying hours and minutes. When Travis is with someone you know what lies ahead, and some of the stories just devastated me. But then he meets the family that live opposite him. A young single mum of two daughters. And before he knows it he’s swept into their everyday lives and learns what it means to love other people.

Yes this is a novel about dying, but it’s also very much one about living and the final pages made my heart ( that had previously been broken) sing.

To most people, Travis is an unassuming man with an unassuming life. They pass him on the street and barely notice him. Yet when people meet Travis properly they realise he’s far from unassuming. Travis knows everything about every moment of everyone’s life: Travis is a cosmic force who visits you in your final moments to guide your ending. After eternity in this role, Travis (not his real name) has become numb to human feelings and what it means to be alive. The he meets his neighbour and her eight-year-old daughter and learns the beauty and pain of living.

This heartbreaking book was devastatingly beautiful in its exploration of what it means to be alive. While the primary thread follows Travis (the cosmic force of Death) as he learns about humanity from his neighbour Dalia and her young daughter, Layla, the novel is sprinkled with stories of some of the people that Travis meets in his work as Death. Through these stories you see that he is not there to judge, or provide guidance, he is simply there to be with you as you pass out of this life and into whatever happens next.

The beauty of this book was that it is not only about death, but also about how to be alive through all the beauty and the pain.

I am at a loss as to how to review this book. I could use a hundred superlatives and it still wouldn’t describe it.

I could say it is a story about death and what happens at the time of your death but it is also a story of life, the good bits, the great bits and the bits no-one should ever have to go through.

When all said and done the highest praise I can give this book is to say it is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time and I think everyone should read it.

OMG. Beautiful.

It's been a while since I read a book that was just... beautiful.

The writing style was stunning, yet easy to read, if that makes sense. Sometimes the most beautifully written books need a lot of concentration, but this felt different. It delivered a richness and depth whilst remaining easy to sink into.

I found myself thinking about certain paragraphs long after I'd put the book down. There was something powerful in the way it captured the world - finding beauty even in its ugliest, hardest moments. The observations and the imagery throughout the pages all stayed with me.

This is one of those rare books that feels less like a story and more like an experience. One that shifts something inside you.......

When this is published, I need a physical copy on my shelves. A Kindle edition won't be enough. This is the kind of book I want to hold in my hands, revisit, and reach for whenever I need reminding of the beauty that still exists in the world, even when life feels heavy.

This book is everything I thought it would be.

It's about grief, death and the meaning of life. It made my heart break and ache.
I found this book to be really profound.
I'm glad I didn't read this book 6 months ago. I wasn't ready for it then.

This book is bittersweet and beautiful.
An absolute must read.

This is the most original and beautifully written book I have read in a very long time. It is a completely unique look at what it means to be human. It's absolutely breathtakingly written and the ending is left me completely in awe. I can't recommend this enough. Everyone needs to read this book.

It’s hard to know where this is going when you start this book, but it becomes clear that we like the narrator are witnessing life and death in a multitude of highly personal ways. Travis is in fact part of that story, fated to ease a pathway out of this life, and destined to see everything - even the most uncomfortable ends, and not try to influence them. That is until he becomes a part of one particular story.
I loved and also dreaded the outcome of this story. It’s surprisingly unsentimental, but there are some very beautiful passages, which you can’t help but be moved by. Life is in all its richness sometimes inevitable, and this story tells us that we do have the power to live a good fulfilling life, or not.

When Death is a narrator, you know you’re stepping into a sad and emotional story, and this one absolutely is. But alongside the sadness, there’s a surprising amount of beauty, even a kind of liberation, in sitting with the idea of death rather than turning away from it.

Travis is Death, and he lives among us in the most ordinary way: a small flat, a cat, errands, shopping… and visiting people just before they die. It sounds Dickensian, but it’s actually the most tender part of the book. Travis appears and simply sits with people as they slip away. They all know why he’s there. Some welcome him, ready to join loved ones. Some are relieved to let go of pain. Some refuse to accept that their time has come.

This won’t be the right book for everyone, and not everyone will be in the right place to read it. I happened to be both, and I found it beautiful.

What a fabulous book, certain to be in my top books of this year.
This book is narrated by death. He’s also known as Travis, and he turns up at the end of people’s lives. They recognise him then as he waits with them until they take their last breath. Travis’ job means he’s lonely, so when he starts to form a friendship with his neighbours across the hall; midwife Dalia and her amazing daughter Layla, we start to see how relationships, and love, and how you live your life are important, because death will visit us all.
Poetically written, unbearably sad in places, but with a message to us all to live our best lives.
I probably wouldn’t recommend this if you are going through a tough time, but it’s going to stay with me for ages.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Travis Smith is a modern day grim reaper who comes to visit and sit with those who's time is up ( and sometimes those he feels are lonely and in need of a friend but are not yet about to die.) When he encounters Dalia and her young daughter in the flat across the hallway his outlook on what he does changes and his boundaries start to crumble. Travis is a shapeshifter through time and space yet we come to know him as a person. Yes it's a story about death, but also about life and appreciating what you have and how to survive when all seems lost.

I found this profoundly moving and engaging ,despite my initial reservations when I realised what it was about , a year anniversary of the death of two people close to me was looming. This is a book that will stay with me. One to savour and reread ,written with such lyricism and in a way that draws you in.

Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is going to take the world by storm. This is a gorgeously written, evocative and rich story that completely engrosses you in its story and leaves you desperate to discuss it after the final page.

The concept here is staggering and the type of thing that stays with you. Reeves takes this and runs with it to create a deeply affecting story that tackles death head-on and ultimately has a gorgeous, life-affirming message. You’re instantly in the palm of Reeves’ hand and from there, the story he is spinning is astounding.

I am telling you now, I think this book is going to make waves. It is an exceptional debut that pulls your heart from your chest. There is this brilliant sense of dark humour and humanity that helps to alleviate some of the bleakness but it is also unafraid to face the reality that death will come for us all in the end. The characterisation is stellar and helps you escape into the story. In just a few lines, Reeves creates such full portraits of everyone you encounter. They remind you of people within your life or those you have a passing connection with. It is a rich tapestry of just how messy people’s lives can be and how everyone grapples with the ultimate question of mortality. There is an overarching narrative thread that weaves through these stories and the culmination of this is perfect.

Unsurprisingly, this is a book that grapples with the subject of death in quite some detail. It is an emotional devastating read at times and this only lands because of how brilliant Reeves’ writing and characterisation is. You are invested in these characters and have already lost your heart to them, but there is a sense of inevitability given the subject matter. That is also what Death is grappling with throughout and the way this is portrayed is exquisite. The depiction of grief in particular is something that I will hold close to my heart for a long time.

Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is just incredible. Reeves is a fantastically exciting new voice and I cannot wait to see what he does next, but do not let yourself miss out on his debut.