A Review of The First Phone Call from Heaven

I had high expectations for the audio book version of The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Phone-Call-Heaven/dp/0062294377

I've been a fan of Albom's work ever since I stumbled upon The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Unfortunately, The First Phone Call from Heaven didn't intrigue me in the same way my previous introduction to Albom's work did.

The First Phone Call from Heaven is about what happens to the people living in a small town in Michigan who begin receiving phone calls from their departed loved ones. The plot was very intriguing – were the phone calls real or was someone pulling off an elaborate hoax? The downfall in this story for me was an inability to truly care about the characters in the story. I suppose I just didn't warm to the individual characters which may have led to my general malaise towards this audio book. This was a huge departure from the way I felt about the characters in The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

I've spent some time asking myself where the disconnect is. Was I just not in the right mood for this audio book when I listened to it? Albom is undoubtedly a very skilled story teller, so that wasn't the issue. Because of this, I may give this audio book a second listen.

The thing I did enjoy was that Albom himself narrated The Fist Phone Call from Heaven. Not all writers are skilled voice actors, but Albom is a definite exception. Because of this, I plan to continue buying and listening to Albom's works http://mitchalbom.com/d/

I gave The First Phone Call from Heaven a 3 on my Goodreads page, but if there was an opportunity to rate the narration, I would have give that a 5 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4673038.Adele_Park

Thanks, Mitch Albom, for sharing your talents with the world!