Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I started this book experiencing a problem with the premise. Helena, a veterinarian who was involved in chimp research, comes back as an ethereal being after dying from cancer, and watches her husband slowly disintegrate while events unfold. As an atheist, I don't buy the premise - loved ones who have passed, watching human events before they are able to move on - so I was sure I was going to hate the book. I was totally, one thousand percent, mistaken. I loved this book. I must have cried at least five times as the story progressed. If that happens to me, the person who doesn't believe in afterlife, etc., I can only imagine the reaction of caring people who believe in heaven and redemption. OMG, so to speak, they (you) will love Unsaid. Unsaid has it all. The totally believable characters have human failings and aspirations, and secrets. I could feel for each one of the characters. I especially felt the heart wrenching pain of Jaycee, the chimp researcher who will do anything to prevent "her" chimp from being dumped into the abyss of the federal biological research program. Once I decided to go with the premise of an afterlife as a literary device, I could not put the book down. I became part of this story, looking on - as Helena was - with a growing sense of helplessness to stop events. As the plot unfolded, I couldn't help but take the revelations to heart. I recalled, and regretted, so much that I had left unsaid with my dad and my brother before they died. Reading this book, I remembered when I was a child and touched the soft hand of a chimpanzee. I understood the connection Helena felt, when she was alive and touched the hand of a chimpanzee for the first time. The connection stays with you for life. The sensitivity and love that emerges from these pages makes me think the author may have touched the hand of a chimpanzee before he sat down to write this book. Unsaid will certainly touch many, many hearts. I hope it touches yours.