Book Review: From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty

I’m publishing this one on Halloween on purpose, even though it’s the least frightened book about death I’ve ever read. From Here to Eternity is mortician Caitlin Doughty’s tour of how the rest of the world faces mortality, and it’s somehow a delight.

The premise: Doughty, a working mortician, travels the world to watch other cultures do what American funeral culture won’t — sit with death, handle it, ritualize it, keep it in the family. Indonesia, Mexico, Bolivia, Japan, then back through the United States, one tradition at a time. Some of what she witnesses will rearrange your assumptions about what’s “normal” to do for the dead. All of it is treated with respect and real curiosity.

What I Loved About From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty

This book puts language to something I’d felt for a long time: our culture does not accept death, and that refusal costs us. Doughty’s argument, culture by culture, is that the fear is not universal. It’s local, and it’s learned. I ghostwrite memoirs for a living, so mortality is oddly central to my job description — every time someone dies, a library burns to the ground with them, and I get hired to save the books. Reading this one, I kept nodding. We do not live forever. Accepting that is how we get to live more peaceful lives, and that’s barely a paraphrase of what I wrote on Goodreads back in 2020.

What I Didn’t Love About From Here to Eternity

Nothing. It’s the rare book about death that leaves you lighter than it found you.

Final Thoughts on From Here to Eternity

An incredible book and an important one — five stars, easy. Read it before you think you need it. (That’s the point.) And if it leaves you thinking about the stories you’re carrying, that instinct is the entire reason I ghostwrite memoirs.

My final score: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 Yes!

🔥 A Deadly Trials Romantasy on Kindle Unlimited: The Ash Trials

Saffron Vale wakes in a ruined wedding dress, locked in a prison for the kingdom’s deadliest criminals — with no memory of who she is.

To survive the brutal Ash Trials, she must outlast shifters, spellcasters, and something even more dangerous: the truth about herself. Her only allies? A traitorous commander from her past and an assassin who swears she’s the real monster here.

The truth could save her — or destroy everything.

Get the book now on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited: