Review: The Soul’s Awakening by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy

A metaphysical afterlife adventure that will have readers questioning the meaning of life and the permanence of death, The Soul’s Awakening by Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy is a thought-provoking musing on mortality.

Facing a future of chronic disease and pain, Charlotte Elisabeth seeks out a dignified death from Dr. Veritas, who promises a final release and endless peace. However, immediately after the euthanasia takes hold, she discovers that death isn’t the end of consciousness, nor memory, nor the uncertainty and confusion of being human.

Navigating a hallucination that never seems to end, she is exposed to the Darkness of solitude, the lures of Desire, the deceptions of Ignorance, and the many other concepts that inhabit the purgatorial in-between where Charlotte finds herself trapped. Within this Earth-Heaven Interdimensional Expanse, this intrepid mortal will face the hardest questions of consciousness before she can move forward.

With the help of her soul family – a colorful band of floating orbs – Charlotte Elisabeth learns more about reality and mortality and the illusion of existence than she ever could have imagined, but their true purpose is to help her along her soul track, and ensure she doesn’t get “stuck.” On this quest to find a true end, Charlotte Elisabeth must face guilt, fear, judgment, wrath, and a number of other manifestations, each with their own challenging questions about her choices, including the one to end her life.

There are countless beliefs about what happens after we die, and Jeejeebhoy explores both familiar and unusual proposals in this poignant first installment of The Q’zam’Ta Trilogy. Creativity is in endless supply in every chapter, as the story wends through an incredibly rich and complex interpretation of the afterlife; from the depictions of Hell’s torturous monotony to the theological dialectics that weave and evolve throughout Charlotte’s journey, this is a fully constructed and imagined world with intriguing rules and boundaries, not just a surreal or fanciful work of fantasy, with the author suggesting a definable extension of our corporeal existence, but one not bound by the traditional dogmas of traditional religion.

Charlotte Elisabeth’s narration and italicized thoughts keep this wild story on track, even as the other characters and figments of imagination complicate the narrative with heady questions and puzzling philosophical contradictions. At times, the book unfolds like a work of spiritual self-help mixed with a memoir, where the freedom of death allows for an unadulterated view of one’s life, while at others it is a creative fantasy with requisite world-building and otherworldly characters. Although the premise of the book rests on the choice to end one’s life, the undercurrent of the story is to celebrate and embrace life in all its painful and unavoidable forms, reminding readers of the ultimate value in every breath we are given.

On a technical level, some of the writing is repetitive, as are some of the dialogic exchanges, but this does boost the book’s accessibility for those who might get tangled in the metaphysical layers and language. Ultimately, this mixture of visionary fiction, theology, and philosophy is a singularly ambitious endeavor to answer some of life’s most enduring questions, which results in a profoundly eye-opening and inspiring read.