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Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 2,333 ratings · 334 reviews

When 16-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class, she finds herself in heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to her hometown mall. In the tradition of It's a Wonderful Life and The Christmas Carol, Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some things she'd rather forget, learns some things ab...more

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published September 1st 2007 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

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A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

YA Post-Death Novels

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Nov 16, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Andie Z. for TeensReadToo.com

When 16-year-old Tessa sees the orange dodgeball flying at her from across her high school gym, it never even occurs to her to duck. Soon after, she finds herself floating towards heaven, which looks just like the mall where her parents work and where she has spent a good deal of her life.

She is led to the Lost and Found, where she is given a bag of items: items that she has taken home from the mall during her lifetime, and each item takes her on a journ...more

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Aug 24, 2012 ❀angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: wish-list, romance

After being hit by a dodgeball, Tessa finds herself at the mall (she's in a coma and so her subconscious generates the environment she's most familiar with). Tessa is given a shopping bag filled with items from the mall, items that each represent an experience that has shaped her. She is instructed to watch and analyze each memory so that she can find the answer to her Question.

Tessa is extremely flawed—she lies and cheats and steals. I do not condone Tessa's actions, but I find it ridiculous w...more

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Apr 22, 2010 Chloe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Why I choose this book: NOT IRP.

I chose this book because I really like the author Wendy Mass. She worte many books that I have enjoyed. I realy like the way she describes things. She really uses her 5 senses when she is discribing the seting and also the characters are so well detialed. You can even really see them in your head when you are reading.

Independent Reading Project: 4/22/10

This is a story about a girl named Tessa who gets in an accident in gym class. This accident makes her have to...more Why I choose this book: NOT IRP.

I chose this book because I really like the author Wendy Mass. She worte many books that I have enjoyed. I realy like the way she describes things. She really uses her 5 senses when she is discribing the seting and also the characters are so well detialed. You can even really see them in your head when you are reading.

Independent Reading Project: 4/22/10

This is a story about a girl named Tessa who gets in an accident in gym class. This accident makes her have to go to the hospital. She feels as she is in heaven, but because of the many times she has gone to the mall. The mall is her heaven. This is about Tessa learning to appreciate all the important things that her parents have bought her at the mall. This is an experience of a lifetime, that I think Tessa will never forget.

My favorite character in the book was “Nail boy.” Nail boy was my favorite character because he was very helpful to Tessa. He was the one who guided Tessa throughout all of the things she learned when she was in heaven. He also didn’t judge her at all. Because he saw everything important that she bought at the mall during her life.

The climax of the story is when Nail boy took out the bag of memories. This bag had all the things she had bought at the mall. Most of these things she didn’t even remember buying. The Nail boy brought her back to all the moments where she bought those things, which showed her how important those moments were.

The author is trying to show that when you buy something that you really like, or someone else buys it (even if you don’t like it) you should always appreciate, and be thankful that you got anything. Don’t forget about it just loose it and not take care of it. Keep it in good shape. Another thing the author is trying to show is that life can teach you morals. Even when you’re not expecting it.

I would highly recommend this book to a person who gets a lot of stuff in life. Who gets what they want. This book will teach them to respect the person who bought it for them. And may teach them that they don’t need everything. What they have is good enough for them. But always be thankful.

I really enjoyed this book. I would rate a 10 out of 10.

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Jul 07, 2009 Ellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hmm... little weird, little inappropriate. Just like me!

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Jan 23, 2013 Tahmid added it

Tessa Reynolds is finishing up her junior year of high school. She's just had a humiliating experience at the prom, and she's constantly struggling with her weight and her obsessive mother. When she sees a dodgeball zooming toward her head in gym class, she doesn't bother to duck. As she falls to the gym floor she finds herself in heaven that looks a lot like the mall, well at least what she thinks is heaven and where she spends most of her free time over the years. Tessa's not very athletic so...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Winslow Schmelling rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I grabbed this book mostly due to the fact that I have read several life after death type YA novels and have enjoyed all of them, and figured I could give this one a try. And, hey, not bad. Especially for how short it is (although it appears to be 250+ pages, it's nowhere near that due to the fact that it's written in verse. I managed to finish it in a day.)
I enjoyed the style of the book where Tessa is reliving all of these moments in her life as if they're actually happening for the first time...more I grabbed this book mostly due to the fact that I have read several life after death type YA novels and have enjoyed all of them, and figured I could give this one a try. And, hey, not bad. Especially for how short it is (although it appears to be 250+ pages, it's nowhere near that due to the fact that it's written in verse. I managed to finish it in a day.)
I enjoyed the style of the book where Tessa is reliving all of these moments in her life as if they're actually happening for the first time rather than "A Christmas Carol" style she's watching it from some corner of the room and commenting as her older self. It made the voice much more interesting because it progressed from young childhood to high school which I liked. I would have enjoyed several more switches back to the semi-present coma world to build up that setting a bit more as well as her relationship with Nail Boy. But, it worked still.
Wendy Mass's writing is great and really captures a teen voice without making them seem overly naive or stupid. I'm always happy to find an adult author who writes a modern super teen oriented book and actually manages to make their first person characters sound like a teenager. Mass doesn't try too hard to fill everything in with stupid "Ohmygod"s and "Asif"s but still throws in some present day (although occasionally 80's-ish) teen lingo that luckily doesn't feel out of place. So, bravo there.
Although this is supposedly considered a verse novel, it's one of those verse novels that does that whole separate-normal-non-poetic-sentences-by-random-breaks-and-make-it-look-like-a-poem thing. Which, I mean, was fine. I just wound up ignoring the verse which kind of ruined the attempt for me. It just almost seemed like something to make the book seem longer than it was. But, I enjoyed the shortness of the book and although there were some plot points of the coma world/present day that I would have liked to see expanded on, all of the past short stories were perfectly written and of perfect length in my opinion. She did just the right amount of back stories that gave you a lifelong image of Tessa but didn't beat it (or the short story style) into the ground.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to all sorts of readers, especially since it isn't at all time consuming if it doesn't turn out to be your thing. It's nothing that found its way onto my favorites list but, I could actually see it being up there on some peoples'. (less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Luu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, stand-alone, i-recommend, contemporary, novel-in-verse

Kniha vo veršoch, pri ktorej by ste si to ani nevšimli, keby to nebolo v popise napísané. Veršované knihy majú takú svoju neopísateľnú náladu a poetiku, táto kniha sa číta úplne ako súvislý text. Len akoby autorka svoje vety náhodne rozhádzala do strof.

Hlavná hrdinka Tess sa ocitá v kóme a musí si zrekapitulovať svoj doterajší život. V tomto svojom stave sa jej duch/duša prechádza v obchodnom dome a zo začiatku to vyzerá, že všetky spomienky budú s obchodným domom nejako súvisieť, ale kým dôjde...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Kelly Thielen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: high-school, middle-school, humor, realistic-fiction

Told in verse, Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall is a story of Tessa, a girl who has had more than her share of struggles navigating the ups and downs of middle and high school. Just coming off a really humiliating Prom experience, Tessa doesn't even duck when a dodge ball comes zooming for her head. Next thing she knows, she is floating above her still body in the gym and then in the Mall where she is forced to re-examine her life - in all of it's good and bad- before learning whether she will l...more

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Oct 31, 2012 04madil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-reports, book-review

Heaven looks alot like the mall is about a girl that goes in a coma after she gets knocked out by a dodge ball and while shes knocked out she is in the mall(in her mind) and a boy with a nail in his head is there and he took her to the lost and found and there is a bag with about 8 or 9 things in it and they are the most important things shes bought at the mall and all the things have a story behind them and all the stories have to do with something shes done bad and so shes telling stories for...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Cali W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall is probably one of my favorite non-fiction books. The main character Tessa, is sort of an outcast; not the most athletic either. I think the fact that the whole story is because of an accident in dodge ball really draws me in because I absolutely love dodge ball. Another non-fiction book I liked was 12 Finally also by Wendy Mass. Her writing style seems to always link back to something that happened in the beginning of the book, causing sort of this never ending...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Cinnapatty rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting book. I've enjoyed the two Wendy Mass books that I've read thus far. This is the third. It was different. Not bad different, just different. Even the format of the entire book is different. It's a thought provoking premise. Tessa is a Jr. in HS and she has a life changing experience as she has a near death experience. She grew up at the mall. A self proclaimed mall brat as both her parents work at the mall. She re lives several experiences from her past through each s...more

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May 23, 2012 Sydne rated it 2 of 5 stars

To begin with, the premise of this book was intriguing. A girl goes to heaven, but it looks like the mall? What? But then it turns out she's just in limbo, which makes a bit more sense. In that sense, the book could've been so, so good. But then Tessa happened. Tessa is the main character, and in the beginning she is quite likable. However, whenever she starts to relive some of the memories living up to her death, the book starts to decline. Everyone makes mistakes, but Tessa did things that, al...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Shoshi G rated it 4 of 5 stars

Heaven Looks a lot Like the Mall is a verse novel. Wendy Mass does a fabulous job using verses and incorporating hidden short stories. When you read a verse novel you feel like you are reading a really long poem. This book is about a 16 year old girl, Tessa who gets nailed in the head with a doge ball and ends up in a coma. While she is unconscious she visits memories throughout her life, good memories, bad memories, and things she would have rather never experienced again. Wendy Mass did a grea...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I first picked this book out of my library for a "blind date" activity that they do each year, I didn't think that I would like this book at all. It seemed like something that I would normally never pick, but I read the flap and it seemed decent, so I decided to give it a shot. I sat in bed and finished it all in one shot, I found that I just couldn't put it down, even though it didn't have all that action that I usually read.
The first thing one should take note of is not formatting of the...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass was a really interesting read. I enjoyed the book, but I felt lost and confused at different points while reading it. Throughout the book there are questions that need to be answered - but no one knows what those questions are. At times there are ghost figures that come into the book and you don't understand why until the last few pages of the book. This wasn't the kind of book you could pick up and put right back down. I had to read this book in on...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars

My friends have all read this book, so I have finally decided to read it, and I loved it. In her Junior year, Tessa Reynolds gets more than she could expect. One day in gym class, someone throws a ball at her head - but she doesn't duck, instead just standing there waiting for the ball to hit her. She then thinks random thoughts, like how her gym sweats are giving her a wedgie, and how when she was about six or seven, the neighborhood boys gave her a piece of candy for lifting up her shirt, and...more

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May 25, 2009 Stacy268 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

So I read this because I currently have a gaggle of 4th grade girls OBSESSED with this book. Ask me why, and I couldn't tell you. I have asked them why, and they can't tell me. Only one of them has read it, and I can't say as I can get what a 9/10 year old would take away.

I, however, enjoyed it.

Tessa is taken out on the dodgeball court and is forced to take a look at her life thus far. When she is knocked out, she finds herself at the mall. Her mall. The one where her parent work and where she...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Kellie Hogan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Heaven looks a lot like the mall is a great book. This is a young adult fiction book written by Wendy Mass. Tessa's not very a very athletic girl, so playing dodge ball in gym is maybe not her idea of fun. When the ball comes flying at her head it knocks her out cold. Tessa floats above her body to what she believes is heaven, and heaven looks a lot like the mall. She meets someone named nail boy at the mall and he hands her a bag of items that represent what she bought at the mall. Her bag cont...more Heaven looks a lot like the mall is a great book. This is a young adult fiction book written by Wendy Mass. Tessa's not very a very athletic girl, so playing dodge ball in gym is maybe not her idea of fun. When the ball comes flying at her head it knocks her out cold. Tessa floats above her body to what she believes is heaven, and heaven looks a lot like the mall. She meets someone named nail boy at the mall and he hands her a bag of items that represent what she bought at the mall. Her bag contains a yellow plastic cup with a daisy flower on it, a glass bowl, a red t-shirt, a roll of toilet paper and blue prom dress. She must relive the moments she thought should be left in the past and didn’t want to remember. I wasn't sure I could really handle reading an entire book in a verse. But I became obsessed with it in the first chapter. The writer shows the anxiety of growing up. Throughout the book, I read along to see Tessa go through her most embarrassing moments. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of this book! I like in this book how each chapter is named after a mall store. I thought that was a neat binding element, and definitely tied together the story. I would rate this book 5 stars because I couldn’t stop reading. I liked the reflection and redemption of it. While this is a story written for teenagers, it is also a story that addresses many of the challenging issues we all face. Such as cheating on tests, dirty magazines, jealousy, pranks, stealing, underage drinking, revenge alcohol abuse, shop lifting and much more. I definitely felt this story relating to me because it sounds like an average high school girl. If you’re an adult or a parent, I don’t really recommend reading because it’s more for a teenager. If you’re an adult but you’re a kid at heart, go for it. You never know you might like this book. Nail Boy is not happy enough to let Tessa simply relive her life through the mall or what she thinks is heaven. She’s in a coma and he’s pulled the plug. He tells her that if she answers an important question, she will wake up and leave the mall. “Why didn't you duck when the dodge ball came at you?” This might take a long time for Tessa to figure out what to say. Read along and find out what the answer is, and live through the life altering experience with Tessa.
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Dec 22, 2007 Meredith rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Teens

Shelves: chick-lit, female-protagonist, teen

When Tessa gets knocked into a coma by a rogue dodgeball, she has a near-death experience in her local mall. Guided by a druggie kid with a drill bit stuck in his head, she relives a number of memories, forcing her to look inside herself and decide whether or not she likes what she sees. I thought this book was both hilarious and insightful. The protagonist's honest and sarcastic narrative is easy to enjoy and identify with. Pick it up, it's a quick and excellent read!

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Oct 23, 2012 Betsy E. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Any girl who likes books about present and past.

Recommended to Betsy by: Mrs. Shultz

Heaven looks a lot like the mall
Wendy Mass
256 pages

This was my second favorite book EVER. I love the author Wendy Mass. Heaven Looks a lot like the mall is about this girl, Tessa the main character, who in gym class one day was playing dodgeball and she gets hit in the head is rushed to the hospital and ends up in a coma.The entire book other than the first like two chapters are about her coma and how she thinks she is in a mall reliving her life when all along she is just in a coma.In the end s...more

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Feb 22, 2009 Cornmaven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ms-hs

This was a quick read, because of the prose-verse style, and because I couldn't put it down. Would make a wonderful HS girl book discussion book - dig into the whys of the protagonist's actions, or whether we can even discern why she does what she does throughout her life.

I know kids like her, but not to this degree. The holes that exist in her psyche are what drive her, and that needs to be discussed. The concept of running through her life via mall purchases or gifts was interesting and very c...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: girls who love funny fictional stories

Shelves: novel-in-verse

In Wendy Mass's Heaven Looks A Lot Like The Mall, 16-year-old Tessa Reynolds finds herself in what she thinks is heaven after being hit by a dodgeball in gym class. Tessa is a "mall brat", or the daughter of two parents that work at the mall, so Tessa spends more time at the mall than at home. Perhaps this is why what she believes is heaven, looks exactly like her hometown mall. Tessa meets a strange boy who presents her with a large shopping bag, full of around 25 selected items that she or a...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Alfa added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 28, 2010 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found thus book on the summer reading shelf at Barnes and Noble. I expect the books on this shelf to be very engrossing and quick reads that get you connected witht the characters immediately. Again I did not find what I was expecting. I did thoroughly enjoy this book. I was slightly confused throughout the entire experience of it and I'm pretty sure that's what the author had intended though it was not what I was looking for at first. Before I knew it I felt the connection to the characters t...more

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Nov 21, 2011 fiona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 7th-grade-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 19, 2009 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: november-09

Not a book I would consider one of my favorites or a book that I clicked with. I guess the only reason that I finished it was because 1) I'm OCD about finishing my books and 2) since it was written in verse (which I have no issues about, in actuality) I thought I could finish it really quickly.

Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall is exactly what the title says it's about. A young girl, Tessa, gets hit by a dodgeball one day in PE and gets knocked out. As a result, she is sent up to "heaven" which,...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Steve Duong rated it 5 of 5 stars

Young Teen books don't get better then this! I just finished this over the course of a couple hours but I still feel I haven't fully absorbed everything that this book has to offer. I am going to pick this book up with full alacrity but not before handing this to my little sister. I don't know why I love this book so much but it probably has something to do with the anecdotes of micro crystallizing moments that Tessa lives. I loved the story in every way I loved moments, I love the ending (altho...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Ashley Cortes-Ose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow!! This book definatly gave me a new look on life. Tessa was a really bad person, but all her life, she blamed it on bad parents, bad schools, bullies, hormones, but never really thought herself as bad. The only time she felt bad about something that has happened before was when she was 5 and she stole those tiny shampoo bottles from a hotel, and when she admitted that shwe took them, she found out that they were free. Tessa steals and lies to her friends. She called Naomi's dad a drunk, stol...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Dina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advisory-reading-junior-year

When i first picked this book out in advisory i thought that it would be a bore. Turns out i was very wrong. I actually really enjoyed reading this book. It was full of humerous situations that the main characer Tessa had experienced over the years. When Tessa is hit by a doge ball in gym class she suffers a smewhat serious injury to the head and is sent to the hospital where she falls asleep and is sent to "heaven" there she meets a boy with a nail in his head who takes guides her through all o...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Colin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: adolescent-lit-5370

I feel like I need a bath. I am not sure why the author chose to write the book in verse form - a complete waste of time as it does absolutely nothing to enhance the action, characterization, etc. Readers will struggle to find an original idea in this piece of dreck that panders to every stereotype under the sun ... not to mention the relentless consumerism that sucks the life out of our middle-class students. I think we can offer more to young people than this. I think they deserve more. Imagin...more

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About Wendy Mass

Wendy Mass is the author of six novels for young people, including A Mango-Shaped Space (which was awarded the Schneider Family Book Award by the American Library Association), Leap Day, the Twice Upon a Time fairy tale series, and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, which earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly magazine. Her most recent book is Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall. Wendy wrote...more

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“I'm going to tell you a secret. Our lives are shaped by the future, not by the past. Once you decide how you want your life to be, all you need to do is live into that future.” — 67 people liked it

“I bet if you go through the rest of your life telling yourself, "I'm sparkling," you'll have a whole different energy and experience.” — 55 people liked it

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