Set in Athens, three people from very different backgrounds meet and form a rather strange friendship. Rebecca is a French flight attendant, Henry is a British archeologist, and George is an American expert in ancient languages. Rebecca has a brief affair with George but is involved primarily with Henry. A death occurs and it becomes a book about grief.

I was interested in the first third of the story and had no idea it would shift so abruptly. The writing is beautiful in places, but the narrative is choppy, as it flashes back and forth frequently and not in a way that flows well. In the middle it switches formats from straight text to visuals of typewritten letters that are difficult to decipher.

I did not care for the portion of the book that is told in second person – this voice is very difficult to do well, and, for me, it fails here. I think this book is supposed to be about the randomness of life, but it comes across as…well, too random. Grief is another theme, and it is difficult to pull off a book about grief. The storyline in this book did not work well for me, but I would read another book by this author. I much preferred Van Booy’s The Illusion of Separateness.
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The writing is amazing. I didn't want it to end. ( )

In any book by Simon Van Booy, the characters have philosophical undertones... The protagonists of each of his stories are evolved beings, sensitive to feelings that we mortals have seasoned ourselves to not feel, as there is a lot of pain involved if we think of some feelings too deeply... However Simon Van Booy seems to explore these very emotions, feelings and senses...

It's interesting to see in his books, how he transforms even the most mundane into a beautiful line... For ex. One of his chapters starts thus, "Morning felt like a different life." After reading that line, I thought, 'Now that's called being effortlessly lyrical.' I simply cannot get over the beauty with which this author's style.

Everything Beautiful does begin after you start reading Simon Van Booy's books.
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I didn't care for this book at first and found Book 1 to be long and boring, but I really started enjoying it after Book 1. It's unique and I didn't see the way the dramatic change in the story coming. It also keeps you reading to the very last page before you understand the prologue. Good book overall. ( )

When one of the three main and unlikable characters died about halfway through the book, I decided I did not like the other two characters enough to care what happened to them, even though the setting in archaeological digs in Greece was somewhat interesting. ( )