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Final Notes
A fearless meditation on life, death, and the fragile threads of memory we leave behind.What does it mean to live fully when every breath carries us closer to the inevitable end of life? In Final Notes, W.H. Muhlenfeld offers a personal yet universally resonant reflection on life and death, bringing together raw honesty, humor, and the bittersweet wisdom of more than a century of lived experience.
Written in the narrator’s final days, this book is not about avoiding death but about embracing the truth that has shadowed us since birth—that every existence is fleeting, every memory fragile, and every legacy uncertain.
With unflinching clarity, Muhlenfeld confronts the fears and absurdities of dying, from the vanishing of personal history to the rituals that attempt to soften the silence that follows. Yet, amid these sobering truths, he finds moments of gratitude, humor, and wonder—reminding us that reflections on life and reflections on death are inseparably bound.
Readers will find in these pages not despair, but a powerful affirmation of what it means to to cherish love, family, friendship, and even the ordinary moments that shape our life experiences.
Final Notes is both a farewell and a gift, encouraging us to consider the legacy we leave, and to approach our own mortality not with fear, but with a deeper appreciation of the miraculous odds of having lived at all.
This book will inspire anyone facing loss, seeking meaning, or yearning to understand life’s impermanence. A moving companion for the living, it offers courage to face the mystery of death and gratitude for the extraordinary privilege of life.
Written in the narrator’s final days, this book is not about avoiding death but about embracing the truth that has shadowed us since birth—that every existence is fleeting, every memory fragile, and every legacy uncertain.
With unflinching clarity, Muhlenfeld confronts the fears and absurdities of dying, from the vanishing of personal history to the rituals that attempt to soften the silence that follows. Yet, amid these sobering truths, he finds moments of gratitude, humor, and wonder—reminding us that reflections on life and reflections on death are inseparably bound.
Readers will find in these pages not despair, but a powerful affirmation of what it means to to cherish love, family, friendship, and even the ordinary moments that shape our life experiences.
Final Notes is both a farewell and a gift, encouraging us to consider the legacy we leave, and to approach our own mortality not with fear, but with a deeper appreciation of the miraculous odds of having lived at all.
This book will inspire anyone facing loss, seeking meaning, or yearning to understand life’s impermanence. A moving companion for the living, it offers courage to face the mystery of death and gratitude for the extraordinary privilege of life.
137 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 25, 2025
7 people are currently reading
1813 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 16, 2025
This is a quietly powerful little gem. It reads not just as a story of the main character on a psychedelic journey, but as if the author himself was on one while writing it. The insights are vivid and profound. His prose is layered and absolutely exquisite. It pulls you into a deeply introspective space where memory, mortality, and meaning blur in beautiful ways. Reading it felt both haunting and comforting.
It made me reflect on my own mortality but instead of evoking dread, it brought a kind of reverent curiosity and even levity. There's a tenderness and intimacy in how it approaches the fragility of life. I sighed, I cried, and I laughed at times. It reminded me that even in the face of impermanence, there's beauty, absurdity, and something deeply human that connects us all.
This would make a great book club pick. Thanks to the author, W.H. Muhlenfeld, for this Goodreads giveaway.
It made me reflect on my own mortality but instead of evoking dread, it brought a kind of reverent curiosity and even levity. There's a tenderness and intimacy in how it approaches the fragility of life. I sighed, I cried, and I laughed at times. It reminded me that even in the face of impermanence, there's beauty, absurdity, and something deeply human that connects us all.
This would make a great book club pick. Thanks to the author, W.H. Muhlenfeld, for this Goodreads giveaway.
August 5, 2025
In Final Notes, the author invites us to spend a few intimate, unhurried hours at the bedside of a man who knows that his time is almost up. The narrator, 107 years old and wryly self-aware, offers an unfiltered account of his final days, blending mordant humour, philosophical reflection, and tender recollection.
It is a short piece - just 137 pages - and I read it very quickly as I found it absolutely charming. It blended a beautiful recollection of life, thoughts on impending death and a slightly speculative account of what death may look like in the near future.
This is no maudlin farewell. The dying protagonist is a raconteur to the last. He muses on mortality with wit sharp enough to cut through sentimentality. He drifts from practicalities (the virtues of “Swedish death cleaning,” the curious value of a death doula) to big-picture philosophy: the near-certainty of being forgotten, the transactional nature of life and death, the cosmic absurdity of existence itself.
Alongside these meditations are vivid, sharply observed memories. We learn of his love and marriage, youthful follies, family milestones, travels, and friendships lost to time. We meet a man who has lived fully, though not without regrets, and who now confronts his own extinction with grace, skepticism, and a mischievous glint.
The ideas are not especially novel and I think anyone who has entered the final third of the average lifespan might have entertained some of them in a reflective moment, but stitched together like this they are both powerful and sweet.
The prose is elegant but accessible, rich with quotable lines and wry asides. It moves easily between solemnity and levity; one moment the reader contemplates oblivion, the next they’re smiling at an anecdote about an ill-fated honeymoon souvenir. The narrative voice is the book’s great strength: humane, curious, and free of self-pity.
Final Notes will resonate most with readers drawn to memoir, literary reflection, and end-of-life narratives. It is not a book about dying so much as about how to look unflinchingly at the fact of death and, in so doing, appreciate the improbable gift of having lived at all.
The author might want to note that the format in which the book was provided (2 pages on one sheet) was unreadable on my Kindle which was a shame. I could only read it as a document on my laptop- and even that was challenging. The detracted from the reading experience.
It is a short piece - just 137 pages - and I read it very quickly as I found it absolutely charming. It blended a beautiful recollection of life, thoughts on impending death and a slightly speculative account of what death may look like in the near future.
This is no maudlin farewell. The dying protagonist is a raconteur to the last. He muses on mortality with wit sharp enough to cut through sentimentality. He drifts from practicalities (the virtues of “Swedish death cleaning,” the curious value of a death doula) to big-picture philosophy: the near-certainty of being forgotten, the transactional nature of life and death, the cosmic absurdity of existence itself.
Alongside these meditations are vivid, sharply observed memories. We learn of his love and marriage, youthful follies, family milestones, travels, and friendships lost to time. We meet a man who has lived fully, though not without regrets, and who now confronts his own extinction with grace, skepticism, and a mischievous glint.
The ideas are not especially novel and I think anyone who has entered the final third of the average lifespan might have entertained some of them in a reflective moment, but stitched together like this they are both powerful and sweet.
The prose is elegant but accessible, rich with quotable lines and wry asides. It moves easily between solemnity and levity; one moment the reader contemplates oblivion, the next they’re smiling at an anecdote about an ill-fated honeymoon souvenir. The narrative voice is the book’s great strength: humane, curious, and free of self-pity.
Final Notes will resonate most with readers drawn to memoir, literary reflection, and end-of-life narratives. It is not a book about dying so much as about how to look unflinchingly at the fact of death and, in so doing, appreciate the improbable gift of having lived at all.
The author might want to note that the format in which the book was provided (2 pages on one sheet) was unreadable on my Kindle which was a shame. I could only read it as a document on my laptop- and even that was challenging. The detracted from the reading experience.
August 21, 2025
I read this here book Final Notes and it aint nothin like what I thought it was gonna be. I figgered it might be some slow sad story bout a old feller dyin but nah this thing lit me up like a fireworks show mixed with a acid trip.
This old boy a hundred an seven years old he dyin but he sharp as a tack in the head. They go an give him this fancy tea with that funny medicine in it that make your brain dance and he go floatin through his own life like he ridin the ferris wheel backwards. But it aint silly it serious. He facin death head on and lettin it talk back to him like a stubborn neighbor.
What got me is it aint preachy it aint sugar sweet. It real it raw and it kinda funny too. Like if the Grim Reaper showed up wearin flip flops and totin a mixtape from Johns Hopkins. Cause yeah theres actual music playin along with his visions like a soundtrack to dyin. Who even thinks that up.
Now I aint smart with big words but I know when a book hits me in the chest and this one sure did. It make you sit quiet for a spell and think bout your own last day on this rock and if you brave enough to sip that tea and stare at the nothin waitin on the other side.
I give it 5 outta 5 catfish!
This old boy a hundred an seven years old he dyin but he sharp as a tack in the head. They go an give him this fancy tea with that funny medicine in it that make your brain dance and he go floatin through his own life like he ridin the ferris wheel backwards. But it aint silly it serious. He facin death head on and lettin it talk back to him like a stubborn neighbor.
What got me is it aint preachy it aint sugar sweet. It real it raw and it kinda funny too. Like if the Grim Reaper showed up wearin flip flops and totin a mixtape from Johns Hopkins. Cause yeah theres actual music playin along with his visions like a soundtrack to dyin. Who even thinks that up.
Now I aint smart with big words but I know when a book hits me in the chest and this one sure did. It make you sit quiet for a spell and think bout your own last day on this rock and if you brave enough to sip that tea and stare at the nothin waitin on the other side.
I give it 5 outta 5 catfish!
August 6, 2025
Final Notes is a deeply introspective and brutally honest reflection on dying, memory, and meaning. Written from the imagined deathbed musings of a 107-year-old man, the book unfolds like a last conversation with a thoughtful, witty, occasionally cranky elder who has made peace with his fate. Muhlenfeld blends philosophy, science, personal anecdotes, and black humor to explore what it means to matter, if we matter at all, when we're all destined for obscurity. It's a farewell letter to existence, scribbled with elegance, sarcasm, and startling clarity.
Reading this book was a bit like sitting beside someone who's holding nothing back. I laughed. I got choked up. I put it down more than once to think about my own life. The writing is smooth. It's raw in the right places, poetic in others. There’s a rhythm to Muhlenfeld’s voice that kept me nodding along, even when I disagreed. The author never pretends to have all the answers, but he asks the right questions. The mix of stoicism and warmth, the gallows humor, the sudden emotional gut punches, they all land. He doesn't flinch from the messiness of death, and that kind of honesty is rare. Refreshing, even.
At times, it circles back to familiar points, and there’s a stretch where the musings feel slightly indulgent. Still, I didn’t mind much. It felt earned. The digressions on legacy, digital immortality, AI death doulas, and even death row last meals aren’t just filler. They add texture. The real surprise is how comforting it all is. Muhlenfeld seems to have accepted the darkness without bitterness. Somehow, he makes it feel okay to disappear.
Compared to Oliver Sacks and Christopher Hitchens, Final Notes finds a middle ground between gentle reflection and sharp-edged wit. Like Sacks in Gratitude, Muhlenfeld writes with a calm acceptance of death, holding onto wonder even as the light dims. But there’s also a streak of Hitchens’ blunt irreverence. He’s not afraid to mock the euphemisms, the false hope, or even himself. In the end, I think Final Notes isn’t about death. It’s about living with eyes open. I’d recommend it to anyone wrestling with grief, aging, or just the big unspoken question of what any of this means.
Reading this book was a bit like sitting beside someone who's holding nothing back. I laughed. I got choked up. I put it down more than once to think about my own life. The writing is smooth. It's raw in the right places, poetic in others. There’s a rhythm to Muhlenfeld’s voice that kept me nodding along, even when I disagreed. The author never pretends to have all the answers, but he asks the right questions. The mix of stoicism and warmth, the gallows humor, the sudden emotional gut punches, they all land. He doesn't flinch from the messiness of death, and that kind of honesty is rare. Refreshing, even.
At times, it circles back to familiar points, and there’s a stretch where the musings feel slightly indulgent. Still, I didn’t mind much. It felt earned. The digressions on legacy, digital immortality, AI death doulas, and even death row last meals aren’t just filler. They add texture. The real surprise is how comforting it all is. Muhlenfeld seems to have accepted the darkness without bitterness. Somehow, he makes it feel okay to disappear.
Compared to Oliver Sacks and Christopher Hitchens, Final Notes finds a middle ground between gentle reflection and sharp-edged wit. Like Sacks in Gratitude, Muhlenfeld writes with a calm acceptance of death, holding onto wonder even as the light dims. But there’s also a streak of Hitchens’ blunt irreverence. He’s not afraid to mock the euphemisms, the false hope, or even himself. In the end, I think Final Notes isn’t about death. It’s about living with eyes open. I’d recommend it to anyone wrestling with grief, aging, or just the big unspoken question of what any of this means.
October 23, 2025
Spellbinding, fast-paced, and diving deep into philosophy, life, the universe, and everything—this novel is full of wonderful surprises and unexpected detours. The narrator is an agnostic leaning toward atheism, who obviously had some awful experiences with the Roman Catholic Church as a kid. Like most smart kids, he eventually determined the whole thing was a sham and abandoned religion entirely in favor of the ever-popular (and clearly still popular far in the future, when the book is set) "spiritual-not-religious" mindset.
It's fascinating experiencing the 107-year-old narrator grapple with his agnosticism. There are echoes throughout that suggest he believes he may well be proven wrong about an afterlife—or then again, perhaps not.
It's a literary accomplishment that a story told by a bedridden hospice patient living through his last hours, experiencing his first (and very intense) psychedelic journey brought on by medically administered psilocybin, somehow manages to be fast-paced and action-packed. It's a paradox, much like the narrator's spiritual reflections—like when he muses, "My God, she made my life special." An expression, yes. But also...
While the ending left me wanting just a little more, I was treated to a fantastic epilogue set in the distant future, long after the narrator has shuffled off into oblivion (or perhaps to be surprised that there's something after this life). The epilogue is the icing on the hospice cake (interesting image there) and gives the reader a good chuckle as the book wraps up.
It's rare to finish a book and feel completely satisfied, but this is one of those books. Absolutely worth your time—you'll enjoy the ride!
It's fascinating experiencing the 107-year-old narrator grapple with his agnosticism. There are echoes throughout that suggest he believes he may well be proven wrong about an afterlife—or then again, perhaps not.
It's a literary accomplishment that a story told by a bedridden hospice patient living through his last hours, experiencing his first (and very intense) psychedelic journey brought on by medically administered psilocybin, somehow manages to be fast-paced and action-packed. It's a paradox, much like the narrator's spiritual reflections—like when he muses, "My God, she made my life special." An expression, yes. But also...
While the ending left me wanting just a little more, I was treated to a fantastic epilogue set in the distant future, long after the narrator has shuffled off into oblivion (or perhaps to be surprised that there's something after this life). The epilogue is the icing on the hospice cake (interesting image there) and gives the reader a good chuckle as the book wraps up.
It's rare to finish a book and feel completely satisfied, but this is one of those books. Absolutely worth your time—you'll enjoy the ride!
September 2, 2025
Final Notes is one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time. It’s one you need to read through slowly, with care, savoring every word, reflecting on questions the narrator poses and grappling with same ideas he does. I found the narrator very likable. His musings on life, religion, and how we’re remembered after death had me crying into a tissue every few chapters.
I was hoping for slightly more of a defined arc for the narrator. While contemplating one’s own death is a journey in itself, I felt there’s was room for further evolution. Much of the book reads like a stream of consciousness, which absolutely suits the premise but sometimes the repetition of similar thoughts without escalation made it difficult for me to stay grounded in the story.
Still, the author has an amazing lyrical grasp of language, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the beauty his phrasing and ideas. Overall, it was very moving and will stay with me for a long time.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I was hoping for slightly more of a defined arc for the narrator. While contemplating one’s own death is a journey in itself, I felt there’s was room for further evolution. Much of the book reads like a stream of consciousness, which absolutely suits the premise but sometimes the repetition of similar thoughts without escalation made it difficult for me to stay grounded in the story.
Still, the author has an amazing lyrical grasp of language, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the beauty his phrasing and ideas. Overall, it was very moving and will stay with me for a long time.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
October 7, 2025
Final Notes is a hauntingly beautiful and deeply human exploration of life’s final chapter. W. H. Muhlenfeld takes readers on an inner journey through memory, music, and consciousness as a 107-year-old man faces his last hours under the influence of psilocybin.
The author’s prose is lyrical and meditative, blurring the lines between reality and imagination in the best way possible. What could have been a somber story instead becomes a moving celebration of awareness, acceptance, and peace.
It’s rare to find a novel that makes you think so deeply about what it means to exist. Final Notes is not only about dying, it’s about finally learning how to live.
The author’s prose is lyrical and meditative, blurring the lines between reality and imagination in the best way possible. What could have been a somber story instead becomes a moving celebration of awareness, acceptance, and peace.
It’s rare to find a novel that makes you think so deeply about what it means to exist. Final Notes is not only about dying, it’s about finally learning how to live.
October 7, 2025
Muhlenfeld’s Final Notes is both daring and deeply contemplative, a fusion of philosophy, psychology, and poetic storytelling. Inspired by real-world end-of-life psilocybin therapy, the novel gives readers a front-row seat to the protagonist’s mind as he navigates memory, regret, and revelation.
The narrative’s dreamlike quality is balanced by vivid detail and an undercurrent of compassion that makes it impossible to put down. This book reminds us that death is not an ending but a passage toward understanding. Highly recommended for fans of introspective and literary fiction.
The narrative’s dreamlike quality is balanced by vivid detail and an undercurrent of compassion that makes it impossible to put down. This book reminds us that death is not an ending but a passage toward understanding. Highly recommended for fans of introspective and literary fiction.
October 8, 2025
Final Notes is a poetic and profound meditation on mortality. W.H. Muhlenfeld crafts an emotional, vividly imagined account of a 107-year-old man’s final hours under the influence of psilocybin, transforming death into a landscape of memories, revelations, and peace. The writing is lyrical and immersive, capturing both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit.
It’s not just a story about dying it
It’s not just a story about dying it
October 8, 2025
It’s rare to find a novel that makes you think so deeply about what it means to exist. Final Notes is not only about dying, it’s about finally learning how to live.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews