Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film 2/4 stars, remarking that while " Jackson gets the thriller scenes right", the "conceit of Susie trapped in a DayGlo world between the one she left and her final resting place, imparting lessons on coping with death, feels preachy." Puig also described the film as having "clashing tones" that veer from "lightheartedness to heavy-handedness." Puig also criticized the film's computer-generated imagery, describing it as being "cheesy" and felt that it broke "no ground." Kirt Honeycutt, of "the Hollywood Reporter", described the film as telling "a fundamentally different story" which is "one that is not without its tension, humor and compelling details", but that "it's also a simpler, more button-pushing tale that misses the joy and heartbreak of the original." Honeycutt also described Jackson as having transformed Sebold's "startling, unique novel about the aftermath of a terrible murder" into a story that's more "focused on crime and punishment."