Friday 3 April 2015

Afterworlds by: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Paranormal
Published: September 23, 2014 by: Simon Pulse
Pages: 599
Rating: 4/5 stars
*highlight white text to reveal spoilers*


Afterworlds is a thrilling story about a girl being able to see into the afterlife, and about the girl who wrote her. Darcy Patel has just published her first debut, which causes her to move to a swanky New York apartment, and start living the author life. Her book is about a girl named Lizzie, who after surviving a terrorist attack, has been able to speak to ghosts and see into the afterlife. Lizzie befriends a young ghost, and together they try to track down the killer who murdered her. Told from the alternating stories of Lizzie and Darcy, Afterworlds was like a book inside a book.

This book offered a paranormal/romantic mix. Firstly we have Darcy's story about her new life and new book. but we also get to see inside of her book. To the positives, Lizzie's story was very interesting. She wasn't exactly a ghost, but a person able to slip inside and outside the afterlife. It was a very unique story, and offered a lot of information.

Lizzie and her ghost companion were incredibly cute to read about. They were an unlikely friendship, but I loved their developments. They worked really well together because they both had troubling pasts, and Lizzie did so much for her. Overall, the characters and plot of Lizzie's story were great.

To the negative side, I really did not care much for Darcy's story. I felt as if there was no point or reason to it, and I wish that the book was just dedicated to Lizzie. Darcy's story really went no where, there was no suspense or anything interesting, besides the fact that she falls in love with a fellow writer. Nothing happened.

Overall, I loved Lizzie's story, but didn't enjoy Darcy's. I feel like Darcy's story was a great for a romantic/contemporary element, but it just didn't do it for me. The plot of Lizzie's story was thoroughly entertaining, and beautifully written. That is why this book got 4/5 stars.

Have you read Afterworlds? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

8 comments:

  1. I didn't like this one much. It was a bit of a disappointment, especially after The Uglies.

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    1. I haven't been able to get into Uglies that much, so I decided to read this first. Like I said,it was great at some parts, but Darcy's story let me down :(

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  2. I'm glad you thought it was well written, though I'm sorry about the disappointment concerning Darcy. This book looks interesting, and like every book, it has it's ups and downs! Great review!

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    1. It was quite interesting, Lizzie was great to read about! Thanks Erica :)

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  3. What a great review, Emily! Very convincing. I suddenly want to read it haha :) I love how it's like a "book inside a book" because that sounds very creative and fun. The concept is really interesting too! Sorry Darcy didn't really stick well with you. Thanks for the review, and I'll definitely add this to my TBR soon :D

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    1. Thanks Jillian! It was interesting because it shows the real lives of debut authors, which can be stressful. Hope you enjoy it!

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  4. I actually went between loving this one and hating. The actual fantasy story was terrible in my opinion. I didn't like anything about it, from the instalove to the really pointless story. Darcy's though, was amazing. I didn't get why everyone praised Afterworlds as much as they did because like I said, I thought it was terrible but the whole publishing thing was pretty interesting!

    I think this one was a DNF for me because I lost interest eventually but I'm glad you liked it <3

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    1. I enjoyed the publishing process a lot! I can see your point on the instalove though, that could have been annoying. Thanks for stopping by!

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