Afterworlds Review

Title: Afterworlds
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre:Paranormal, Contemporary

Blurb: (from goodreads)  Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings… 

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.


Me: This 599 page wonder is a fresh look on publishing and tells two really interesting stories while somehow weaving them together.

The Ups: I absolutely adored Darcy's story. I agree that it is very difficult for a person to get published so well at that age, and that it is very rare, but I think that was kind of the fun of it. To see a rare occurrence try and blend in with everybody else. Darcy as a character was really nice, and I think that my mind was trying to comprehend that this was a book about an author, and that made me even more interested in it. I actually met Scott Westerfeld and he said that the bizarre things in the book that you would be like "Wait what that actually happened?" were probably based on things in his own life., and I think that added to the reality of the book .
Imogen was one of my favorite characters. I think that her struggle with trying to bury her past and put on a fresh face and a good reputation was a very big part of her character, and that it added a sense of sympathy yet a sense of curiosity for me as a reader. She was very confident with herself and always seemed to have Darcy's back, but under that, I think was a weak person who was trying to build up new walls.
After every single chapter, I had to catch myself because I would get confused because every other chapter told Lizzie's story. I think that it was really cool to have two stories weaved together. While other people might have found the constant back-and-forth annoying, I think that Scott Westerfeld stopped the chapters at the exact right moments and I rather enjoyed what Westerfeld himself called "the author's feeling of living half in the real world and half in the book." 

The Downs: I didn't enjoy Lizzie's story very much. I mean, it wasn't horrible or anything, I just didn't find it absolutely amazing, and at some points in Lizzie's story I found myself getting kind of bored. I also found the story a bit repetitive and the ending, (which ironically took Darcy lots of attempts to get down), wasn't very good. 

Overall: A great story, that I sped through and loved the author part of it. 

Rating: 4 kisses!

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