Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield

Genre: YA Romance Realistic and Paranormal Fiction

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I have previously read Scott Westerfield’s series Uglies and, after listening to my mother’s suggestion to read Afterworlds, I jumped at the chance to read it, without knowing what it was about. I was immediately enthralled with the world Westerfield, or, rather, Patel, created with the first chapter, and then was thrust into the life of the fictional author of Afterworlds. Because my dream is to be a writer, I loved hearing about what an author’s life is like and what happens when you are published, while at the same time getting the chance to read the novel created by the author.

I loved how Afterworlds was like two books in one. One book was about the author’s life, and the other was the book the author wrote. Therefore, I’m going to give to separate, but connected, reviews.

The author’s life: Darcy Patel was an interesting character. She was awkward and seemed to live in a shell in the beginning, but began to break out with more exposure to YA heaven and the real world. Her book was comprised of different scenes she believed to be stolen, when really novels are various scenes from various experiences stitched together to create something unique. So, no, Darcy Patel was not a thief, she was a writer, and an excellent one at that. It was hard for me to remember that Darcy wasn’t in fact writing Afterworlds, though, and Westerfield wrote the whole story.

Darcy Patel’s novel: The first chapter, as said throughout the whole book, set the scene perfectly. There was the perfect amount of conflict and mystery that kept the readers wanting more, even reading past the chapter about Darcy’s life to get to the next part. Lizzie was an interesting character as well, but she seemed kind of flat. There were mentions of her life before she discovered the flipside, but there were no real connections, as if there was nothing in her life besides herself, her new ghost friend, Yamaraj, the flipside, death, and her mother. Half of those things were completely new to her as of the first chapter, as if she didn’t have a backstory, which made her seem flat. Yamaraj’s backstory was very interesting and unique, and though his character was inspired by the Hindu Vedas, he was still an original character.

I loved the world, or rather the Flipside, in Afterworlds. It was different than any other views on death than I had ever read, or seen, and I loved the originality. It made me realize that life is so precious, and not only things that were living can die. I loved the fact that ghosts only exist if people exist to remember them, and that is a nice thought, although not extremely comforting. Of course it’s only fiction, though.

Overall, this book was excellent. It was both real and paranormal in one novel split into two. The characters were ok, if not a little flat, but the idea behind this novel was very original and I loved it very much.

5 stars.