Afterworlds

In this clever book, you get two stories in one. Darby is 17 and has just sold her first novel. She now has to navigate the publishing world as she moves to New York City and meets her first love, another first time novelist named Imogen. Darby must fight her own insecurities as she faces rewrites in the year before her book is published while starting to work on the sequel. Everything costs more than she planned, her parents want her to go to college and Imogen is hiding something. In every other chapter, you get to read her novel. It is a supernatural tale of a girl who survives a terrorist attack. She is now a psychopomp, someone who can cross to the underworld and speak to the dead. Lizzie meets Yama- a death lord and falls for him, but even this has dire consequences. Lizzie is also navigating a new world filled with perilous choices. Scott Westerfeld has found a way to blend these two stories while giving the non-write a glimpse into the world of a YA author. I found it really interesting and inspiring as we just finished a round of Nanowrimo in my school and I have 3 new authors who would love this book. If you like the Pretties series, this is a little different, one story based in reality and one supernatural. The best of both worlds. I enjoyed both very much. Happy reading my friends.