Reviewed by Phoebe N. Grade 12
After Life by Gayle Forman entails the familial grieving process of a teenage girl named Amber Crane. With the anticipation a January 25th, 2025 release, the story follows Amber Crane coming back from the dead. She doesn’t remember how she died and can’t seem to comprehend the fact that she has been dead for seven years at first. Amber slowly starts to understand that her passing left a huge impact on all her loved ones: her family dynamic, friends’ betrayals, and the revealed secrets of the neighborhood. She now has to accept all the new changes that accumulated throughout the seven years of her being gone and mend the broken relationships along the way.
Despite the fictional element of the main character coming back to life from the dead, this book was very light-hearted and contained many deep reflective thoughts on realistic family expectations, image, empathy, love, and status, allowing readers to relate to the characters. The pace of the book is fairly slow, but secrets begin to reveal a little at a time through the perspective of different characters. Each chapter ends with a slight cliff hanger, which doesn’t resolve until a couple chapters later on.
One unique aspect of this novel I particularly enjoyed was the structure of how the story unfolds. Aside from being narrated by multiple characters, the chapters jump from the present time to seven years before the death of Amber Crane, four years after her death, and even 29 years before when Amber’s parents first met. This adds more depth to the level of intimacy and background context to each member of her family. On top of that, the mini plot twist at the end left a pleasant surprise that perfectly tied the emotional component of the overall story together.
Going into this book, I expected it to be more of a mystery or thriller novel. However, it seemed more like a YA coming-of-age fiction that trailed the self discovery of a teenage girl and the community around her. Gayle Forman also did an excellent job in delivering the message of life's significance and how we should treasure our lives as well as the people in them. Full of regrets, sad, joyful, and soulful moments, After Life takes readers on an emotional and touching roller coaster. I would highly recommend this book to those who prefer light, wholehearted, or philosophical cordial reads. Forman’s writing style is definitely easy to grasp, and I am excited to check out her other YA works such as If I Stay and We Are Inevitable, which are both currently available at the Winter Park Library.
*Coming soon to WPL! This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.
