Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
Back in November/December of 2024, I was blessed with a plethora of ARCs. I received so many advanced reader copies that I’m still going through them in the new year. I am very thankful for everyone out there who wants to send me books. A special shout out goes to Harper Collins and Epic Reads Insiders program for sending me a copy of today’s book. Please note, they aren’t paying me for my review, they just sent me the book for free. Thank you so, so much for sending me the book I’m about to review; it means a lot that someone out there wants to send me books.
With that, allow me to introduce the subject of today’s review. Please give a warm welcome to After Life by Gayle Forman! After Life released yesterday, January 7, 2025.
So let’s crack in. As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you know I love to spoil the entirety of the books I read; this is your one and only warning. I also must issue a content and trigger warning. After Life deals with the death of a young teenage girl. This book is about grief and loss so if you are not in the headspace to deal with these topics I highly recommend skipping this one. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.
Seven years before our story begins, Amber Crane was the victim of a hit and run. She was riding her bike home from school when her life was tragically cut short. For years her family and friends mourned her and moved forward with their lives that had just been changed forever. Now it’s seven years later and Amber has suddenly returned from the dead.
Amber literally rolls up to her house on her bike thinking she just came home from school. Then she notices things are different. Like her cat doesn’t come to greet her, the rose bushes out front have been removed, her mom has a new car, and her little sister is now the same age as her. It should come as no surprise that when her mom see her, she screams. Amber soon learns what happened to her.
As the days pass, Amber’s family slowly come to terms with her being back from the dead. It’s a truly slow process as her mother hardly looks at her, and her father lowkey becomes a religious fanatic. While her parents are figuring things out, Amber wants to reunite with the love of her life and pick up where she left off. Though she soon learns how affected her friends and family were by her death and how the years have changed everyone.
At its core, After Life is a story of loss, longing, regret, and love. It showcases how grief affects us all in different ways and how one death can send shockwaves through a community. Gayle Forman discusses these topics expertly with prose to make readers everywhere bawl their eyes out. In other words, this book is great.
I am blown away with this read. It made me feel so much. I laughed, I cried, I yelled at half the characters to get therapy; you know, all the normal things you should do when reading. Truly the sign of a good book if you ask me. But seriously, After Life is a thought-provoking read that will rip your heart out many times as the story is told from multiple points of view and timelines which emphasize every character’s grief and perspective of the events.
Yes, this book is told from multiple POVs. I have a love-hate relationship with multiple points of view books. I feel it is severely overdone nowadays. I find there to be too many books that have dual POVs when they don’t need to. After Life is a book that necessitates the multiple points of view. As I’ve said, this is a book about longing, loss, and how everyone is affected by grief differently. While Amber is the main focus of the story, had After Life been only from her point of view, the book would not have worked.
All that being said, some characters did not need to be included. Focusing chapters on Amber’s immediate friends and family makes sense. Having chapters told from a neighbor’s point of view who grew closer to the family after Amber’s death makes sense. Including chapters about one of Amber’s former teachers even makes sense. Nick Flores, a photographer who did an expose on ghost bikes because he watched a ghost bike for Amber be put in the location of her hit and run, felt wholly unnecessary. He did not need to be included. I personally found the chapters about Nick to be pointless. Plus, he’s only included in the story two or three times and mostly appeared at the end after only being included once before in the beginning. Had I been the editor of this book, I would have cut Nick’s chapters. His inclusion pulled the focus away from Amber and her family.
Speaking of the ending, it’s my only other issue with this read. It feels very rushed to me. Every character that readers have met converge on the Crane household where it is then revealed how and why Amber has returned. This all happens in under twenty pages. I don’t believe After Life needed to be longer necessarily, up until this point the pacing worked well and nothing felt rushed in the slightest, but the final reveals didn’t need to occur all at once like they did. Had any of the final reveals happened one chapter earlier I believe this issue could have been rectified.
All in all, After Life is a heart-wrenching read. With likable characters and a story that many can sadly relate to I think this book is going to be a hit. Gayle Forman knows how to make readers cry and she’s done so once again with After Life.
Once again a massive thank you goes out to Harper Collins and Epic Reads Insiders program for sending me an advanced copy of After Life. I always love getting books in the mail. Thank you, thank you.
With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you for joining me this week. I will see you all again next Wednesday with another new post. But if you can’t wait that long then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. You can find the show over on Spotify and YouTube. Join me and two of my dearest friends as we talk Gothic literature, Scooby-Doo, musical theatre, bad 90’s wrestling, and just about everything in between; there’s bound to be something you’ll like.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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