Review: Afterworlds

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Format: Paperback
Pages: 599
Rating: 6 out of 10

Summary (via 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.

My Thoughts on the Subject: Ironically, this review is coming to you on it's 4 month release birthday. 

I enjoyed this book...some. I thought that, as someone who wants to be a writer when they are "all grown up", the story line was fascinating. I liked the characters, thought the world was generally interesting, and have never read anything quite like this book...

But it was so long. It was long and some parts were super boring. There was also not a lot of correlation between the two stories. Yes, one was being written by the other, but was it just shown to us to make a unique story. It would have been interesting to see how the changes made by the author affected the secondary story (which I thought was more interesting). We were already reading what Darcy had written, as she spoke of edits, we had already read the edits so I found myself not caring. I don't know. The idea was interesting but it made for a complicated, two books at once scenario, when it really didn't have to. It's not that I couldn't follow along, I all too frequently read multiple books at once. It's a problem I have. I'm not exactly sure how this problem could be fixed though..

It was just too much, all at once. It was a fantasy and a realistic novel at once. It was half drama and half romance/mystery/crime/I-don't-even-know-what. It was a lot. I mean, it gave the reader a lot to think about and focus on and wonder about. It also gave basically every genre known to man but it was a lot. Having so much made it drag. 600 pages is a long time commitment that I wasn't ready to take when I started to read this novel. 

So: I liked it but it took a long time. It was overwhelming to have two stories at once and not have them interact with each other. I would consider reading it again but not for a long time. Only those with a long attention span, who can read to novels at once should look into reading this novel.