Life After Death
A Novel
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3.4 • 736 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER
The long-anticipated sequel to Sister Souljah’s million copy New York Times bestseller The Coldest Winter Ever.
Winter Santiaga hit time served. Still stunning, still pretty, still bold, still loves her father more than any man in the world, still got her hustle and high fashion flow. She’s eager to pay back her enemies, rebuild her father’s empire, reset his crown, and ultimately to snatch Midnight back into her life no matter which bitch had him while she was locked up. But Winter is not the only one with revenge on her mind. Simone, Winter’s young business partner and friend, is locked and loaded and Winter is her target. Will she blow Winter’s head off? Can Winter dodge the bullets? Or will at least one bullet blast Winter into another world? Either way Winter is fearless. Hell is the same as any hood and certainly the Brooklyn hood she grew up in. That’s what Winter thinks.
A heartwarming, heart-burning, passionate, sexual, comical, and completely original adventure is about to happen in real time—raw, shocking, soulful, and shameless. True fans won’t let Winter travel alone on this amazing journey.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sister Souljah launched her writing career with the searing coming-of-age story The Coldest Winter Ever, and now Winter Santiaga is back. Just released from prison, the street-tough hustler is clear about what she wants: her own reality show, a full-length mink, freedom for her drug-dealing father, and revenge against all her enemies, in this life or the next. Souljah takes her heroine on a wild, surreal ride literally through hell and back, and it’s all told with her bracingly raw and poetic writing style. Just like Winter herself, Life After Death has depth, beauty, and an unbreakable spirit. It’s a passionate, powerful saga of family, love, and faith.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Souljah's mystical, uneven sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever picks up with Winter Santiaga leaving prison after 15 years, having taken the fall for a hustler boyfriend's drug dealing. Her release is captured on a reality TV show developed for her, as is her murder; she is shot by friend-turned-nemesis Simone, after Simone finds out how much Winter would profit from the show compared to her and other women from the neighborhood. Winter ends up in the underworld, otherwise named the Last Stop Before the Drop, where she lives a twisted version of the life she'd led before ending up in prison. In a series of strange and winding events, Winter becomes romantically involved with a number of biblically and Quran-inspired men—who, just like she'd experienced in her past life, end up mistreating her. She begins to think back on her past with her father, whom she adores, and is able to observe the life of her first love, who is now married with a family. When she meets the souls of unborn children, they tell her she must reflect on her life if she wants to leave the underworld. While Winter's digressive interior monologue can be hard to follow, Souljah's saga is conceptually imaginative. The author's diehard fans will appreciate this.
Customer Reviews
I received the gems
Of course this is not what I or a lot of people expected from the girl we all Rode hard for - Winter — but I can appreciate the self reflection that she had to do, and I even highlighted a couple of gems that Sister Soulja dropped ! I am born and raised Catholic. I believe in God and the Holy Spirit .. as Winter is taking her ride through the “Unknown” the writing is mostly about Allah - I simply substituted the Religious Titles, and still received the message. I am not a Muslim , I read the Bible and not the Holy Quran .. I felt this was a little heavy on one Religion .. I still enjoyed reading that Porsche was good, and her father made peace.
Not good
I reread this book after being very disappointed with the story line initially. I can still say years later I’m still disappointed. While I understand the spirituality and development journey Winter is going through after being incarcerated for 15 years at such young age, this book doesn’t read like Winter, I expected to see her growth, her mindset changing, her vocabulary evolving and I just feel like that didn’t happen. She started her spiritual journey with Allah but there wasn’t any mental growth. Everyone who had had an abortion is in the Last Stop place, no matter the reason, the cause or religion, you are to be stuck here until you accept that Allah is the only God and merciful. The devil and his follows are without light, only flames, the nuns have dim to no light because they have not accepted that Allah is the one true God, there was beastilty and many moments of uncomfortable verbiage. I’ve read all of her books, including Midnight’s story, her following of the Islamic tradition has always been there but this is the only book that her faith felt forced on you. When the UBS are speaking to the mothers they describe how some of them were great people, didn’t commit sins but they were praising a statue or ancestors instead of Allah. There were many lessons in the book that I agreed with but I honestly felt like they were lost under her praise for Allah to were we didn’t get to see Winter’s growth. She’s an excellent writer, this would have been a great standalone story about a girls journey into Islam.
Not what I expected…
Saw a lot of bad reviews when this book first came out, but of course that didn’t discourage me because I’m such a fan of Sister Souljah and her style of writing! It’s nothing like The Coldest Winter Ever, but I actually did enjoy the book. This was a very unique book!