Afterlove
Stunning queer dark romance of love and the afterlife
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
A stunning queer romance about love in the afterlife - can love overcome death itself? Ash is about to become a reaper in the afterlife, but she is determined to see her first love Poppy one last time - the only thing that separates them is death.
Car headlights.
The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars. But she made it, she's still here. Or is she?
This New Year's Eve, Ash gets an invitation from the afterlife she can't decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city's dead to await their fate.
But Ash can't forget Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again. . . Dead or alive.
NOT EVEN DEATH CAN TEAR THEM APART.
'Byrne is a talented writer with attitude, and a fresh, original voice' Daily Mail
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Tanya Byrne’s Afterlove describes itself as a book about a "clan of fierce girl reapers", which it is—but it’s a lot more besides. You will be immediately drawn in by the life of 16-year-old Ash as she meets and falls in love with Poppy, balancing a burgeoning relationship with disapproving parents. The chapters depicting the monotony of life at home in your teens are beautifully written and it’s testament to Byrne’s writing that the sudden gear change as we enter a decidedly different Act 2 doesn’t jar anywhere near as much as it should. Non-believers in an afterlife shouldn’t be put off. Ash and her fellow reapers Dev and Esen are so wonderfully drawn that everything feels perfectly plausible and—as Ash sees all that she’s left behind—often heartbreakingly real.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A teenager's life—and budding romance—is unceremoniously cut short when she dies and becomes a grim reaper in this otherworldly romance by British author Byrne. Despite differing financial circumstances and their experiencing homophobia within their Brighton community, the attraction between Indo-Guyanese British Ash Persaund and white-cued Poppy Morgan, both 16, blooms into an earnest courtship. But their romance is short-lived; when Ash is killed in a hit-and-run on New Year's Eve, she becomes a grim reaper, tasked with ferrying souls into the afterlife. Alongside fellow reapers—kind, white-cued Dev and snarky, brown-skinned Esen—and their mysterious Black leader, Deborah, Ash cares for Brighton teens' departed souls. She also dreams of a seemingly out-of-reach future with Poppy, until a chance encounter leaves Ash fearing that Poppy may join her sooner than she thinks. Though Ash's friendships with her reaper found family feel underdeveloped in a narrative that reveals few surprises, her nuanced and loving relationships with her parents and younger sister, and her sugar-sweet romance with Poppy—including their immediate connection, first date, and early sexual intimacy—are balanced with pensive ruminations on death and loss. Tender, heartbreaking, and hopeful, this love story pulls on the heartstrings. Ages 14–up.
