After Life
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4.4 • 12 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A Good Morning America Book Club YA Pick
"Gayle Forman has an uncanny ability to create characters in which we see ourselves, and her latest—which looks at where love goes, after a loss—is an honest, heartbreaking elegy to how memory makes relationships eternal." —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"I was consumed by this thought-provoking, deftly written, multilayered novel. Gayle Forman reigns as the queen of breaking hearts with a touch of magic." —Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End
One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.
Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now.
This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther out: Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?
This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
High school senior Amber Crane bikes home from school one spring day per usual—only to learn that she's been dead for seven years. Stranger still, though Amber's family can see, hear, and touch her, they aren't as she remembers them. Complicated emotions temper joy as Amber struggles to confront past mistakes, "become a better person" than she was in life, and understand the ripple effects of her death, such as her mother's loss of faith, her parents' separation, her sister Melissa's coming out as gay, and a beloved aunt's estrangement from the family. Brief, deliberately paced chapters depict Amber's efforts to make amends and make sense of her situation. Glimpses into the lives that her death changed—for better or worse—are interspersed throughout, including her "Meat Puppet" boyfriend, an aspiring photographer, and a lonely English teacher. Riveting plotting by Forman (Not Nothing) culminates in a bittersweet speculative tour de force that probes what it means to live, to lose, and to love. Amber is white; supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up.
