LitPick Review
Afterlife is a truthful story. It tells the truth about hurt feelings; how Bianca dies and rises again as a ghost; and of Lucas, a former vampire slayer. Bianca and her true love, Lucas promise each other that they would be together forever and that no forces could tear them apart. But when Lucas is murdered by a vampire to protect Bianca, Bianca must make the choice of the century: end Lucas forever beyond death, or grant him immortality as the one thing he spent his entire life hunting and killing - a vampire. Bianca is torn at the prospect of continuing without Lucas and transforms him into a vampire. Being a former Black Cross vampire killing gang member, many vampires loathe him. Lucas' own mother tries to kill him because of what he's become. Lucas' internal conflict and self-loathing doesn't help his transition to becoming a vampire and drinking human blood. He feels as though he's become a monster that feeds on humans.
Opinion:
Afterlife by Claudia Gray is a tragic, dramatic and gripping fantasy/ romance. The story begins as a puzzle and ends with the reader having a sense of achievement and understanding of characters feelings, such as Lucas internal conflict. The book also has a plot that makes the characters and setting feel alive. It had a very realistic feeling and had a depressing, gloomy air to it. There are times of reconciliation and redemption throughout the story and, except with Bianca and her father, all scenes of reconciliation and redemption seem forced or sad and slightly wrong. Usually reconciliation and the chance to set things right would be the better part of a story, but that's not what happens here. Overall, I liked this book, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting.
