Reviews - Afterlove | The StoryGraph

2.51k reviews for:

Afterlove

Tanya Byrne

3.98 AVERAGE

omarswife's review against another edition

4.75

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

okay so i cried a little too much

Content Warnings

yelenabelovasgf's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

i can’t stop crying

hustlinfuzz's review against another edition

2.5

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was so promisingly interesting—I'm a sucker for sapphic love stories AND supernatural twists. Unfortunately, it didn't quite land for me.

The pacing felt a little uneven with the plot seeming to stall out a little once Ash died (I don't think this is a spoiler, lmao). Her journey in the afterlife never felt as emotionally gripping or well-developed as her relationship with Poppy, and even their love story, while sweet at times, felt rushed and overly idealized.

The writing itself was poetic in places, but the dialogue occasionally felt forced, and the characters, particularly the supporting cast, didn’t feel fleshed out.

lineafalch's review against another edition

3.0

put of reading it for ~years~ bc i thought it was going to be sad, but I didn’t really get sad at all

rayecharlie's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective

ilxna11's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

baileyfinnn's review against another edition

4.0

3.5/5
I did genuinely enjoy reading this, and I felt that the whirlwind teenage romance, with all their big feelings and intensity, made a lot of sense, and felt realistic. I also loved the diversity that's embedded into the book.

I did however, feel like the worldbuilding was a bit inconsistent? It wasn't entirely clear whether reapers were just in charge of deaths in their geographical area, or of deaths from their own cause of death? Or some combination of both? I think the book would have benefitted from more in depth worldbuilding, since it seemed unsure of its own rules at times.

I also felt like there were a lot of unanswered questions - there was the question of Who/What Deborah was, who was above her, etc, and that never really came to any kind of conclusion.

I did genuinely enjoy the book, but I did feel it was lacking in some regards.