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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Confusing setup at first, then the book drew me in. I'm still thinking about it days later.
Without realising it, I have been waiting for a book to come into my life and completely blow me away. Afterlife was this book for me. I had no preconceptions going into it, didn’t re-read the blurb, didn’t Google it, I just dove right in. And I was greatly rewarded once I started.
Afterlife is a stunning read. There is a reason Ron Howard is making this into a movie! It is utterly captivating. Spanning decades and moving between life and death, it is an epic tale of survival and the lengths to which one will go to exist. It is also a sweeping love story, by accident or design I don’t know, but it really got to me.
Will Brody is an FBI agent, and the last thing he remembers is an explosion. Everything is abandoned, the sky is empty and the city of Chicago is still. When he sees people, he is relieved until he realises they have weapons and he is in big trouble. Apparently that’s the afterlife for you!
Head of an FBI task force Claire McCoy is left standing over the ruined body of her former agent. Killed in the line of duty, Brody was trying to protect Chicago from a sniper who has taken the lives of eighteen people. What McCoy’s agents don’t know is that she and Will were in love.
Separated in death, all that matters to Will and Claire is each other. Spanning different worlds, Afterlife is a truly genre-bending novel packed with suspense, murder, life and death. I got lost in this book. The plight of the main characters consumed me while I was reading it. I didn’t want the book to end to be honest. I became so thoroughly invested in the fates of these characters that I couldn’t think of anything else, even when I wasn’t reading it. In fact, I am weeks out from reading it, and I still think about it on a daily basis.
Afterlife addresses the age old question of whether or not there is life after death. What I loved about this book was the battles that were fought before death and beyond. Even in death, the author has created a war. But it is a war unlike any other.
I’m afraid to say any more, but only because I want readers to discover the stellar writing for themselves. I can only speak for myself. For me, Afterlife is one of the best books I’ve had the opportunity to read in quite a while. An excellent, and so very different plot, with a cast of brilliantly-drawn characters made this book a complete winner for me.
Afterlife is an absolutely outstanding book! Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It is compelling and beautiful, yet so dark at the same time. It is a mix of crime/dystopian fiction and a love story unlike any other, spanning years and worlds, with a very different antagonist. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It caught me unawares and I will be thinking about it for a long time!
All the stars for this one.
Highly, highly recommended!
Afterlife is a stunning read. There is a reason Ron Howard is making this into a movie! It is utterly captivating. Spanning decades and moving between life and death, it is an epic tale of survival and the lengths to which one will go to exist. It is also a sweeping love story, by accident or design I don’t know, but it really got to me.
Will Brody is an FBI agent, and the last thing he remembers is an explosion. Everything is abandoned, the sky is empty and the city of Chicago is still. When he sees people, he is relieved until he realises they have weapons and he is in big trouble. Apparently that’s the afterlife for you!
Head of an FBI task force Claire McCoy is left standing over the ruined body of her former agent. Killed in the line of duty, Brody was trying to protect Chicago from a sniper who has taken the lives of eighteen people. What McCoy’s agents don’t know is that she and Will were in love.
Separated in death, all that matters to Will and Claire is each other. Spanning different worlds, Afterlife is a truly genre-bending novel packed with suspense, murder, life and death. I got lost in this book. The plight of the main characters consumed me while I was reading it. I didn’t want the book to end to be honest. I became so thoroughly invested in the fates of these characters that I couldn’t think of anything else, even when I wasn’t reading it. In fact, I am weeks out from reading it, and I still think about it on a daily basis.
Afterlife addresses the age old question of whether or not there is life after death. What I loved about this book was the battles that were fought before death and beyond. Even in death, the author has created a war. But it is a war unlike any other.
I’m afraid to say any more, but only because I want readers to discover the stellar writing for themselves. I can only speak for myself. For me, Afterlife is one of the best books I’ve had the opportunity to read in quite a while. An excellent, and so very different plot, with a cast of brilliantly-drawn characters made this book a complete winner for me.
Afterlife is an absolutely outstanding book! Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. It is compelling and beautiful, yet so dark at the same time. It is a mix of crime/dystopian fiction and a love story unlike any other, spanning years and worlds, with a very different antagonist. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It caught me unawares and I will be thinking about it for a long time!
All the stars for this one.
Highly, highly recommended!
I've previously read some of Marcus Sakey's work, and while I enjoyed some of it, I wouldn't have willingly picked up Afterlife had the publicist not specifically asked me to. My expectations going into Afterlife were not high, but I figured I'd slog through it if necessary.
It wasn't.
Afterlife raises the bar on what I expect from Marcus Sakey a whole lot higher than it previously was. I had no idea the man was capable of pulling off something like this.
This is one of those books that immediately put me in my happy spot. The hint of romance, the parallel world (for lack of a better term), the new take on life after death. The battle of good versus evil. Afterlife is wonderfully imaginative, deliciously dark, and almost perfectly written.
Claire and Will are a great pair of characters. Too good to be true, of course, but sometimes we need perfect heroes in a story like this. I liked that the author had no problem making Claire the smarter one of the two of them. I loved reading the easy acceptance that Will had of her mental superiority. He loved her and never resented her abilities. And while she had no problem pointing out the flaws in his thinking, she never set out to make him feel like an idiot. (Like I said: too good to be true.) And even though they're both strong separately, together they're so much more. And that's how it should be.
The dialogue was believable. The action was perfectly paced. The way Sakey describes the other world is simple, yet effective. It feels like it really would translate very, very well to screen. Which means, naturally, that I can't watch it in a theater. Because I'll be yelling at the screen for them not getting it right.
Pretty much the only critiques I have of Afterlife are little things. Like every time the villain appeared on screen, he was introduced by his 'razor sharp cheekbones'. By halfway through, I was beginning to imagine if the man was made flesh, he could get a job being a real life Fruit Ninja with the power of his cheekbones alone.
Overall, Afterlife was a solid, entertaining read that I would definitely recommend!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.
It wasn't.
Afterlife raises the bar on what I expect from Marcus Sakey a whole lot higher than it previously was. I had no idea the man was capable of pulling off something like this.
This is one of those books that immediately put me in my happy spot. The hint of romance, the parallel world (for lack of a better term), the new take on life after death. The battle of good versus evil. Afterlife is wonderfully imaginative, deliciously dark, and almost perfectly written.
Claire and Will are a great pair of characters. Too good to be true, of course, but sometimes we need perfect heroes in a story like this. I liked that the author had no problem making Claire the smarter one of the two of them. I loved reading the easy acceptance that Will had of her mental superiority. He loved her and never resented her abilities. And while she had no problem pointing out the flaws in his thinking, she never set out to make him feel like an idiot. (Like I said: too good to be true.) And even though they're both strong separately, together they're so much more. And that's how it should be.
The dialogue was believable. The action was perfectly paced. The way Sakey describes the other world is simple, yet effective. It feels like it really would translate very, very well to screen. Which means, naturally, that I can't watch it in a theater. Because I'll be yelling at the screen for them not getting it right.
Pretty much the only critiques I have of Afterlife are little things. Like every time the villain appeared on screen, he was introduced by his 'razor sharp cheekbones'. By halfway through, I was beginning to imagine if the man was made flesh, he could get a job being a real life Fruit Ninja with the power of his cheekbones alone.
Overall, Afterlife was a solid, entertaining read that I would definitely recommend!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.
This book was well-written and quick-paced, with very clear, if not terribly sophisticated, characterization. I can easily see how this would be a great way for a reader who typically only goes for thrillers to try out fantasy without wandering too far from what they know and love.
The characters were sort of curt and one-dimensional in how they viewed themselves and others, and the overarching plot dealt with a "source" of evil which was overly simplified. I'm not a fan of many action-thriller stories specifically because they trade in moral shorthand more than thematic complexity, but I don't think this is any worse than most other books in that genre.
The blend of action-thriller and paranormal fantasy was an interesting choice that I'm still not sure how I feel about. It simultaneously feels too strange to work but then also doesn't try to do anything too complex to make it truly jarring, and I think the author's grasp of pacing really did wonders for blending the two.
Ultimately, I don't feel that the book was incredibly interesting or that I'd recommend it to people without knowing this is the kind of thing they'd like, but it was consistent, knew what it was trying to do, and achieved that. I still have a distinct sense of the author's characters and writing style even after it's been a while since I've read it, so I'm able to recognize it could work on several levels, even if it's not for me.
The characters were sort of curt and one-dimensional in how they viewed themselves and others, and the overarching plot dealt with a "source" of evil which was overly simplified. I'm not a fan of many action-thriller stories specifically because they trade in moral shorthand more than thematic complexity, but I don't think this is any worse than most other books in that genre.
The blend of action-thriller and paranormal fantasy was an interesting choice that I'm still not sure how I feel about. It simultaneously feels too strange to work but then also doesn't try to do anything too complex to make it truly jarring, and I think the author's grasp of pacing really did wonders for blending the two.
Ultimately, I don't feel that the book was incredibly interesting or that I'd recommend it to people without knowing this is the kind of thing they'd like, but it was consistent, knew what it was trying to do, and achieved that. I still have a distinct sense of the author's characters and writing style even after it's been a while since I've read it, so I'm able to recognize it could work on several levels, even if it's not for me.
Received from NetGalley for my honest review
Completed 3/26/18
320 page ebook
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, as it starts in one direction (not part of the blurb) and I was like "huh?" but then it goes into the heart of the story and it gets good. Then, the beginning starts to come around and it all gets brought together and it was very good and interesting.
I definitely liked Brody, Claire and their connection. It was an interesting concept and done really well as well. The afterlife is a neat place, not what I was expecting for the most part. It was an intriguing setting, one that you think about for quite a while.
Definitely recommended for Fantasy fans, fans of Sakey and people who like things not so cookie cutter as a lot of books out there. This one stands out and is memorable.
Setting = A
Plot = A
Conflict = A
Characters = A
Theme = A
Completed 3/26/18
320 page ebook
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, as it starts in one direction (not part of the blurb) and I was like "huh?" but then it goes into the heart of the story and it gets good. Then, the beginning starts to come around and it all gets brought together and it was very good and interesting.
I definitely liked Brody, Claire and their connection. It was an interesting concept and done really well as well. The afterlife is a neat place, not what I was expecting for the most part. It was an intriguing setting, one that you think about for quite a while.
Definitely recommended for Fantasy fans, fans of Sakey and people who like things not so cookie cutter as a lot of books out there. This one stands out and is memorable.
Setting = A
Plot = A
Conflict = A
Characters = A
Theme = A