raethereviewer 's review for:

After Life by Gayle Forman

2.5

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

---

I loved If I Stay and Where She Went as a teenager but this book missed the mark on so many levels. The religious overtones were so repetitive. The author’s note claims that she was inspired by how different cultures experience grief and that point could’ve been made a lot better if we actually saw the grief of the two Black characters instead of them being plot devices. Half the town seems to go to the same (possibly homophobic) church. The one time we hear about Aboriginal grief practices is a few lines in the last quarter of the novel and it made me realize how much of a better book that would have been. There were several points that did pull at my heartstrings but other portions that made me want to pluck my hair out.