A review by audreychamaine
Afterlife by Claudia Gray

3.0

Warning: this will contain spoilers for people who have not read to this point in the series. Caution is advised.

Gray’s last book Hourglass ended with Bianca dying and turning into a wraith, and Lucas getting bitten by Charity, thus transforming him into a vampire. Afterlife tells of the aftermath of these two events. Lucas and Bianca must find a way to be together, even though wraiths are poisonous to vampires. Lucas is also finding it very hard to control his new vampire bloodlust. Together, they go back to Evernight Academy, where they try to discover the reason Mrs. Bethany is capturing wraiths.

It’s always nice to wrap up a series, and I’m happy that Gray decided to end Evernight where she did. Some series go on entirely TOO LONG, so thank you Claudia Gray.

The conflict in this book really fit with the rest of the series, except instead of Bianca being a vampire to Lucas’s Black Cross (both a danger to each other), Bianca is a wraith to Lucas’s vampire. All around, these pairings are seemingly impossible, but the characters are determined to find a way to make it work. This is where the bulk of dramatic conflict is created to move the plot forward.

This book also added a lot the the wraith mythology, and gave Mrs. Bethany’s back story, which I think was the highlight of the book for me. It made her a much more complex villain, and the story itself was great reading. It makes me excited to know that Gray will be publishing Balthazar’s story in the future, as well.

I have to say that my favorite book of this series, by far, is book one, Evernight. That had the largest element of surprise to the storytelling, and the most originality. The ending of Afterlife seemed a bit weak, and too happy-Hollywood ending for my tastes, but I am glad that things were resolved and the story came to a definite conclusion.