Here we are, after "Afterworlds"

by Jackie E

Scott Westerfeld, well known for some of his other works, attempts to try a unique turn on the YA genre in his book, "Afterworlds". The book follows two story lines, differentiated by the number of the chapters. Odd numbered chapters follow Darcy, the author of "Afterworlds", and how her life changes, for better or worse, after her novel is accepted. We learn that her submitted book was her first ever novel, and it was a very rough first draft she made in no more than the span of a month. The publisher gets back to her a few weeks later, and Darcy is ecstatic to learn that they bought her book, and the rights to the sequels, for all of $100 grand. With the hesitant grace of her parents (and help from her math whiz of a sister), Darcy finds herself moving to New York for rewrites, and to get closer to a community of YA authors, like herself. We see her experience doubts about her book, and herself. What if the love interest of her book was a mistake? What if the subject matter was too much? What if the book was a flop? Was she even a true author? The book was just a month long word vomit, and what if that was all she could write? At the end of it all, we see a girl struggling to find herself in her new life, and are left with the fruits of her hardships.

The even chapters follow the protagonist of Darcy's story, Lizzy. A girl who went through a near-death experience, and can now see ghosts. She was the sole survivor in a plane heist, and survived with the help of a police officer over the phone and a ghost in the 'other side'; a ghost she falls in love with. She attempts to find out more about this new realm, and finds a dark secret her mother never told her. Struggling with living a double life, Lizzy is found caught between keeping her head up in front of her friends and mother, and finding darker and more disturbings sides to the other side.

The premise for "Afterworlds" is ambitious, But it feels like it fell short of what It could of been. The main storyline follows Darcy's strife with improving the novel. While she read about her struggles with changing minor typing quirks and names, to finding out she never truly described how her protagonist looks, and even to major points like finding a new ending to her depressing story, we never see them. We don't get to see her adding in and taking out descriptions, or her changing the writing style to compensate for how much she says the word "veins". We don't get to see her manipulating how she writes the love interest, because there might be something immoral in hindsight to demoting your god into nothing but "YA hotness", or even her changing her novel's ending, despite how much grief she went through over it.  Instead, the stake are lowered as we are left with her final, published draft of "Afterworlds". A constant reassurance that, despite how impossible everything seems, the book works out in the end, and that she met her deadlines. We wouldn't be reading Lizzy's story if she failed.

With everything said and done, would I recommend this story? Would I tell my friend to run to the nearest bookstore and pick themselves up a copy of Scott Westerfeld's "Afterworlds"? Definitely. Despite the book's shortcoming, it's still a great story. It gives a different sight to the world of an author, albeit from a unique point of view, and Overall its written well.