A Book Review | Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Rating: 3/5
Pages:599 

When I picked this book up last month is was simply an impulse buy. I'd never heard anything about it before but I was immediately intrigued by the blurb, it also helped that is was in a buy one get one half price deal. I'd previously read the "Uglies" series by Westerfeld and was intrigued to read something of his that was less dystopian.

This book is split into two stories...literally the chapters alternate between the two. The first chapter and following alternating chapters follows a girl called Darcy who is a YA novelist writing her first book called "Afterworlds. The other half of the chapters are Darcy's story "Afterworlds" and follows the Protagonist Lizzie who has recently escaped death after being involved in a terrorist attack at an airport. 

For the first half of the book I was very conflicted by this writing style and I thought that Westerfeld should of just left "Afterworlds" as the actually story and then bring out a companion book following Darcy as she creates her novel. I felt that in the early chapters following Darcy it almost gave spoilers to "Afterworlds" and it really took a lot to get my head around this writing style. However throughout the book I never saw one story being more interesting that the other, I was equally intrigued into both Darcy's and Lizzie's lives but reflecting on the book I do think I enjoyed Darcy's side a little more as I found the whole publishing experience fascinating to read about.

One feature of the book is that Lizzie's chapters are edged with black therefore just by looking at the spine you can calculate how many chapters are left and for me this is really satisfying 

One plot aspect I found really refreshing was that Darcy developed a relationship with a girl. This was an aspect that I'd never come across before in a YA book or any book for that matter and I was really drawn into their relationship. This aspect made the book extremely current and probably more relatable to a Lesbian/Gay audience.

Overall I gave the book a 3/5 stars, I would of liked to of given it a 4/5 but the ending was somewhat disappointing as it ended on a chapter with Lizzie and from Darcy's chapters we knew it would be left on a cliff hanger as Darcy had a sequel lined up. So yes a few questions  left me wanting more and I would be intrigued to see if Westerfeld creates a sequel for Afterworlds.

Until next time, Sophie.