Skip to main content

THE EVERAFTER by Amy Huntley



copyright date: 2009
primarily marketed for: 8th grade and up

I am fascinated by books featuring a character who is already dead (The Lovely Bones, The Afterlife, The Sledding Hill, Everlost, Elsewhere, Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall to name a few of my favorites).  That’s why I picked up this one. 

The Everafter tells the story of the immediate afterlife of Madison Stanton.  Somehow the author is able to explain her version of being suspended in nothingness so that as a read I could almost feel what Madison felt, or rather what she experienced since she is no longer capable of feeling. 

While floating, existing, in the everafter, Madison encounters objects she lost in life.  The objects appear to her in the form of x-ray-like images (like the orchids on the cover).  By touching these objects, she is transported back to certain moments from her life.  As she visits, she experiments to figure out the rules of her new state of being (which is one of the aspects that fascinate me about stories like this) and what the purpose of these visits could be. 

Ultimately, the book is a satisfying story.  The moments from her life that led up to her tragic and untimely death are interesting, but it is really uncovering the story of her death that kept me reading.  The story is surprising, yet not entirely unrealistic.  It is not until I uncovered this story that the rest of the book fit together and I understood why Madison was left to visit those objects. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Linda BJanuary 8, 2012 at 4:28 PM

    I've read the others, but still cannot bring myself to read The Lovely Bones. This book sounds interesting, & I actually loved The Sledding HIll and Elsewhere. Each one seems to be so interested in how the afterlife "is" and closure of the life that is gone. It's curious to me how this topic has emerged in these past years. Thanks for telling about a new one, Christy!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY by Kevin C. Pyle

copyright date: March 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) Despite the fact that the teacher in me sees so many lesson possibilities in Kevin C. Pyle’s graphic novel Take What You Can Carry , you should read it simply for the grace of its stories.   The artwork is as striking as the stories it tells.   Using artwork in two different colors and styles, Pyle tells the stories of two teenage boys living years and miles apart.   And yet, he communicates the universality in their experiences.   One boy is a Japanese American forced to move into an internment camp during WWII.   His family struggles to maintain their dignity and sense of peace under unbearable conditions. The other is a rebellious boy with an attitude whose reckless behavior causes him to wind up in trouble with the law.   To make amends, he finds himself completing community service hours in the most unlikely place.   I found my...
1 comment
Read more

THE SEA IN WINTER by Christine Day

  release date: January 5, 2021 primarily marketed for: Middle grades The Sea in Winter  by Christine Day is a gift to its readers. It is a book of quiet strength with much to offer.  Maisie is a ballet dancer who feels most herself when she is at the dance studio. However, at the start of this story, Maisie is coping with a serious knee injury that prevents her from dancing long-term. She misses her friends from dance and struggles to maintain those connections when she is no longer part of the dancing life they shared.  When her mom and stepdad plan a road trip to the Olympic Peninsula to visit sites of familial and cultural significance, Maisie stubbornly overworks her healing knee. She is determined to heal and return to the studio  faster than expected. Although her knee is the only focus of Maisie's wellness journey, it turns out there is more to healing than physical fitness.  Maisie is a quietly compelling character, but I was surprised to find myse...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE GREATEST SUPERPOWER by Alex Sanchez

copyright date: January 1, 2021 primarily marketed for: middle grades The Greatest Superpower  by Alex Sanchez is a gem. I was in a bit of a reading slump until I picked up this book, thanks to NetGalley .  This middle grades book is about comic book loving Jorge who is navigating his parents' divorce and his first crush on a girl. Jorge's parents not only announce they are getting divorced, but his father also reveals to Jorge and his twin brother Cesar that she is transgender and wishes to live as her true self.  Although this announcement is a confusing surprise to Jorge, his love for his father ultimately trumps all. Cesar, however, is angry at their dad and works to prevent Jorge from sharing the truth with his friends.  In the midst of the changes in Jorge's family life, he and his friends are trying to invent a new superhero for a comic book contest. When Jorge blurts out the idea of the superpower to gender-shift, his friends jump on board.  Conversatio...
Post a Comment
Read more