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

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

THE MISFITS by James Howe

copyright date: 2001 primarily marketed for: grades 4-8 In honor of No Name-Calling Week, the idea for which originated with this book, I thought I would post a review of The Misfits by James Howe.    This book has one of my favorite leads: "So here I am, not a half-hour old as a tie salesman and trying to look like I know what I am doing, which have got to be two of the biggest jokes of all time, when who should walk into Awkworth & Ames Department Store but Skeezie Tookis. " I think I like it because it is such an inviting introduction to Bobby and Skeezie, two of the four friends referred to in the book’s title.   Bobby, Skeezie, Addie, and Joe are seventh graders who decide to create their own political party to run in the student council election.   Their goal is simple: to put an end to name-calling.   Who doesn’t think that is a good idea? The wonderful things about this book aren’t limited to the positive messages about acceptance and k...
5 comments
Read more

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

You knew it was coming.  How could I not share?  EVERYONE MUST READ JOHN GREEN’S LATEST WORK OF ART: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS .  Throughout my life (well, at least from 4 th grade, when I was introduced to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl until now, the 7 th month of my 34 th year of noticing the universe) the name ‘Augustus’ immediately evoked an image of a chubby, stubborn, chocolate-loving boy, doted upon by his mother, with the last name of Gloop.  The name ‘Augustus’ made me giggle about this character’s gluttonous follies inside the chocolate factory. Until reading John Green’s beloved new book The Fault in Our Stars . From now on, the name ‘Augustus’ will forever evoke an entirely different image and an entirely different set of emotions.  A casually hot, lean, limping ‘Augustus Waters’ has forever replaced the ‘Augustus’ of the book I treasured as a child—an unlit cigarette held loosely between his lips.  A longing sigh ...
9 comments
Read more

PLAYGROUND by 50 Cent

I had seen this book all over the place since I attended the NCTE convention in November.  Every time I see it, I am drawn to the cover.  The cover claims that Playground is “The Mostly True Story of a Former Bully.”  However, I was hesitant to buy it because I had little faith that it was quality literature.  Sure, it might be appealing enough for some of you to pick it up and read, but was the story really going to be the kind of message I wanted my students to read?  Was it really based on 50 Cent’s experience?  Would it really send a message about the negative effects of bullying?  Then I came across Crazy Quilt Edi’s book review of the book.  She said after reading she wondered, “Did 50 Cent really write this on his own?”  That was all I needed to know.  Her question told me it must be better than I thought it would be.  And it was. Aside from the gratuitous use of mild swear words and some minor, but noticeable e...
5 comments
Read more