Afterlife

Dec 07, 2012 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Afterlife is the kind of book that makes you sign up to a website specifically to write your first review. Now to my mind only two breeds of book implore such a response from its reader, those of exceptionally poor quality and those which draw you in so completely that for a few brief pages your lost in another world beyond and yet entwined completely with your own.

I’m extremely happy to report that Afterlife, the first book by Naomi Clark I’ve read, falls squarely into the second category. Just...more Afterlife is the kind of book that makes you sign up to a website specifically to write your first review. Now to my mind only two breeds of book implore such a response from its reader, those of exceptionally poor quality and those which draw you in so completely that for a few brief pages your lost in another world beyond and yet entwined completely with your own.

I’m extremely happy to report that Afterlife, the first book by Naomi Clark I’ve read, falls squarely into the second category. Just how good is it I hear you ask? Well allow me to demonstrate...

I’m lazy, exceptionally so - Especially when it comes to reading fiction. Oh I love a good read don’t get me wrong but I somehow never find the time or hunger to dig my folk into a tasty tomb and nibble upon it’s oh so yummy juices. Not so here.

A few hours into this fabulous story I pulled myself away from my screen, it was late, very late and with work awaiting me in the morning I knew that I would be lost without my direct feed into Shoregrave (our tales fantastic setting). So, I sprung into action – turning my pdf into a text file, removing all awkward formation which may occur as a result, downloading a text to speech program and converting the entire work into an mp3 (a process which left my computer whirring away while is lank off to bed, dreaming of vampires and the pale world beyond the mortal realm).

I awoke, immediately rushed to my computer and uploaded my newly constructed mp3 and the original pdf to my smart device. The rest of my day (in fact the next 2 and a half days) were spent shifting between the tale in these two formats. Listening when I couldn’t read and reading when i had the opportunity to enjoy the written word.

I became an Afterlife addict, utterly intoxicated by Yasmin’s tale and the host of other wonderful characters sharing the pages with her. The ease at which the story reads is wonderful, delivering you steady shots of literary adrenalin that press you onward to read “just one more page.”

If I had to raise fault with the work I would say that the second to last 5th of the story jumps around a little more than I would have liked. Having long worked out the way the story was going to go (which was enjoyably foreboding) this particular section felt a little over drawn. This however never diminished the truly fantastic setting of Shoregrave or the incredibly well thought out ecology of the undead world (a truly interesting re-mix of the old tired formulas).

I’ve now departed Shoregrave, leaving it with a sorrowful farewell as i decend once more to the mundane realities of the real world... and yet a little piece lingers on within me, a magical excitement and fear which amidst my many day dreams merges our reality with that of the pale world and sparks the thoughts of adventure!(less)

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Oct 04, 2011 Liz at Fictional Candy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

First, let me just say that I really enjoyed this book. I felt I really got to know the characters, the town, everything in it.

In this story we meet Yasmin Stoker, a 600 year old wraith – a soul thief. But she isn’t the “bad” kind of wraith that ghosts should fear, but rather a wraith with a sort of conscience. She only feeds on the souls of Revenants, newly made vampires. Yasmin lives in the coastal town of Shoregrave, which inhabited by many paranormal beings: a wraith, Revenants, Lich Lords,...more First, let me just say that I really enjoyed this book. I felt I really got to know the characters, the town, everything in it.

In this story we meet Yasmin Stoker, a 600 year old wraith – a soul thief. But she isn’t the “bad” kind of wraith that ghosts should fear, but rather a wraith with a sort of conscience. She only feeds on the souls of Revenants, newly made vampires. Yasmin lives in the coastal town of Shoregrave, which inhabited by many paranormal beings: a wraith, Revenants, Lich Lords, cambion (half breeds), ghouls, and of course, ghosts.

One night, on one of her feeding hunts, she comes across a little girl who basically pulls a mortal man through an iron fence and into the ground, never to be heard from again. Who is this girl? How does she do this? And why isn’t anyone doing anything?? Yasmin decides she needs to get to the bottom of this and accidently enlists the help of many people along the way. She finds heroes and friends where she thought there were none. She trusts the wrong people, and she helps those who truly deserve some help.

Yasmin works for Nicomedes, a Lich Lord – a very power paranormal being. He is described as tall and skinny, with very white skin, and long white hair. And his eyeballs have been removed and eyelids sewn shut. Now of course, I can’t tell you why. But the way Naomi Clark describes him… well, to me, he may be evil and scary and a “bad” guy, but he sounds beautiful. Ethereally, painfully, scarily beautiful. In fact, there is a scene with Nicomedes and Lucretia (another Lich Lord) when they are in the Pale World (the plane between here and the Netherworld) that just seems so eerily beautiful and terrifying, I would love to see an artist’s rendering, to see if they saw what I saw.

I’m not sure what country this book takes place in, but to me it has the feel of Ireland, or UK, or Scotland. Not that I’ve been to any of these places, mind you. But the descriptions to me, seem vivid. Spots that were very traditional and old world styled, with areas of modernism. There were gallows and modern clubs with fetish shows.

Something I found interesting and looked forward to at the beginning of each chapter was that there was a blurb. Sometimes it would be an advertisement from a tour book, or an excerpt from a book written by a psychic. But it was a bit of foreshadowing and entertaining, too.

I hope this is a book destined to be turned into a series. I would love to see what happens next, how everything turns out for everyone. I like the characters, and I will be a bit sad if this is all we get to hear from them! I do see on her website there is a kind of prequel type of short story for one of the characters, Ethan Banning, so I will be sure to check that out.

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Oct 28, 2010 Chibineko rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was a little nervous about reviewing this at first. After all, I know the author & I was worried: what if I didn't like it? What type of review would I write then? Luckily for me, this is a solidly awesome read.

Yasmin isn't your average girl. She might look like one, but in reality she's a wraith. That means that in order to survive, she has to eat souls. Yasmin is a wraith with a concience, so she tries to stick to revenants- dark souls that have returned from the afterlife, causing them...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Kara-karina rated it 4 of 5 stars

3.5/5
Actually, this is a very decent urban fantasy which reminded me of La Vida Vampire by Nancy Haddock.

Yasmin is a wraith who likes her peace and quiet, she is a bit antisocial actually and keeps a low profile which is a necessity in all her 600 years of living. She does ghost tours around Shoregrave so she won't get bored, has a buddy succubus and does a bidding of a crazy Lich Lord, an immortal unhinged necromancer.

She's got her routine of sucking the souls out of Revenants to keep her energ...more

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May 10, 2012 Ally rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, ghost-stories

(From my blog, Word Vagabond: Supporting Independent and Small Press Authors.)

Yasmin Stoker leads ghost tours for tourists; a pretty steady business in Shoregrave, the murder capital of the country. She’s also a wraith who eats the souls of newly-risen vampires for dinner and helps the local Lich Lord Nicomedes- whether she likes it or not- keep the Pale World in its place. Her life is complicated enough.

Now there’s a new kind of demon on the scene, capturing young men and carrying them to the N...more (From my blog, Word Vagabond: Supporting Independent and Small Press Authors.)

Yasmin Stoker leads ghost tours for tourists; a pretty steady business in Shoregrave, the murder capital of the country. She’s also a wraith who eats the souls of newly-risen vampires for dinner and helps the local Lich Lord Nicomedes- whether she likes it or not- keep the Pale World in its place. Her life is complicated enough.

Now there’s a new kind of demon on the scene, capturing young men and carrying them to the Netherworld. Nicomedes orders her to ignore it and focus on keeping clueless human P.I. Ethan Banning, who is following a string of child murders, from finding out about the Pale World. But the demon isn’t stopping, and neither is Ethan. Can Yasmin carry out her orders without getting caught in the crossfire?

The first and most obvious thing to love about this book is its atmosphere. Clark is a skilled designer of creepy settings, and Shoregrave wears it well. The characters do too- her description of Nicomedes is perhaps the most vivid and disturbing of the book, rivaled only by that of the demon she hopes to stop. The only problem with this is that it makes one of the primary villains of the book seem like an afterthought. Compared to the supernatural characters, the humans in Afterlife seem like cardboard cutouts- apart from Ethan, who couldn’t be anything less than his own messed-up self.

Perhaps that’s rather the point, though. This book is really about the struggles of the supernatural world, and even though the main characters live with mortals, their connections to them are tenuous and problematic at best. (Fans of the U.K. series Being Human will find this theme easy to relate to.) In contrast, the relationships between the immortals, romantic and otherwise, are complex and well-built. Even the trivial scenes between them are vivid; one of the most poignant interactions takes place between Yasmin and a pair of little-girl ghosts on her tour route.

There are a few problems with this otherwise fabulous book: Clark leaves what seems like an important plot point (the significance of the Lich Lords’ human “pets”) completely unresolved. It’s possible this will figure in a sequel, but it’s given such a sense of urgency by the Lich Lord Lucretia that I was surprised when it was never mentioned again. Also, the proofreading is much sloppier than I would expect from an established small press. This book deserved more attention from its publisher.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to fans of urban or dark fantasy. Clark is an amazing writer, and this book is a great introduction to her work- and to Ethan!(less)

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Jan 17, 2010 Mandi Schreiner rated it 2 of 5 stars

Yasmin Stoker is a six hundred year old wraith, a creature, who can turn into mist, who is poised between life and death. She feeds on the souls of revenants, those vampires who are evil and cursed. She chooses not to destroy mortal human souls, and lives a more peaceful life. She is a tour guide in Shoregrave, taking tourists to the most haunted places. The dwellings they visit are in fact haunted by ghosts, but the tourists may see a shadow or hear a funny noise and nothing more.

While out hunt...more Yasmin Stoker is a six hundred year old wraith, a creature, who can turn into mist, who is poised between life and death. She feeds on the souls of revenants, those vampires who are evil and cursed. She chooses not to destroy mortal human souls, and lives a more peaceful life. She is a tour guide in Shoregrave, taking tourists to the most haunted places. The dwellings they visit are in fact haunted by ghosts, but the tourists may see a shadow or hear a funny noise and nothing more.

While out hunting her latest revenant soul, she witnesses a horrific scene, one in her six hundred years of existence she has never seen. A young girl, lures a teenager over to her by pretending to be lost. Once she has a overtly strong grip on him, she literally drags him underground, along with herself. Yasmin is stumped and terrified. Hidden underground is the Pale World, where evil creatures lived. Yasmin felt no portal open, so she is confused as to exactly the girl and her victim went.

One person who might have answers is the Lich Lord, Nicomedes. A viscous, cruel man, one that Yasmin must tread lightly around. He won’t give immediate answers but he does have a task for Yasmin – Ethan, a private investigator coming into town to investigate deaths of several missing teenage girls and a girl that went missing from Shoregrave a few weeks ago. Nicomedes is afraid the Ethan is getting too close to the afterlife beings, and wants Yasmin to take care of him.

Yasmin is not happy to take his life, but she is more frightened of Nicomedes to go against his wishes. Yet, everything changes after she meets with Ethan and finds out exactly what girl he is looking for. Yasmin needs him to help solve the mystery, and as more kids go missing, the race to solve

I first read Naomi Clark in the Queer Wolf anthology. Her short story, Wolf Strap, is one of my favorites in the collection and I was excited to try something else by her. Unfortunately, Afterlife fell flat for me. I never felt a real connection to any of the characters, more they were just walking through the motions. Yasmin is a likable heroine, but missing any wit or spunk. After Ethan is introduced, some banter starts and his character grabbed me a little more. The mystery moved at a slow pace and I could not get caught up in it. There is a romance, which is written nicely and sweet , however, overall I could not find anything that really grabbed my attention.

Naomi Clark’s Wolf Strap story impressed me enough to try her again, and hopefully with a better outcome.

Rating: 2.5/5(less)

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Nov 24, 2011 Roberta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, urban-fantasy, fantasmi

I won the e-book of this novel in a giveaway hosted at bastardbooks.blogspot.com

Afterlife is a dark urban fantasy.

The world in which is set has three levels: the mortal world, the Pale world and the Netherworld. Daemons live in the Netherworld and only some of them reach the mortal world. The Pale one instead is the natural place for ghosts and undead creatures. And they are the main characters of the novel.

Yasmine is a wraith, an undead creature that can turn into mist and feed on souls. She ea...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-from-author-for-review, e-book-edition-for-review, read-in-2011

Book Synopsis

Yasmin Stoker is a ghost tour guide who spends her days showing tourists around Shoregrave’s haunted hotspots. She also happens to be a wraith who spends her nights hunting Revenants, newly-risen flesh-eating vampires. On one of her regular hunts, she witnesses a mysterious ghostly girl pulling the body of a teenage boy underground. Who and what is this girl, and why is she attacking men around the city? Yasmin investigates, but it quickly becomes clear that somebody wants to keep...more

Book Synopsis

Yasmin Stoker is a ghost tour guide who spends her days showing tourists around Shoregrave’s haunted hotspots. She also happens to be a wraith who spends her nights hunting Revenants, newly-risen flesh-eating vampires. On one of her regular hunts, she witnesses a mysterious ghostly girl pulling the body of a teenage boy underground. Who and what is this girl, and why is she attacking men around the city? Yasmin investigates, but it quickly becomes clear that somebody wants to keep her from finding the killer and they’ll do anything–including ambushing her with ghouls and cacodaemons–to stop her.

With only a persistent private eye and a taciturn vampire (one of the Immaculate, no less) to help her, Yasmin must deal with fanatical necromancers, crazed ghosts, and a sexy history teacher in her quest to solve the mystery. And along the way she uncovers some heartbreaking truths about her own existence.

My Thoughts

There are several threads and story lines running throughout the book, sometimes that is confusing to the reader and at others it makes perfect sense. The mysteries surrounding the brutally murdered children are over time explained, the identity of their murderer comes to light near the very end but in reading the clues given along the way if you pay attention does not come as a surprise to the reader. At least it did not to me as I strongly suspected who it was about halfway in or less. There is a good buildup to a follow-up to this book. The characters are well thought out and easy to connect to, the plot is paced well and the stories that intertwine are connected in such a way that by the end of the book they make perfect sense one to another. I thought that there could have been a little less use of some of the information given out of place at the beginning of each chapter as it was slightly distracting, after finishing the whole book though even that made sense to me and not sure how it could have been implemented differently as if it were left out completely the tale would not have been whole without it's addition. Not sure if this will be a stand alone or not but there is room for it to become a series if the author is so inclined with the way it ended.

[ecopy of book received from author in exchange for an honest review](less)

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Feb 21, 2013 Matt Schiariti rated it 5 of 5 stars

By day, Yasmin Stoker is a tour guide leading tourists and locals through Shoregrave's haunted history. By night, she's a wraith, feeding off of newly formed vampire Revenants. She harbors a primal hatred for the creatures of the night who feed on humans and has no problem sending them to their true death. But, one night on normal hunt she encounters a spectral girl, pulling an innocent kid down into the depths. The girl is unlike anything Yasmin's seen in her 600 years roaming the earth. Who is...more By day, Yasmin Stoker is a tour guide leading tourists and locals through Shoregrave's haunted history. By night, she's a wraith, feeding off of newly formed vampire Revenants. She harbors a primal hatred for the creatures of the night who feed on humans and has no problem sending them to their true death. But, one night on normal hunt she encounters a spectral girl, pulling an innocent kid down into the depths. The girl is unlike anything Yasmin's seen in her 600 years roaming the earth. Who is this vicious apparition and why is she attacking men around the city? Determined to get to the bottom of it, Yasmin will find herself entrenched in hidden opposition, ghoul attacks, the whimsies of psychotic Lich Lords, and the unthinkable: possibly falling in love with a sexy human history teacher. Maybe having help from a brash and tenacious private detective and a mysterious Immaculate vampire will even the odds? Or maybe not. Then there are those dreams she's been having...Things aren't looking up for Yasmin, and they'll only get worse before they get better.

These days, when you think of Urban Fantasy, your mind will probably conjure up things like forbidden love between the mysteriously haunted vampire with flowing hair and rippling six packs, and the hapless human girl that just can't get enough of them. Or werewolves. Or female protagonists who hunt vampires with stakes and guns and all manner of swords and fall in love with the monsters even though she's sworn to kill every last one of them. Afterlife kicks these sometimes overused formulas to the curb and offers something completely different. Clark deviates from the norm by giving the reader a different kind of supernatural to weave the tale for us: a wraith. A soul devouring, mist-forming, near immortal who can appear to be human one second, then disappear into the 'Pale World' the next. It was a breath of fresh air to read something different in a genre dominated by witches and werewolves and vamp hunters with big guns. Afterlife breaths into live an interesting protagonist who, oddly enough, has very human worries while having very inhuman abilities. Clark also deviates from typical vampire lore, lending a new creativity and imagination to a popular urban fantasy staple that can easily grow tiresome quickly.

Yasmin aside, the supporting cast is also well conceived and written. From a half human-half demon succubi besty, to a private eye with a potty mouth who drinks and smokes too much, to psychotic and nefarious Lich Lords, ghouls, ghosts, and dangerously powerful vampires, each character speaks in their own voice. Each one has their own compelling motivations. The dialogue snaps and the characterizations of every player in the book is spot on.

Clark's style is fluid, descriptive without being bogged down in useless details, and very atmospheric. You can feel the fog rolling into Shoregrave (which is almost a character unto itself), you experience what Yasmin feels as she takes people through a haunted hot spot or turns into mist and travels the Pale World. Seriously, this is one VERY well written book.

As far as the plot, it's part UF and part mystery, with some action, a smidge of horror, and just enough comic relief and romance thrown in. The plot is tight with no glaring holes or bugs. I won't say that there were many big surprises here, though. While there are several reveals, red herrings, etc, I wasn't shocked when all was made known or the way things resolved themselves. BUT, that's ok. It took nothing away from the story, which is engaging, well told, and a blast to read. Sometimes the journey is ALL the fun and this book is flat out fun.

So, will we be invited back to Shoregrave? I sure hope so. I'd like to see what Yasmin has to deal with next and what other fun and imaginative ideas Naomi Clark has up her literary sleeves.

Well done and one of the better Urban Fantasies I've read in a long time. (less)

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Oct 17, 2011 Bastard rated it 3 of 5 stars

http://bastardbooks.blogspot.com/2011...

Welcome to Shoregrave, murder capital of the country.Afterlifebrings us to a city wherebelievingin ghosts is second nature, and if you ever claim to have seen one people won't think you're crazy. This is Naomi Clark's first published novel, and first in the Shoregraveseries. Since it came out in 2009, I've had my eye on it mainly because I really like the cover. Something about the purple with black works for me, and dig the ghost effects. I pretty much fo...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Renee (ren213) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: uf

I wasn't crazy about this book. I couldn't really care about the characters and there was nothing really special about the heroine. There was a weird sex scene thrown in, and if you know anything about my reading habits you know that I'm not usually one to complain about a sex scene. It was just that IMO the scene was pretty blah. I didn't think the book was awful it just wasn't for me.

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Sep 05, 2012 Gary Olson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yasmin Stoker, a ghost tour guide who also happens to be a 600-year old wraith who feeds on the souls of revenants, sees a man get pulled into the netherworld by a ghost. Soon, she’s both investigating the incident and trying to deflect someone else in their investigation, while the complications pile up. Afterlife serves up a potent urban fantasy story that weaves plots and subplots without ever getting tangled up. P.I. Ethan Banning, a secondary character in this one, steals just about every s...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Annabel rated it 5 of 5 stars

you can find my review on my blog:

http://mybookaddiction.blogspot.com/2...

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Dec 21, 2010 Tara (box5angel) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy-or-paranormal-romance

******************Review To Come Soon***********************

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May 16, 2013 Christina added it · review of another edition

May 15, 2013 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 29, 2013 Meagan marked it as to-read

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Nov 15, 2012 Natalia Lena marked it as to-read

Nov 07, 2012 Pragya marked it as to-read

Aug 30, 2012 Christina Wilder marked it as to-read

Shelves: horror

Jun 06, 2012 Dawn marked it as to-read

Apr 22, 2012 Harriet Holmes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: female-author, urban-fantasy, read-in-one-sitting

Apr 16, 2012 John marked it as to-read

Apr 22, 2012 Nathaniel Connors rated it 5 of 5 stars

Feb 24, 2012 Lex marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-unread

Jan 19, 2012 Kristin marked it as to-read

Nov 28, 2011 Amanda added it · review of another edition

Nov 27, 2011 Cally Beck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oct 30, 2011 Linda D. marked it as to-read

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