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Afterworlds

(Afterworlds #1)

Scott Westerfeld (Goodreads Author)

3.73 · Rating details · 18,618 ratings · 3,029 reviews

BELIEVING IS DANGEROUS...

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it's really happening - her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she's living in New York City, where she's welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favorite authors, and finding a place to live that won't leave her ...more

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Hardcover, 599 pages

Published September 23rd 2014 by Simon Pulse

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Average rating 3.73 ·

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· 18,618 ratings · 3,029 reviews

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May 09, 2014 Jenn (One of Many, We are Legion) rated it really liked it

Shelves: giveaway-entries, young-adult-and-new-adult, paranormal-and-supernatural, reviewed, realistic-fiction-or-contemporary, quirky, edelweiss, 2014, reviews-to-transfer, humor

So, I kinda loved this book, its intelligence, its meta-awareness, and the way a lovely coming-of-age story is packaged inside a clever satire-bordering-on-love-story to the YA publishing world. It must be said that I love satire, even when it's subdued, because that love colors my entire opinion of this book.

As such, Im baffled by the somewhat low reviews on this one. I could be completely off-base, and maybe I am seeing what I want to see because I want an excuse for liking this book as much ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 Kat Heckenbach rated it it was ok

I'm going to start this out with a plea that someone please tell me this book is a parody. It *must* be. Because I am a huge fan of Scott Westerfeld's writing, have been for years, and this book makes me want to cry :(.

It is a dual story line. The main character, Darcy, is an 18 yr old, just graduated from high school girl who had written a novel in a month, in November of course, not that NaNoWriMo is specifically mentioned, but any writer can put two and two together. She sent off her draft to ...more

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Aug 20, 2014 Wendy Darling rated it really liked it

Shelves: realistic-fiction, young-adult, lgbtqi, male-ya-author, own-dtb-tbr, poc, to-review, action-packed, ss, pn-reapers

3.5 stars I really enjoyed reading this. Despite its 600 pages, both Darcy's and Lizzie's alternating narratives flew by, and I enjoyed perching on the young debut author's shoulder as she navigates the writing and publishing world. The author's humorous, razor-sharp observations of YA culture are fascinating and feel familiar to anyone who's on Twitter, attended industry events, or even been present at business gatherings where there's frantic ennui and kindly condescension in the ranks, though ...more

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Mar 21, 2014 Brigid ✩ rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs, ghosts, mythology, young-adult, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal

After reading:

It like physically pains me to say this, but ... I found this book disappointing. Look ... I love love love Scott Westerfeld. Like, so much. He's one of my favorite authors in the world and I recommend his books to people constantly. I love Uglies and Midnighters and goodness gracious I adore the Leviathan books and couldn't wait to see what Scott Westerfeld would do next. So naturally, I was excited for this book and I was ecstatic to receive an ARCbut honestly, it didn't live up ...more

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May 07, 2015 Darth J rated it liked it

Darcy is a YA novelist, fresh out of high school and deferring college (indefinitely?) because she sold her first novel to a publisher within a few weeks of sending a query. So this is clearly a work of fiction.

I didnt care much for her book, with the premise being a girl who can see ghosts and falls in love with a Hindu death god. The passages where we see chapters from the book are dull, to be honest but I can see how they would have sold big in the book market (at least the way it was a few ...more

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Jun 17, 2014 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: youngadult, fantasy, contemporary

This is a big, fascinating, ambitious book, and if anyone could pull something like this off you'd think it would be Westerfeld. But . . . I was really a little shocked at the things that just didn't work for me. I wondered if it was just me, but a quick scan of other readers shows similar reactions.

So, back up, let me explain.

This is not one book, it's two.

The odd-numbered chapters are about a girl named Darcy Patel who wrote a book for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is This is a big, fascinating, ambitious book, and if anyone could pull something like this off you'd think it would be Westerfeld. But . . . I was really a little shocked at the things that just didn't work for me. I wondered if it was just me, but a quick scan of other readers shows similar reactions.

So, back up, let me explain.

This is not one book, it's two.

The odd-numbered chapters are about a girl named Darcy Patel who wrote a book for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is November, if you aren't in the know), actually sold it, and uses her advance money to move to New York and be an author. The even-numbered chapters are bordered in black and are Darcy's novel, which is about a girl named Lizzie who has a near-death experience and can now see the dead. So, pretty cool, right? And the novel-in-the-novel (entitled Afterworlds, of all things) is at times very creepy, and there is a hot romance, and it actually could have stood alone as a book.

But I almost wish it hadn't. Part of Darcy's story is that she's dealing with working with an editor for the first time. Freaking out over changes suggested to her ending, worrying that she's used the word "veins" too many times, that she's commandeered parts of her parents' Hindu faith for the sake of hot YA romance. I kept waiting to see changes to Afterworlds, like a character suddenly having an accent, or even reading the same chapter twice, but now it ends differently. But halfway through I realized that the Lizzie chapters were already edited, and what we were seeing were the final, polished, product. Which sort of robbed the book of some of its impact, for me anyway. Now I was just reading a straight up YA paranormal romance, which isn't really my thing. Also, Darcy freaks out over the fact that the copyeditor can find almost no physical descriptions for the characters in the books, and I agree. I couldn't picture most of the people (but the settings are great and very creepy) in Afterworlds, and didn't care that much about them by the end. Also, one of the characters is an eleven-year-old girl. It's a good thing that they keep saying her age, because from her behavior I would have pegged her as being six. It became increasingly grating to read about someone who acted like a six-year-old but kept stating her age as eleven. Did no one in or outside of the book notice this? Have any of them ever spoken to an eleven-year-old?

So the novel-in-a-novel was a bit disappointing, in that I would have loved to have seen the editorial process. And the novel-outside-of-the-novel, Darcy's story, was a bit . . . well . . . I loved some of it, and some of it annoyed me. I loved that she wrote and sold her NaNoWriMo novel. I loved that her sister, a math genius, figured out her budget so that she could move to New York and be a writer. That's the dream, right? I still have that dream! I loved her reactions to the publishing world, finding out about book tours, about editing, about sales numbers and all the nitty gritty that no one tells you about.

But then it was like Westerfeld pulled his punches. Yes, she's really seeing what's inside the writing world. But she's not failing, she's hitting one streak of awesome luck after another. She sells her novel in less than a year. Her agent lets her stay in her fancy New York apartment while she finds a place of her own. She finds an amazing apartment with awesome views in one day of looking. She falls in love. Even though she's repeatedly saying she's way over her budget, she just keeps going, shopping and eating out with her new friends. Despite her worries and her writer's block, her book is still getting great buzz. I just kept waiting for it to all come crashing down. And I couldn't believe that she was getting all this, at eighteen. Sure, maybe it was jealousy on my part . . . but still. It was like she never struggled with anything for more than five minutes. Her publisher has no qualms about throwing an eighteen-year-old out into the world of publishing, or that she can't follow through and do edits and turn out a second book in less than a year. She worries about breaking the news to her parents that she's not going to college next year, but they accept it. She puts off telling them about her relationship, since her partner (who pretty much moves in after one date) is FIVE YEARS OLDER THAN SHE IS AND SHE IS BARELY LEGAL (Sorry, sorry, Mom-instinct), and her parents smile and say, How wonderful you're in love! She drinks beer bought with her fake ID and never gets caught. The adults around her buy her drinks and see her in a relationship with an older, wiser person and living on her own in New York fresh out of high school and are like, Isn't this amazing? Yes, it's amazing, it's also, in a way, more of a fantasy than the story of Lizzie walking among the dead! It's also highly problematic in terms of audience: While "Afterworlds" is totally suitable for teens, Darcy's exterior story is . . . really pushing the envelope. She's a high school grad, eighteen years old, in a relationship with a twenty-something. There's plenty of profanity, as in, copious amounts of the f-word, underage drinking, and Darcy pretty much living as an adult in an adult world. I would hesitate to give this to a teen, just because of that.

So, to sum up, and I really didn't mean to get into this so much, but . . . I loved the idea of this book. I loved the insider look at publishing, which I do recommend (with a grain of salt) to those interested in publishing. But at the same time I just need you to remember: This is fiction. Also, swearing is bad. ...more

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May 27, 2014 Heidi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: vine, ya, nyc, fantasy

I love this times infinity. I already love YA in general and Scott Westerfeld in particular (his Uglies series got me back into reading YA as an adult), but this book I love the most. I love that he wrote something so chancy and cheeky (and META!), and I love that someone published it. Basically I think it's brilliant and couldn't love it more, but I don't think everyone is going to feel that way.

Here's some of what I love and some of what sets this book apart, if you want to know if it's for I love this times infinity. I already love YA in general and Scott Westerfeld in particular (his Uglies series got me back into reading YA as an adult), but this book I love the most. I love that he wrote something so chancy and cheeky (and META!), and I love that someone published it. Basically I think it's brilliant and couldn't love it more, but I don't think everyone is going to feel that way.

Here's some of what I love and some of what sets this book apart, if you want to know if it's for you:

1. I wasn't kidding about the meta. Not only is this a YA book about someone writing a YA book, but the YA book she's writing is also included (in alternating chapters). There's also a lot of discussion about the challenges of writing (and publishing, and marketing, and selling) YA, some of which has already surfaced in the reviews of this book (one of the main story's characters - another YA author - is worried that her protagonist, a girl who likes girls who like to set fires, is too risky and won't be well received; lo and behold, several of the Afterworlds reviews I've read contain warnings about its violence and "homosexual relationship"). So while Westerfeld is writing about a fictitious writer and her fictitious book, he's also exploring some very real issues that very real YA writers face.

2. One of the most interesting of those issues is the matter of cultural appropriation. Darcy, the main character of the main story (the one writing the book within the book), has some misgivings about one of her main characters, who is based on a Hindu death god. She worries that she is exploiting her religion (one she doesn't really observe) "for the purposes of YA hotness" (the scary death god has been turned into a handsome love interest). I love all the discussions about this, and I especially love that this teenage gay Indian girl fretting over cultural appropriation is written by a fifty-something straight white man. Some people might take issue with that, but this book is so gloriously self-reflective that it hardly matters. It's kind of the point. (Also mad props to Westerfeld for whipping out Millenialisms like "squee" and "this is giving me all the feelings.")

3. There's a lot of focus on the YA writing/publishing community, particularly in New York. I enjoyed this because I live in New York and I live to read YA. Like Darcy I moved to NYC alone, young and clueless and ended up in an exorbitantly overpriced 4th floor walk-up in Chinatown (though instead of a $150K publishing deal I received $150K in grad school debt). The notion of a teenager landing said deal might rub some aspiring writers the wrong way, but it's what allows Westerfeld to acquaint us with his world in such detail. We learn and experience everything right alongside Darcy. This probably won't interest everybody. I've heard grumblings that Darcy's part of the story is unnecessary and that Lizzie's story (the book within the book) should have been the whole shabang, but for me it's the intertwining of the two narratives that makes this so special. You don't need to be a writer to appreciate the writing process. What reader hasn't finished an amazing book and then wondered about the mind that produced it? Afterworlds is a chance to crawl inside that mind and see the whole thing unfold. ...more

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Feb 22, 2014 Rashika (is tired) rated it really liked it

Shelves: realistic-contemporary, paranormal, ya, humor, mind-blown, good-female-leads, awesomeness-redefined, loved, good-characters, read-2014

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I dont know where to start with this book but I will say this, Scott Westerfeld is a genius. I love him to bits and pieces and this book reminds me why. When I first heard he had a new book coming out, I was over the moon, to the point where I didnt pay much attention to the blurb just because I believed Id love it and love it I did. This may not be his best work, and the novel may seem a little fluffy but there is so much more to it. It ...more

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Dec 30, 2014 Amy rated it did not like it

Just a note, because I wish someone had told me before I began this book, it has a lesbian romance. That isn't the reason it got one star. Plenty of other reasons for that. Still. I wish I'd known going in.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld dripped with potential. At least initially. I'm a big fan of the Leviathan trilogy. I liked Midnighters. The idea of a book intertwining a young author in New York City with corresponding chapters of her debut paranormal novel sounded like a must read.
And ...more

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Jul 26, 2017 Ashley Daviau rated it it was amazing

I had a pretty good feeling I'd enjoy this book because I've very much enjoyed every other book by Westerfeld that I've read. But I didn't expect to fall head over heels in love with this book like I did! From the very beginning I was totally hooked and it only got better as it went on!

The concept and the way it's written is SO original and I really couldn't have enjoyed it more! I'm a huge YA fan so when I saw where this was going, I was so excited. Getting to read about Darcy going through ...more

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Aug 25, 2014 Jacob Proffitt marked it as unfinished

Shelves: romance, young-adult

I think this is just a personality mismatch and since I realized that relatively early on (and quit reading), I'll refrain from assigning a star-score. The book is heavier than some textbooks I had in college and that made the reading awkward. I couldn't quite buy a new YA author making a six-figure advance on her first book, either. But the real roadblock to getting into the book was the two heroines. They both felt so passive, each waiting for things to happen to them, and/or what actions they ...more

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Sep 09, 2014 Yzabel Ginsberg rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, paranormal-supernatural, romance, arc-netgalley, death, ghosts, contemporary, tstl, annoying-characters, good-ideas-but

(I got an ARC courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Pretty interesting premise, but in the end I found the execution wanting, and the stories not that interesting, unfortunately.

I really liked the beginning: Darcy having to navigate her way in New York, meeting published authors as well as other "debs" like her (people whose book was to be published in the upcoming months), having to take editing and rewriting tasks into account... The first pages of Lizzie's story were (I got an ARC courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Pretty interesting premise, but in the end I found the execution wanting, and the stories not that interesting, unfortunately.

I really liked the beginning: Darcy having to navigate her way in New York, meeting published authors as well as other "debs" like her (people whose book was to be published in the upcoming months), having to take editing and rewriting tasks into account... The first pages of Lizzie's story were gripping, too, and I appreciated how we're shown the final version of Darcy's book, running parallel to her own editing of the first draft, with all the pitfalls that were in it (exposition chapters, huge info-dumps...) and were then removed. As someone who likes writing, too,
I couldn't help but find this comment about the YA scene and authors' jobs quite interesting. The book is full of little allusions to similar themes: Darcy obviously wrote her novel during NaNoWriMo 2012, the Darcy/Lizzie hint at "Pride and Prejudice" is totally acknowledged, the authors debate about what's more important (plot? characters? conflict? setting?), and so on.

However, a lot of aspects in "Afterworlds" were problematic.

For starters, I'm not sure YA readers not specifically interested in writing would "get it". Clearly it's going to be a hit-or-miss here.

Also, the characters weren't that impressive. Those from Darcy's novel were rather bland in my opinion, and what I may deem "typical YA cut-outs". Yamaraj: the mysterious love interest without much of a personality. Jamie: the best friend who, in Darcy's copy-editor's own terms, "has car, lives with father", and not much more. In fact, Darcy's novel would have deserved to stand on its own, because it would've allowed the author to properly develop its world and characters, and make it the gripping idea it seemed to be in the beginning. (I'm still convinced that opening scene in the airport is a proper attention-catcher.)

Darcy was definitely annoying: totally immature, without any sense of responsibility (she missed so many deadlines, such as the ones for college applications, lease renewal, and her writing was two inches from going the same way), jumping to conclusions, thinking in terms of the world revolving around her... Defects I would've happily forgiven, if she had learnt from them, but she didn't. And in the end? In the end, Little Miss Lucky still got lucky, still landed an astonishing deal, still managed to waltz out of problems without that much of a hitch. All things that are potential insults at actual writers, the large majority that doesn't land an agent after just a few weeks of querying, nor a $300,000 book deal for his/her first novel. I'm all in favour of selling dreams, but those were too much a matter of dumb luck, not of work and personal improvement. I didn't root for Darcy at all. (I was also rather miffed at her plot taking a "let's focus on the love relationship" turn. There were so many other things it could have focused on...)

Mostly, I felt that this book had great potential in being a pretty good parody, but couldn't make up its mind about being one or not. Why a parody? For all the jabs at YA novels, at their shortcomings, elements I tend to notice as well when I read such stories. "Afterworlds" could be an excellent critique of the current market—a market I personally find saturated with cookie-cutter themes and plots (the same old kind of love interest, the same trend of characters whose questionable decisions put them in the too-stupid-to-live category...). Unfortunately, the way it is, it fell into the exact pit traps it (unconsciously or not?) denounced.

A note as well about a few questions raised throughout Darcy's narrative. There was an interesting discussion about culture appropriation, and how Darcy's use of Yama, an actual deity from Hindu mythology, amounted to erasing Hinduism, or at least part of it, from her world, by not openly acknowledging him as part of this religion. I found this point very valid. And yet, at the same time, Darcy herself represents a removal of cultural heritage: she's of Indian origin, but apart from her surname and physical description, she's the typical "white protagonist". (She's not religious, her family isn't particularly religious either, they all behave like standard Americans in novels... In other words: why make her from a different culture, if it's not to use it? Was it just for the sake of having a non-white protagonist... or, on the contrary, to point at how many other novels appropriate various cultures, only to "whiten" them?)

The underlying critique is definitely present, and something I can't help thinking about, wondering if it was on purpose, or totally accidental. I don't know how to take this novel, except with a grain of salt. I'm giving it 2 stars because of the parody it could be, one that made me snicker and nod my head in acknowledgment. But story-wise, I think it should either have been made a stronger read (as it was, it became boring rather quickly), or have gone all the way as a more obvious means of denouncing the many problems going rampant in the YA publishing industry. If it's one, I'm not sure that many people will realise it, unfortunately (and especially not younger readers—not because they're young, just because they may not have the necessary reading background to see the critique I mentioned). ...more

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Mar 17, 2017 catherine ♡ rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, contemporary, romance, young-adult

Actual Rating: 3.5

I've read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, but it hadn't been as good as I had expected with all the hype around it. Now, Afterworlds didn't have nearly as much exposure, but I loved it a lot better.

It is written from two perspectives:
Darcy is an eighteen-year-old debut novelist who is waiting for her book Afterworlds to be published. She moves to New York to find a place where she can write, but there there, she finds love - and a little bit of herself.
Our second story is the Actual Rating: 3.5

I've read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, but it hadn't been as good as I had expected with all the hype around it. Now, Afterworlds didn't have nearly as much exposure, but I loved it a lot better.

It is written from two perspectives:
Darcy is an eighteen-year-old debut novelist who is waiting for her book Afterworlds to be published. She moves to New York to find a place where she can write, but there there, she finds love - and a little bit of herself.
Our second story is the story written by Darcy - it is about Lizzie, a girl who, after surviving a terrorist attack, finds out she has the ability to cross into the afterworld. But not all people are good, not all ghosts are good, and Lizzie's gonna need a little help learning what it means to believe.

I thought the voices for the characters were done very well for this book. I'm not a huge fan of multiple perspectives because it's oftentimes so difficult to differentiate between them, but Lizzie and Darcy were in such different worlds that it was very clear. (The different page styles did help too.) Admittedly, I was more interested in Lizzie's story just because there was a much more sense of fantasy and adventure, whereas Darcy's was dimmed down and mundane. Both characters definitely undergone character development, but I felt like Darcy's character arc was more fluid.

The plot for both were very interesting, but I felt like I liked the first half of the book more, for both. Lizzie's beginning was interesting, and I loved reading about how she ventured in the different worlds. There was great backstory about the ghosts that she met, and Westerfeld was great at the world-building. I feel like, in the second half, the story started to get a little messy, and I wasn't really sure where the story was headed anymore.

Darcy had development as well, but it was very closely tied with her journey as an author, which, while realistic, was a bit more boring. There were times where I felt like she was annoying and hypocritical, which added to the fact that I didn't like her as much despite her character progression.

The writing style was engaging; this was what had made me dislike Uglies, and it was why I entered this book with such hesitance, but the writing was surprisingly interesting.

One issue I have with this is the love interest; Darcy's was great, but Lizzie's was such a cringeworthy case of insta-love that I would have honestly preferred it to not be there at all. This was perhaps the only reason my actual rating for the book was a 3.5, not a 4.

Overall, this book actually reinstated my interest in Scott Westerfeld's other books, and I'd recommend Afterworlds to anyone into the fantasy, contemporary, and YA genres. ...more

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Oct 16, 2014 Ylenia rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Hardcore fans of Scott Westerfed

Recommended to Ylenia by: Booktube

Shelves: 2014-reads, to-unhaul, at-my-old-house

2.25 stars

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Nov 16, 2014 Wart Hill rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya

Different. Interesting. Meta.

Yay: I loved both stories. I loved the meta-ness of Darcy's story, reading about her experiences and her rewrite struggles even as I read the final version of the story she had written.
Nay: Darcy has very few obstacles to her success, which is a little strange. I feel like that works into the Meta-ness, and I'm sure if I read closer on a reread at some point I can look closer at that, but it'll be awhile before I reread.

Yay: Darcy and Imogen are super cute, even if ...more

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Oct 30, 2016 Kyla Harris rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016, own-it, young-adult, disappointed, aduiobook

Plot - 14/20
Characters - 11/20
Creativity - 16/20
Writing - 12/20
Pace - 7/10
Ending - 8/10
66/100 = C-
2/5 stars

Okay I didn't hate this book. But it defiantly wasn't my cup of tea. I had trouble caring about any of the charaters and the fantasy part started as my favorite then ended very weird and confusing. The writing at times over did itself, esipecally in metaphors.This book had a ton of creativity and potential the way it was plot out is really new and interesting but the way it came together ...more

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Sep 10, 2018 Faith M ✨ rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary, young-adult, urban-fantasy, 3-stars, unique-format, read-2018, dnf-try-again-later, lgbtq

DNF'd at 48%

This had a lot of potential to be a really unique and profound story. It's told in alternating chapters: one of Darcy, the writer finding her way through the world of Young Adult literature in New York City as a teenage debut author; the other is of Lizzie, the main character in Darcy's urban fantasy book, who is the sole survivor of a terrorist attack at an airport and subsequently becomes a psychopomp and falls in love with the Hindu death good Yamaraj.

Unfortunately, it was boring ...more

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Jul 05, 2016 Anne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Afterworlds is 2 stories.
The 1st story is about Darcy, who in her senior year of high school took the month of November to write a novel titled Afterworlds (sound familiar?).
She gets a 2-novel book deal with a huge advance, and persuades her family to let her live in New York while she edits Afterworlds and writes the 2nd novel.

The 2nd story is Afterworlds, the novel Darcy has written.
Afterworlds is a supernatural thriller about Lizzie, who discovers that she can slip into the space between life ...more

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May 09, 2014 Robin Henry rated it it was ok

Shelves: spoiler-alert

I have been a Westerfeld fan since before he was famous, so it was with great anticipation that I downloaded the e-galley and began reading his latest offering, Afterworlds. It was with great disappointment that I forced myself to finish reading it. Unlike earlier efforts such as the Uglies series or his steampunk series, Leviathan, or even the Midnighters, Afterworlds was a huge let down. It could be because my expectations were high. After all, Westerfeld had trained me to expect interesting I have been a Westerfeld fan since before he was famous, so it was with great anticipation that I downloaded the e-galley and began reading his latest offering, Afterworlds. It was with great disappointment that I forced myself to finish reading it. Unlike earlier efforts such as the Uglies series or his steampunk series, Leviathan, or even the Midnighters, Afterworlds was a huge let down. It could be because my expectations were high. After all, Westerfeld had trained me to expect interesting social commentary and big ideas worthy of discussion along with solid writing in his earlier work. Alas, though the writing remains solid, the subject matter turned to the pedestrian with Afterworlds. This new novel tells a dual story—one of a teen author, Darcy Patel, and the other is the novel Patel has written. Sections alternate between these two narratives. In both stories, Westerfeld embraces the trend of the moment and delivers tired yet trendy fodder for teen readers. Ultimate wish fulfillment—teen writes best seller, gets huge advance and finds the love of her life, who is of the same sex and there are absolutely no members of her fairly traditional Indian family who so much as raise an eyebrow at this. Much of Darcy’s story will be incomprehensible to average teen readers; it seems to be written with librarians, prize committees, and other writers in mind. What teenager in this universe collects first editions and has reading copies, or even knows what those are? Let’s check off the trends. Paranormal romance—check. Lesbian love—check. Extravagant use of the f-bomb—check. It seems that teens and twenty-somethings cannot have a conversation without inserting it, multiple times. That is, if we are to believe current writers, who for my money, are just too lazy to come up with something more meaningful in the way of dialog.
I found myself hoping that maybe this novel is actually a parody of the current state of YA literature. I am still hoping someone will tell me it is. If it turns out not to be a parody, I will approach Mr. Westerfeld’s next opus with much more caution.

June’s Rating System: Language—R; Nudity—PG; Sexual Content—R; GLBT Content—R; Violence—R The opening scene of Darcy’s YA novel is a terrorist attack which takes place at an airport. Very bloody, somewhat graphic. Later scenes in the Underworld are not as violent, but there is a sinister theme. The main character of Darcy’s novel commits a murder for revenge, for which there are no consequences and no real questioning from a moral standpoint. Apparently, being a bad person means it is okay to murder you. Adult Themes—R, death violence, revenge, spiritual questions. The story of Darcy’s novel borrows from Hindu religious themes, which may offend observant Hindus.

Robin’s Comments: Disappointed just isn’t a strong enough word for this. I did not find that the novel had enough literary merit to make up for the baggage. I would definitely not recommend this for students younger than ninth grade.

...more

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Jul 24, 2014 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: review-advance-copies

Every lover of YA, publishing nerd, and... okay, EVERYONE needs to read this book. It's fantastic and cute and smart and wonderful and thought-provoking. I've only read one other Scott Westerfield book (one in the Midnighters series), but I've heard great things about his writing. I went into this book with that level of expectations and it was met with two wonderful stories.

Also, I'm pretty sure Guinness beer represents wanting to look like you know your beer when you have no idea. At least in ...more

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May 30, 2014 Ashley rated it it was ok

Shelves: arc, physical-arc, bea14

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Let's clarify some terms

Before we begin, I need to set down some terminology for my review. As you probably know, the book Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld is two books in one, told in alternating chapters. One story is that of Darcy, a soon-to-be-published YA author. The story is about her selling her book, doing rewrites, and drafting the next book in the series. The other story is about Darcy's book. We actually get to read it. However, just to ...more

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Oct 04, 2014 Eilonwy rated it liked it

Shelves: enjoyable-enough, a-bit-on-the-long-side, well-written, diverse-characters

Three and a quarter stars? Three and a half?

Darcy Patel has won the writing jackpot: $300,000 for a two-book contract for her NaNoWriMo novel, Afterworlds, written during her senior year of high school. So instead of going to college, upon graduation she moves to New York, determined to live the glamorous lifestyle of the full-time author.

Lizzie Scofield nearly dies during a terrorist attack at the Denver airport -- and discovers that she is a psychopomp, someone who can lead newly-dead souls

Three and a quarter stars? Three and a half?

Darcy Patel has won the writing jackpot: $300,000 for a two-book contract for her NaNoWriMo novel, Afterworlds, written during her senior year of high school. So instead of going to college, upon graduation she moves to New York, determined to live the glamorous lifestyle of the full-time author.

Lizzie Scofield nearly dies during a terrorist attack at the Denver airport -- and discovers that she is a psychopomp, someone who can lead newly-dead souls to their proper afterworld. But the "flipside" is a tricky place, occupied not only by the handsome and helpful Yama, but also by other spirit guides who have their own agendas.

The catch-phrase on the cover of this book is "Darcy writes the words. Lizzie lives them." Readers get both the story of Darcy's first year in NYC, and the published version of her novel. So it's two! two! two books in one. And wow, does it feel like it. It's 600 pages long, and weighs 2-1/2 pounds (over a kilogram!). Every other chapter alternates between Darcy and Lizzie, which seemed interesting to me at first, but by the end was just distracting. Someday if I decide to reread this, I'm going to read each book separately.

This book is so meta that I don't even know where to begin in trying to describe it. (Crickets have been chirping for a while as I try to get past that sentence.) Scott Westerfeld has created a volume that's determined to please everyone -- readers who love meaty yet unresolved contemporary stories, and readers who crave the action and worldbuilding of genre novels.

Darcy's story is a sort of insider love letter to the YA publishing industry and its authors. There's a John Green character. There's a guy named "Coleman Gayle." There's lots of talk about agents, and sales, and revisions, and writerly insecurities. There's discussion of cultural appropriation and diversity and genre. As a writer, I found most of this both entertaining and fascinating. But as a reader looking for a plot? Maybe not so much. There's some mild tension as Darcy frets about what she can possibly write the promised sequel about, worries about telling her family she's fallen in love with a woman, and goes way, way over her budget. But honestly, this stuff all felt kind of adult to me. Darcy might as well have just gotten out of college, not high school.

I found some fail as a writer, too. The first chapter TELLS all about Darcy's query letter to an agent, but doesn't show it. Why not? It's revealed pretty quickly that Darcy got this huge advance for the rough draft of her novel -- and before she even starts the revisions, everyone who has seen her book raves to her about what great writing she does and how fantastic the novel is. I just can't believe this. Nobody's first drafts are that good.

Which brings me to the Lizzie part of the book. It's a sort of paranormal romance/ghost story with a few revenge, suspense, and horror elements mixed in. It started off very strongly, only to meander a bit, lose some focus, and end on a bit of a whimper -- which I think may have been deliberate, seeing how many YA paranormal novels do just that. I did really enjoy this part of the story, although (a) I do not believe it for one second as having been written by a 17/18-year-old, and (b) I'm not sure how it would seem alone, and not as this living thing tied into the events in Darcy's story.

So, tying this all together, I'm not at all sure how I feel about this book. On the good side, Scott Westerfeld is a terrific writer, and I really enjoyed both parts of this book (plus one chapter from Darcy's girlfriend's book) as I was reading. On the not-so-good side, I don't know what to make of it all as a whole. It all started out strongly and excitingly, but by the end both stories felt a little awkward and unsatisfying.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who writes and aspires to be part of the traditional YA publishing world. But I'm a little mystified as to who else this book was written for. I can't tell if it would have held my interest if I weren't a writer and following the YA scene fairly closely.

If you're at all curious, give it a shot! It's definitely made me want to read some other Scott Westerfeld books. ...more

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Mar 17, 2014 Kribu rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, supernatural, netgalley, received-for-review, contemporary, read-in-2014

I remember I was quite excited when I first heard about this book. I've enjoyed everything by Scott Westerfeld that I've read, and the concept for Afterworlds sounded ... different, and potentially very interesting indeed.

And then, when I had the book, I just... kept putting it off. It didn't feel right. I'm very much a mood reader, and I know myself well enough by now that if I'm in the wrong mood for a book, I'll end up not enjoying it in the least. So I kept putting it off, week after week.

...more

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Jun 06, 2014 Dahlia added it

Shelves: fave-romances, racial-diversity-in-ya-na, quiltbag-ya, f-f-romance, 2014-releases, qpoc, interracial-romance

I am so, so curious who the intended audience was for this book. On the one hand, you have a wholly contemporary storyline about a YA writer who gets a huge book deal and moves to Manhattan (which is one of those things I'll never understand - why do people think they need to move to NYC to write? I live here and I don't get this) and falls in love with another YA writer. Then you have the other POV, which is wholly paranormal.

So, take me for instance. I am an author. I am a contemp YA and NA I am so, so curious who the intended audience was for this book. On the one hand, you have a wholly contemporary storyline about a YA writer who gets a huge book deal and moves to Manhattan (which is one of those things I'll never understand - why do people think they need to move to NYC to write? I live here and I don't get this) and falls in love with another YA writer. Then you have the other POV, which is wholly paranormal.

So, take me for instance. I am an author. I am a contemp YA and NA lover. I am particularly fond of LGBT romances. And I live in NYC. For me, the contemporary storyline was fantastic - I enjoyed the hell out of it, and all the familiar references and experiences and the romance itself. But I kept thinking, "What would I think of this if I *weren't* a writer? Would this be anywhere near as much fun if I weren't so conscious of how meta it is? This feels like it was written for me, but...current me. Would I have liked this in high school? Do teens like this?" And I'm still really curious about those answers.

As for the paranormal chapters...well, while I ended up enjoying plenty about AFTERWORLDS by Scott Westerfeld, I actually DNFed AFTERWORLDS by Darcy Patel. Like, just straight up skipped those chapters after a while so I could keep reading the contemp. There just wasn't anything in them I found appealed to someone whose primary book of interest were exactly what Westerfeld had done in the Darcy chapters.

As such, I can't really rate this, and I won't, but I will say this: If Westerfeld had done a contemp NA with just the Darcy chapters, and fleshed out the romance/first love/sexual orientation question some, since I think that stuff fell to the wayside in order to accommodate this book's already being a leviathan, I would've five-starred it in a heartbeat. And yes, NA, because in a world where all marketing categories were viewed as equal, that's exactly what this should've been - it's got nothing to do with the high-school-aged adolescent experience and everything to do with figuring out what comes next professionally and personally. Nothing about it really felt YA to me, and it made me feel like this isn't going to find the right readers. But then again, as the ARC loudly declared on the back, they're spending a crapton of money to market it, so WTF do I know. ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Jenna rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2016

The main reason I picked up this book was because it's always listed as having asexual (specifically demisexual) representation. As someone who identifies as asexual (and has considered being demisexual), I figured I should read it. So I did. But I didn't actually know the plot of the book going into it...then again...I often just forget to read summaries going into books. Oops.

Anyways, while I really enjoyed a lot of this book, I had a lot of problems with it too. My main issue was Lizzie's The main reason I picked up this book was because it's always listed as having asexual (specifically demisexual) representation. As someone who identifies as asexual (and has considered being demisexual), I figured I should read it. So I did. But I didn't actually know the plot of the book going into it...then again...I often just forget to read summaries going into books. Oops.

Anyways, while I really enjoyed a lot of this book, I had a lot of problems with it too. My main issue was Lizzie's story aka all of Darcy's novel. It really read like a NaNo novel I would write myself, which I guess kind of matches Darcy's style and her character, but it was kind of frustrating to read knowing it was written by Scott Westerfeld, a legit published author. I kept getting annoyed with the plot and the characters in Darcy's story because it feels flat and poorly done and kind of lame, honestly. Also a little confusing. I guess it was cool because you did get to feel like you were in Darcy's world and you knew what she was working on, but I did not enjoy it much at all. The romance between Lizzie and Yama was super rushed and totally unbelievable. Yama honestly felt like this flat, undeveloped character who didn't do anything. (Which, could mean a number of things - women are objectified like this all the time in movies and literature, so it shouldn't feel so weird to me. Also she comments a lot that he's just this hot death god who doesn't really have any purpose so I guess that fits...) I couldn't stand Lizzie as a character and I really hated the world Darcy created. It made no sense and it was really kind of weird.

All that aside, I ADORED Darcy's POV chapters. The few times she talks about her sexuality I did get a distinctly ace/demi vibe, so I really appreciated that. I loved how she was homoromantic and Indian at that! Going in no one told me it was such a diverse book, and I really appreciated that. Also all the Indian/Hindu religion references were super cool and unique. I also loved how this book tackled a lot of hard writing topics like borrowing other people's ideas and cultures and writing with white MCs so more people could relate to them. While the problems were never really solved or fully answered, they spurred up some great discussion and I think it made me consider a lot about diverse books. Also I LOVE LOVE LOVED the writing plot of this book - especially hearing about BEA. (Is it May yet?) The fact that Darcy did NaNo and got published was slightly unrealistic, but also really inspiring! It was so cool to see the publishing world laid out in a fiction book, and to see what it's really like to be a paid/published author. Since I'm finishing this Oct 27, making sure to finish it before Nov starts, I am HELLA PUMPED TO START MY NEXT NOVEL. I realized that this year's idea is actually loosely similar to Afterworlds (in that it's set in hell & there's kind of a god of death) but in my head I'm like "OKAY I CAN WRITE THIS IDEA BETTER THAN DARCY" so it's like a challenge.

Overall I loved half of this book desperately, but the rest of it left a lot to be desired.

...more

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Jul 02, 2014 Donalyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-fantasy, 2014-nerdy-shortlist

I've never met a Scott Westerfeld novel I didn't like. Interesting premise that offers two unique, but interconnected experiences. Readers will love the insider glimpses into the YA lit world and Darcy's fantasy novel, Afterworlds is compelling.

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Oct 20, 2013 Stella Chen marked it as to-read

A new Scott Westerfeld novel?! WHAT WHAT WHAT?
Tell me more, tell me more.

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Aug 02, 2014 Jill Williamson rated it it was ok

I was really excited to read this book. Im a big fan of Scott Westerfelds work. In Afterworlds we read two stories in one. The first is Darcys story. She is an eighteen-year-old girl who sold her first book to a New York publisher for a ton of money. And we follow her life in New York as she attends parties and tries to write the sequel. The second is Lizzies story. She is the protagonist of Darcys novel. She survives a terrorist attack and gains the ability to see the dead and travel to the I was really excited to read this book. I’m a big fan of Scott Westerfeld’s work. In Afterworlds we read two stories in one. The first is Darcy’s story. She is an eighteen-year-old girl who sold her first book to a New York publisher for a ton of money. And we follow her life in New York as she attends parties and tries to write the sequel. The second is Lizzie’s story. She is the protagonist of Darcy’s novel. She survives a terrorist attack and gains the ability to see the dead and travel to the Flipside, where she can talk to ghosts and interact with others like her.

What I liked:

I liked the concept. This type of story has been done before, but what hasn’t? I thought it was fun to go back and forth between Darcy’s life and the book she wrote.

I liked the book she wrote. That story was intriguing and different. In hindsight, I kind of wish that would have been the whole book.

What I didn’t like:

I just didn’t care about Darcy. She was living this fairytale life that was completely unrealistic and just plain boring. I didn’t care that she couldn’t write because she didn’t ever sit down and try. I didn’t care about the relationship with her girlfriend because all she did was whine. Everything happened to Darcy. And everything conveniently worked out for Darcy without her having to do anything.

Darcy’s publishing experience was unrealistic. I know many writers—many teen writers too—and no one gets it this easy. No one gets paid that much for a first book. And if it does happen, it’s a one-in-a-million type of thing. This book mocks the hard work of writing, the struggle that writers go through to get published, to deal with rejection, to want to quit, then deciding to persevere… It's an insult to hard-working teen writers. If you want to read a good book about a teen writer who gets published, check out The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet. That book tells it like it is.

The book was preachy. Every character was the same, spoke the same (with the exception of Sagan, but even he thought the same as everyone else). Every character had the same quirky swearing, the same views on Darcy’s love life, the same worldview, the same robotically faithful attitude toward anything she did. It was patronizing. Life is full of conflict. People don’t agree on anything. I felt like the author was trying to push his views onto young readers.

This book was such a disappointment. It almost felt like someone else wrote it and put his name on the cover. I do not recommend it. And I will be leery of what Westerfeld writes in the future.

For parents and librarians, I rate this book R for language, violence, sexuality, and GLBT content. A main character commits premeditated murder and her only consequence is that she loses her boyfriend for a while. This was not a book I’d want my elementary school son, who so loved Leviathan, to read.

*I received a free copy of this book from the Vine program in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Jun 18, 2014 Gabby rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, own, love-the-concept, young-adult, dnf, disappointed, liked-it, reviewed, contemporary, 3-star-books

I'm kind of torn over how I feel about this book - I liked some things about it and I disliked other things. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this because my friends on goodreads seem torn with half of them loving it and 5-staring it and the other half absolutely hating it. I think I'm somewhere in the middle.

This book is really two stories in one, which I thought was interesting. We get Darcy who is a YA author living in New York, and then we get Darcy's first YA paranormal novel I'm kind of torn over how I feel about this book - I liked some things about it and I disliked other things. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this because my friends on goodreads seem torn with half of them loving it and 5-staring it and the other half absolutely hating it. I think I'm somewhere in the middle.

This book is really two stories in one, which I thought was interesting. We get Darcy who is a YA author living in New York, and then we get Darcy's first YA paranormal novel "AfterWorlds" about a girl named Lizzie who can travel to the "afterworld". One thing I want to mention is that I appreciate the diversity in this book. The two love interests are an Indian man and a lesbian girl, so I thought it was cool to see so many diverse characters. I also loved the opening chapter of Afterworlds, where Lizzie is in the airport and there's a shooting. Her first experience of traveling to the afterworld was really cool and I was immediately intrigued.

However, even though both stories were interesting and fun to read, you kind of have to suspend your belief when it comes to Darcy's story. I mean she's a teenager who got a huge book deal in the 100,000 range, and dropped everything and moved to New York. And this book is her first book ever, her first attempt at writing anything. And now she has a deal for a YA trilogy and is promised hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's just so unrealistic. The way her lifestyle as an author is portrayed is just so unrealistic and got so annoying to read about. If only it were that simple. I think most authors would be offended by this, knowing how much work goes into becoming an author and getting your start as a writer. It certainly doesn't just happen overnight the way it does for Darcy.

The thing I like most about Lizzie's story in Afterworlds is the story about Lizzie's Mom's friend who got kidnapped as a little girl. (view spoiler) I didn't care much for the romance/insta-love between Lizzie and Yamaraj.

At the end of the day I just thought both of the stories were pretty boring when I looked at the bigger picture. I was enjoying it somewhat as I was reading it, but then I would sit back and think about what I read and nothing really happened. Lizzie's story was a typical paranormal romance story and Darcy's chapters just involved writing her novel, talking about her budget and financial problems, and falling in love with Imogen. Also, this book is 600 pages and I think it's way too long for what it is. It could have easily been cut down by 200-300 pages. ...more

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Jul 11, 2016 Kara Babcock rated it liked it

Shelves: from-library, young-adult, 2016-read

This is a very charming and endearing book, which is good, because it is also implausible and silly and so otherwise it would be terrible. Afterworlds is a very tongue-in-cheek novel about writing and publishing novels, with a novel within the novel, because yo dawg, I heard you like novels in your novels so I novelled a novel novel for you. Novel novel novel.

Darcy Patel is an eighteen-year-old high school graduate whose NaNoWriMo novel gets accepted for publication. She moves to New York ...more

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Fantasy Buddy Reads: Afterworlds [Feb 8, 2019]	15	20	Feb 20, 2019 01:01AM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. a girl write 1000 words a day and creates a novel but has trouble coming up with an ending to please editor [s]	5	379	Nov 11, 2018 09:29PM
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About Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld

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Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He was born in the Texas and now lives in Sydney and New York City. In 2001, Westerfeld married fellow author Justine Larbalestier.

He is best known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. His next book, IMPOSTORS, returns to the world of Uglies. It comes out September 11, 2018.

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The creator of the Uglies and Leviathan series answers your questions about his writing rituals, gives NaNoWriMo tips, and talks about Afterworlds,...

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“What did a happy ending even mean in real life, anyway? In stories you simply said, 'They lived happily ever after,' and that was it. But in real life people had to keep on living, day after day, year after year.” — 70 likes

“Being an author sucks, doesn't it? It's like telling a joke and nobody laughs for two years.” — 30 likes

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