I picked up Afterlife as part of my quest to complete Dark Faerie Tales’ debut urban fantasy author challenge. And to be honest, this book was nothing like I expected. The cover suggests that the main character in the story is a blonde with a big, black dog, and she’s one of the characters but it’s by no means the only one of the major players in Afterlife.

The basic premise of Afterlife is that everyone in the world has the option to resurrect, but only nine times, thanks to a company called Fresh Start. However, there are people in the world who want true immortality and will stop at nothing to get it.

The novel is told from five different characters’ perspectives: Chaz, his brother Russell, his Babysitting charge Angelique, a dog named Omega, and their nemesis Neville. Yeah, the dog gets chapters written from his perspective. The basic story is that resurrection is a way of life for most of the people on the planet, but you can only resurrect nine times before you’re through. When you resurrect, you’re assigned a Babysitter to see you through the first week of your fresh start, and Chaz is one such Babysitter. He’s actually in the family business since the resurrection company, Fresh Start, is run by his brother, Russell. Each chapter gives a character’s name at the head, and then the whole chapter is written in the first person. I’m not a huge fan of shifting perspectives like this (as I mentioned when I talked about Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong) and I found it particularly irritating in this one.

I also didn’t like the romance element in the novel. There’s not much of it, which would be fine, except there are a couple leaps that the reader is expected to take, without seeing any of the chemistry between the two characters, except for a few meaningful looks. I’m all for books that focus on the non-romantic plot aspects but I don’t like it when the characters manage to fall deeply in love off the page over the course of the novel.

Also, Chaz and Russell’s last name seems to change from “Dominguez” to “Domingue” partway through the novel. I just don’t get that either.

I really wanted to like Merrie Destefano‘s debut but I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. I didn’t feel invested in the characters but I thought the world building was really interesting and different. While that’s not enough for me to purchase her next book, I’d definitely get it from the library, to see if I would enjoy it more than Afterlife, since my expectations will be quite different.

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Well this book was certainly different from most I've read lately. For one thing, it appears to be a stand alone novel. If I am wrong (and I hope I am) please comment and let me know what you know! The book also has five narrators, including the bad guys and a dog.

Afterlife felt more like light science fiction rather than the urban fantasy I usually read. It also haas a 'end of the world' feeling about it. Almost apocalyptic. The story was extremely involved and yet I sped through the pages quickly wanting to know more.

The way the story was told, through the different viewpoints, made it so the reader got a bunch of clues and had to keep reading in an effort to put them together. Through this 'clue' unfolding, I came to learn about the Afterlife process. The reader is quickly informed that in this world a person can have no more than nine lives. You have to be a certain age; no young children can have an afterlife. But a lot of the details you figure out little by little.

This led to some confusion. I wanted to keep going back to see what I missed but I hadn't missed anything. It hadn't been revealed yet. So that was somewhat frusterating.

Still the entire process, the rules, all of it, just made for an exciting and psychologically scary tale. Could this really happen? How much of it would really be a stretch? Heck we already have the cloning potential.

The mystery is good throughout even once we know who all the 'players' are. The romance is very downplayed, which I liked. The gory violence against children bothered me, but I guess it should. I was really happy with this book and find myself still thinking about it frequently. ( )

Interesting premise but didn't like the jumping from one POV to another. Found it hard to care about any of the characters. Don't know if it'll become a series but I doubt I'd read any others set in this world. ( )

I give it a 2.5-3. Just not my cup of tea. The story is a neat concept but all the jumping around with the different POV's and religious stuff kinda turns me off. ( )