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Afterworlds | November 12, 2014

by Scott Westerfeld (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, September 2014)

Scott Westerfeld takes a bold, meta approach to storytelling in his latest young adult novel, which manages to tell two satisfying stories at once. For those not familiar, the premise of ‘Afterworlds’ is a unique one; the story begins with Darcy Patel, an 18-year-old suburbanite whose wildest dreams seem to be coming true when her manuscript sells for six figures to a prestigious New York publisher. Soon Darcy is moving on her own to the city, and putting off college to live as a professional writer. The chapters alternate between Darcy’s new life in the New York literary world and the story of her novel’s protagonist, Lizzie, the survivor of a near death experience which has given her access to the Afterworld, a realm between the living and the dead where ghosts, grim reapers, and darker things roam. As Darcy dives head first into her new life as a writer, Lizzie struggles to come to term with her powers and the new friends and enemies that wait for her in the Afterworld.

The interplay of Darcy’s chapters with the Afterworld chapters allows for some clever meta-textual commentary on the publishing industry. Darcy’s rewrites, critiques from author friends, and her attempts to incorporate her editor’s notes while maintaining the heart of her novel allow general audiences to see how the sausage is made, and they also tease the twists of her novel as Darcy agonizes over the ending without giving anything away. Westerfeld is to be commended for managing to tell two interconnected stories in the length of one book, and if you’re like me, you’ll have a difficult time deciding which half you enjoyed more.

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