I became familiar with Gayle Forman when her book, If I Stay became a movie a few years back. I enjoyed the movie, but never got around to reading the book. When I snagged an ARC of Gayle’s latest book at an event, I decided this would be the one I started with reading. It just took me a year and I still did it by audio instead. Oops.

After Life [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] centers on a teenage girl named Amber. She rides her bike home from school, only for her mom to start screaming as soon as she sees her. Turns out, she’s been dead for several years. Amber must face how things changed for everyone around her after her passing, as well as try to figure out why she’s back.

This story is only partially told through Amber’s perspective. There’s a plethora of other POVs sprinkled throughout, giving a fuller picture of what people thought about Amber before her death and after. While interesting, it also might’ve been too many, as I found myself frequently forgetting who a character was or who’s mind we were in. That is one downside of audio, since there was just one male and one female narrator for all the characters, which became more of a challenge to distinguish.

Overall, this is a thought-provoking novel on grief and a person’s impact. That’s especially shown through a teacher having his class write their own obituaries about the life they’d want to live, and how that aspect is woven through the story.

However, I expected it to pack more of an emotional punch. Amber wasn’t the nicest of characters, which is something she acknowledged, but it still made it a little harder to mourn her. That could be part of the point entirely. I’ve never been a big fan of complaining about unlikeable female characters because I do think all people can easily be one and that’s no reason to write someone off, but I get how it can also make it harder for a character to land with an audience. It’s a catch-22. Amber was just a normal teenager in that regard, so maybe it will resonate with teen readers who find themselves in similar situations.