Format read: paperback
Genre: Paranormal YA
Release Date: 8 March 2011
Length: 360 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Formats available: ebook, paperback, hardcover
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)

Book Blurb:

The battle between vampires and wraiths begins…

It’s going to be okay, Lucas, I thought. We’re dead, but we can still be together. Nothing matters more than that. We’re stronger than death. Now nothing else ever has to come between us. You and I never have to be apart again.

My Thoughts:

The first two books in this series were childish at best, Hourglass started to make up for these downfalls, but Afterlife? It ruined any chance of redemption for this series.

To save his life, Lucas has been turned, now he has to deal with the knowledge that he has joined the ranks of the monsters he has been trained from birth to hunt. Bianca is a wraith, a being feared by vampires because of her immense powers and apparent threat to their existence. But Lucas’ and Bianca’s love for one another is strong so together they embark on the dangerous journey back to Evernight Academy, so Lucas can get help and seek sanctuary and Bianca can find out why her principal has such an interest in capturing wraiths.

Bianca’s character just got worse in this book, she started maturing in Hourglass, even if it was only by a sliver, but as soon as Afterlife started she was acting more like a child that she was at the beginning of the series. People who refuse to ask for help, yet are too dumb to survive on their own grate on my nerves. If she didn’t have Lucas and Balthazar watching her back and risking their lives for her she’d have been dead at least six times by now.

Lucas also went back to his pre-Hourglass self, although he did have sense enough to realise Bianca was in danger, even if it took a while. But naturally Bianca’s all-knowing attitude got her in trouble anyway because she refused to leave well enough alone.

Balthazar was the only character of worth in Afterlife; he’s been the only real character of worth this entire series as well as Vic and Ranulf with their comedic input. But why would anyone listen to Balthazar, he’s only six hundred years old, what would he know?

Afterlife was a stupidity act of a book, but the ending just did it for me. The sheer denseness of Gray’s characters actually had the gall to say “who says we can’t have children? No one knows how long you can take a solid form for” Lucas says this of Bianca’s wraith state, as she can take form for short periods of time if she’s holding onto a cherished object.

SHE’S DEAD. WRAITH’S ARE GHOSTS, AS IN, DEAD GHOSTS you imbecile.

Whenever one is dealing with vampire books and ghost books, one knows that producing children naturally is off the table. Why? Because vampires and wraiths are unnatural creatures, they are dead yet still walking around; hence their reproductive systems have kind of stopped working. If you want your characters to have children make them werewolves, but then I suppose Gray would want them to come out “normal” or maybe even as vampires.

There is a reason we have a set of standards that differentiates humans from the paranormal. Because as odd as it may sound to apply logic to something that doesn’t exist, it is illogical for something that is dead to naturally birth a child that is living.

That line and the entire ending of the book which I will refrain from revealing was so absurd that it killed anything good about this book and this series. Just because the author wrote herself into a corner doesn’t mean she can pull a deus ex machina the size of Canada to get herself out of it, it doesn’t work that way. Deal with the mess you’ve made or don’t write it in the first place.

As you can probably tell, I will not be delving into Balthazar’s spin-off series – funnily enough, entitled Balthazar – and I will be trying for the life of me to erase this series from my mind.

I give Afterlife  1 star.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

About Amanda

Amanda-Lee is a proudly addicted reader and writer from Sydney. She lives with her wonderful husband and their more like a baby than a kitten Hamish. Amanda-Lee has been blogging for 4 years now and is a lover of all genres, though she does have a tendancy to stray towards the weird and wonderful concotions in the paranormal and fantasy genres. In addition to being the Winged Lover on BLI she also runs the book blog StoryWings.

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