The Everafter by Amy Huntley

[katekintailbc]

The Everafter
by Amy Huntley
(Audio)

This is the story of Madison. The whole story. Starting with her death.

Madison is dead, though she can't remeber how she died. All she knows is that she exists in this state, surrounded by objects she lost when she was alive. When she touches one of the objects, she is transported back in time to a memory of where and when she lost that object. She uses these trips back through her life to try to piece things together, to try to discover what happened to her... but also to try to figure out more of who she was... and who she is. There's a lot she can actually do, as a spirit. She can revisit these moments by watching or by being herself in the memories--in which case she can change things. But not all the changes she makes are necessarily good. She isn't the same person when she makes a change, and she's not sure she likes the idea of that.

The book promised that there was more to it than just her solving the mystery of her death--and there was. There were a lot of themes and there was lots of character analysis... for that matter, there were tons of interesting characters. I really enjoyed getting to know them. I also loved the nonlinear storytelling, where you get a string of scenes from different times in her life and you have to try to piece everything together along with her. And, of all the books that deal with ghosts and the afterlife, this version of it actually seems the most realistic and plausible to me. It was well described and well explored, full of emotion and discovery. As someone who has a lot of attachment to objects, I could definitely relate to Maddie's struggles throughout the book. But I also really liked just getting to see so much of her life in moments both important and casual as well.

What was a little strange to me was the ending. I didn't actually like that it just ended the way it did. And I wanted for other spirits she encountered to be experiencing the afterlife differently, not also through lost objects. But I like the idea of losing one's life and then being confronted with all the other losses--that's where the items all end up when you lose them ;-)

There was a lot to this story. It didn't go quite as deep as I'd have hoped, but it definitely explored a lot I hadn't been expecting, and I was pleased to find out, finally, what happened to the poor girl.