Gayle Forman is my instant buy author and you need to add her books to your independent bookstore day shopping cart! And if you haven’t read her, you desperately need to pick this up and find out why you should buy everything she writes. And bring tissues.

This book felt like Gayle Forman came up with a great idea one day - a dead girl who miraculously comes back to life and showed up in her home 7 years after she was hit by a car. Her sister is happy to see her, her father begins to believe in miracles, and her mother basically has a breakdown. But I just think this book lost the way. What was it even about? Grief? It just felt aimless, or maybe, it felt like she just lost her way partly through writing it.

Trigger warnings for this book: grief, death of a child (off page), bullying, addiction, divorce

Gayle Forman is back at it! I really enjoyed re-immersing myself in Forman’s writing and found that she definitely hasn’t lost her touch for writing gripping, emotional stories.

AFTER LIFE follows Amber, who returns from school one day to the horror of her family—because Amber died seven years ago in a hit and run accident.

Forman masterfully switches between POV characters; with most authors, juggling this many POVs would become confusing and even frustrating, but she handles it with ease. POV characters range from Amber’s friends and family to people in town who weren’t even particularly close with her but ended up changed by her death.

A short novel, AFTER LIFE is easy to fly through in a single sitting. I mostly read this book via audiobook, and I highly recommend it! The different narrators were all incredible and really brought their characters to life. There are secrets about Amber’s death that each of these characters has, and questions only they could answer, and those really added to the complexity of the story.

Though Amber is our alpha protagonist, and I did enjoy her arc and seeing her character development, I have to say my favorite character was Melissa. What can I say? A little sister who sees everything but reveals nothing is definitely something I connect with.

Something I loved about this story is that, while it may be shelved as YA, it reads more New Adult to me. Amber was 17 when she died but makes her reappearance 7 years later, and Amber herself questions what age that truly makes her during the story. Forman doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, even for YA, and her unflinching honesty is so refreshing.

Needless to say, I absolutely recommend picking up this book—the discussions of life after death and the butterfly effect of how one person’s death can change the courses of lives of people around her, regardless of how well they knew her, is not one to miss.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quill Tree Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book was so interesting. This was a tear jerker for sure. There was some good commentary on grief and loss.

As this was the first book I've read by Gayle Forman, I cannot compare it to her previous work. I would be careful about recommending it to sensitive young readers due to its themes of loss and grief. It was a little confusing keeping the various characters and timelines straight, but well worth the effort as everything came together in the end. I will definitely seek out more books from this author. Thanks to NetGalley, Quill Tree Books and the author for a copy to read and review.

I used to be a big Gayle Forman fan, but After Life was a disappointment. The book is a quick read, but that's just because it's a short novel. In past Forman books, I felt a connection to the characters; however, in After Life, I did not care about or like any of the characters. The story felt pointless. I didn't understand where it was going or why. Plus, it felt dated with the characters, their names, and the dialogue had me questioning when the book was based.

I enjoyed the story for the most part, but it seems there were a few too many characters, coincidences, and questionably relevant plot events that vied for the reader’s attention. The epilogue though did a nice job of explaining author Gayle Forman’s impetus for the novel.

Interesting concept and a pretty quick read. While I enjoyed reading After Life, the ending felt very lackluster. I was expecting more and it never really explained why Amber was able to "to come back".
If you are in for a semi emotional read give this book a try.

3.5 stars

When Amber returns home, she finds that seven years have passed and everyone believed her dead. Amber attempts to pick up where she left off, but she quickly learns the far-reaching impact of her death. Told through multiple perspectives, with a ripple-effect-esque vibe.

I never really liked Amber and the story wasn't as impactful as I had hoped. This novel did feel a bit dated, even though it is a new release.

It’s been a while since I last picked up a Gayle Forman novel, and she has not lost her touch with writing, especially when it comes to exploring tough topics. In this novel, the reader is faced with the breadth and impact one death has on a cast of characters. Grief is never an easy thing to read (or write about!) and Forman proved, once again, that she can masterfully and respectfully explore this topic in a way that makes the reader reflect on their own mortality and reflect on how death is celebrated or mourned around the world.

The reader follows a cast of characters who have interacted with Amber, our primary main character, in some form. The plot isn’t chronological, but dances across timelines to take the readers to important moments in the primary and secondary character’s lives. The plot line weaving was nothing short of masterful, and the short chapters made it easy to digest this book even as it handled the topics of loss, grief, and remembrance. I liked this disjointed storytelling for two reasons: 1) it drilled home the idea that grief and remembrance isn’t a linear process; and 2) it drew the reader's attention to important moments from the past which informed the characterization in the present. This plotting, paired with the lyrical writing of Forman’s, made it incredibly easy to fall into the story and feel the raw characterization of everyone involved.

This novel didn’t quite feel like a Young Adult novel, but it didn’t feel Adult either. It fell somewhere in-between, much like our main character, Amber, did. It reminded me of books like Before I Fall and Everything I Never Told You, where the narrative was not afraid to confront both the dark and light ways of which death can impact a family and the greater community. For those reasons, this book felt mature for a young adult novel, which I greatly appreciated.

As I walk away from this read, I know the pervasive question of “What happens after death?” is. And this book provides nuanced answers: perhaps we come back at ghosts; perhaps we move on; perhaps the memory of our life changes the course of another’s life, for better or worse. Regardless, the idea that one person, one life can send ripple effects through an entire community of people is another idea I’ll carry forward with me.

TW: loss of child (off page), death, grief

Thank you to Quill Tree Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

As a huge fan of Gayle Forman's early YA books, I wanted to love this one as well. I found it a bit unrealistic, and didn't love the main character, Amber. She was a bit whiny for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠♡︎ 3.5🌟
𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗌♡︎ 4🌟
𝖲𝖾𝗍𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀♡ 3🌟
𝖯𝗅𝗈𝗍♡︎ 3.5🌟
𝖶𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀♡︎ 4🌟
𝖲𝗉𝗂𝖼𝖾♡︎ 0🌟

Am I crying? Or is it you? 😭 I didn’t expect to enjoy this book so much but man the story was devastatingly beautiful! I would say this story is mainly about grief when it comes to teachers, friends and family and how they all may deal with a passing differently.

I enjoyed how this story has multiple POV, especially when it came to the side characters. Even though my heart hurt for Amber I loved seeing how every characters life has changed whether it was for better or for worse and how they would over come certain obstacles.

The character development was the best part when it came to all the characters because it resembles acceptance after a death as well. It’s hard to be strong after a life and people tend to pull apart but I loved seeing how a death can being people together and apart and with love all can be saved.

If you’re looking for a touching, quick read that leads you captivated, I recommend this book! I finished it in a day and let me tell you… you’ll definitely be having some heart break here.

If I Stay is one of my favorite books (I even taught it a few years!) so I was very excited to get this new book by Gayle Forman to preview. It was good and emotional and a delight to read her words on the page again. The story was a little confusing to my brain at first but I felt like I got into the story and found myself turning the pages quickly. I look forward to more from Forman and will always read anything that she writes.

"coming back from the dead doesn't seem like a miracle so much as a curse...because dead people don't have to see how much destruction they left in their wake..."

One spring afternoon, Amber arrives home on her bike—seven years after she died in an accident. Her return upends her family, friends, and even acquaintances, forcing them to confront the past. As they struggle with the impossible, Amber must uncover why she’s back—and what kind of person she truly was.

This book packed a punch. Would you want to come back and make amends? Is it healthy for those left behind after your passing for you to come back? While I've always wished for an hour just to see my sister again, it's never enough time. It would also make me question things about myself, just as Amber's sister Missy does in this novel. It's a gut-wrenching novel, all about second chances and what happens to everyone after someone has died and if it's worth that secon

This book was a good quick read. I've definitely recommended it to students and we've since purchased two copies. I felt that the story could use a bit more character building, and found the flashback nature of the chapters to be a bit confusing.

“One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.
Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now.”

That synopsis is what immediately pulled me in to this book! This is a YA novel which captures themes of grief, loss, family, love, and the aftermath of death. As someone who lost a family member at a young age, this hit close to home, and was emotional yet healing. We see several POV’s on how this death affects them, which I find an important narrative.

At times it felt rushed but I really did enjoy this book. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Clever idea, but this book didn't do much for me. I didn't quite care for the main character, and I felt like I was reading a book the whole time - I didn't get lost in the story, didn't think about them after finishing the book, and don't know if i would recommend it to my students.

Amber seems like just an ordinary teenager, or is she? When she returns home, her family treats her as if she were a ghost, and perhaps she is, for she has been dead for seven long years. Forman has a remarkable talent for presenting situations in alternative ways that challenge the reader to reflect on deeper truths. He raises a poignant question: what would you feel if a beloved one came back into your life? Would you embrace it as a miracle or dismiss it as a mere hallucination? The narrative structure allows for various perspectives, adding depth to the story, yet ultimately, it falls short of its promise. These shifting viewpoints detract from the essence of what Forman is striving to convey. I yearned for a richer exploration of Amber's family history and her close friendships; the narratives seemed to disrupt the emotional flow instead of enhancing it.

AFTER LIFE demonstrates, yet again, that no one does grief quite like Gayle Forman. Gripping and gorgeous, this book will break you right apart. It is as much an ode to what happens after death as it is to the act of living.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of After Life by Gayle Forman!