I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Look, this is more a 2.5 than a solid 3. Also in full transparency I listened to the publisher audiobook while following along with the ARC, and there were quite a few stylistic edits between the ARC and publishing. All of which I agreed with, so good job.

Mari is a teen who does and gets thrust into an afterlife that is based on getting points so you can ascend to the real afterlife? The world (or afterlife) building tried to be interesting and I'll give the author credit for coming up with a very creative setting. But a book needs more than a setting, and the characters were... okay. The plot was at times disjointed and chaotic. And I was glad to be finished with this book when I did. I found Mari's mother, Faye, completely insufferable which I think is the point but it would have been nice to see her and Mari have a more realistic healing moment together.

4 stars for creativity, 3 stars for writing style, and 1 star for the holistic work. 2.5 overall.

What Comes After is a character-driven story told in alternating timelines about a sixteen-year-old girl, Mari, who has died and arrives in a sort of modern day purgatory called Paradise Gate which is run by the Powers That Be (PTB). Before Mari can move on to wherever she will spend eternity, she has to take care of some unfinished business with her recently deceased mother, Faye, who is now her roommate in the afterlife.

Life in Paradise Gate sounds exactly like real life. The deceased have houses, social media, paparazzi, television shows like The Dead and the Restless, and yoga classes (which is called Youga in the afterlife). The afterlife uses a point system as its form of currency, charging each resident a daily rate. The more Mari participates in youga classes and therapy sessions, the more points she can earn.

Mari and Faye had a difficult relationship while alive. Faye struggled with the responsibility of being a parent and left Mari with her grandparents more than once. When Mari was older and Faye came back, Mari often had to act as the adult in the relationship which she resented, leading to a strained relationship with her mother.

While the plot sounded interesting, I felt the delivery of it could’ve been better, particularly at the end of the book. The afterlife was too similar to real life to the point that it didn’t feel believable. I didn’t understand the need for other settlements or camps outside Paradise Gate if it was only a temporary stop in the afterlife. What’s the point in running away and living outside the “grid”? I didn’t understand how the two people who made up the PTB came to be. Were they humans or were they souls? In either case, why were they allowed to stay in this transitional space and create an entire society that resembles human life with homes, schools, social media, etc.? Finally, the ending felt rushed, as if the author gave up and just wanted to finish the book.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
CW: mentions suicide and dating violence

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.

I must start by saying that this idea of an afterlife is very depressing, even if it's just a people sorter.

What Comes After is an excellent book that is not like anything I have read in a while. I enjoyed jumping from Before and After I found both important to understand the characters.

Great I'm book

The story started off intriguing, but I wasn’t entirely sure where it was headed. The magical realism of Mari’s death and subsequent reunion with her mom in this in-between space between heaven and hell was quite captivating. I found Mari’s prickly personality quite amusing, but I must admit I was taken aback by the profanity. Due to this, I had to double-check the intended reader age group for this book. Initially, it seemed to be written for middle-grade readers, but the language and the implications of Mari’s potential suicide led me to believe it was more suitable for young adults or high schoolers. As a result, I started to lose interest in the story. I couldn’t quite grasp the narrative’s direction. In conclusion, I have a feeling that I wasn’t the intended audience for this book. I might suggest it to friends who have mature teenage children who can appreciate dark humor and handle sensitive topics like family loss and the death of young individuals.

✶ PRE-READING ✶
The blurb made this sound intriguing. I wasn't sure at all what to expect, as I haven't read many books set in the afterlife! Unraveling a conspiracy is something that often features in books I read, though, so I thought this would be interesting.

✶ POST-READING ✶
As I thought... the conspiracy parts were more familiar to me, although they took a while to kick in. Who would have thought the afterlife would be a really bureaucratic New Age spa? The set up was really clever and well thought out, and I enjoyed the twists. There was, as always, an intriguing bad boy, but it went in a direction I wasn't expecting, which was nice.

It surprised me by... being deeper than I thought it would! There's a lot going on in Mari's background and in her head that make her who she is, and part of the point of the story was that everyone has that much going on all the time. Impressive that the book started out treating people as cliches, then swerved and made them all real people!

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦
Book Recommendation: Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin features a teen girl in an afterlife that isn't quite what she expected, facing her past and the things that have made her who she is. It takes a more philosophical view than this one, though.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The obvious recommendation is The Good Place, but I'm going to swerve a bit and suggest The Lovely Bones. Not set in an afterlife, but it is about an afterlife, and about dealing with how your life treated you.

Sixteen-year-old Mari Novak wakes up dead in Paradise Gate, an unusual wellness center for the recently deceased. To move on, she must confront her greatest unfinished business which is her dysfunctional mother, Faye. But when secrets about her death go public, Mari is drawn into a rebellion that challenges everything Paradise Gate claims to be.

With humor, this novel is a clever, thought-provoking journey through the great beyond.. I loved the humor and more in this book. The novel explores rebellion, self-discovery, and the struggle to break free from the status quo. It is an examination of the things that keep us trapped—postmortem or otherwise. I have a different picture of the afterlife.

I thought the premise was very interesting and could see the inspiration from The Good Place, however I thought it lacked in pacing. I did struggle with getting through this book which I was sad about because the story was interesting and really makes you think! I think the pacing was just off for me.

*ARC provided by Netgalley, thoughts are my own*

I’ve binge watched The Good Place several times, so when you tell me there is a book that has the same vibes, I’ll be reading it.

It did have similarities with TGP, but I think the book lost the plot a little along the way. We get this entire (after)world build up, but not a whole lot happened in it. This was very much a character driven book, which isn’t bad, but a little more plot would have been nice.

All the people there have some sort of device that tracks the good things they do, how they’re feeling, if they cuss, … It’s stated that it’s very important and that you’re being watched and monitored all the time. But tell me why the main character could get away with constantly being in the red with minor consequences? Why make it so known that this system is in place when you barely use it?

I found it hard to connect with any of the characters, even the main character, so I don’t have a lot to say about them other than meh?

I enjoyed my time reading it and it did remind me of one of my favourite shows, but it could have been executed better.

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

This book is filled with interesting ideas, an afterlife for secular folks who can't move on dominated by self-help gurus and paparazzi, influencers and tech oligarchs. However it gets a bit bogged down in the telling and the Mari, the lead, can come off as both sanctimonious, hypocritical, and overly serious, making her a difficult protagonist to connect with as she grapples with how her relationship with her mother (who could never get it together in their life) affected her life and afterlife (once they are made roommates in the hereafter). It veers a bit into classic dystopian tropes from the midpoint on, and it has an upbeat ending that highlights ideas about people with differences following their own paths to happiness.

Thank you Katie Bayerl and Penguin Young Readers Group for letting me read the ARC of this book! This was a great premise of the dystopian after life. It had aThe Good Place + Black Mirror + School Spirits vibe. The writing was easy and eloquent which I enjoyed. There was a lot of set up for a big reveal with lots of twists and turns and it did not deliver on that level. The ending was rushed and I felt there was a lot of loose ends I would’ve liked tied up. Overall the concept was good, I was just wanting a bit more.

I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like this before.What Comes After is a unique story about grief, self discovery and questioning the establishment? It truely is like The Good Place for teens.

What an interesting take on the afterlife! It does read less like a book about the great beyond and more like a dystopian, but im not mad about it. Actually, at one point, I forgot I was reading a book about the hereafter. It completly slipped my mind.

I liked Mari! She is a strong, independent, persistent and cynical main character, but also a bit go along to get along, which is a character trait that I personally know far too well. Reading about the complex relationship between Mari and her mom was interesting, and I liked trying to piece together what happened with Maris murder. I found myself getting a bit excited every time we got a flashback.

I liked Jethro to begin with ( I do enjoy a misunderstood bad boy), but my distaste grew as the book went on, and I never really came back to liking him fully.

All in all, I enjoyed this read. It’s definitely not what I expected. I definitely did not get any clues as to what it might be like after we die, but it was an entertaining read.

ARC Review!
Thank you to NetGalley!

Mari died unexpectedly and she woke up in the "after world" or the "in between". It's not exactly as she expected or thought it was. There's a whole system in getting out of the "in between". At least Mari is not alone, her mother is in the afterlife with her.
I found it very hard to get into. 2 stars.

The complete lack of emotion in this book made it bothersome to read. I was intrigued by the premise but left with a lot of questions about "The Powers that Be" and disappointed that the possibility of the in-between is just more corporate America. The main character is utterly unlikeable from the beginning and the more I read, the less I liked her. There was too much angst and anger in this book from the beginning and with all the horrible other things going on in real life, I don't want to read about a moody teenager being angry even in death.

I thought What Comes After was going to be more of a young adult mystery than a general fiction book. I had actually read the blurb on this one and it sounded scary and good. It’s a good family fiction piece, but not what I had expected. This is what happens when you read the blurb (chuckle).

Katie Bayerl deals head on with the issue of parental neglect and having to self-parent. Who is the bad guy, the parent who is trying their best or the kid who is angry and can’t give one ounce of respect to the parent. Each is struggling to survive the best way they can.

What Comes After moves back and forth between life and afterdeath. We get to see Mari trying to overcome poverty obstacles to try and succeed. Then there is her shocking death that makes no sense to her. With her life and memories on open display we talk about what should stay private and what should be shared. Who should judge us? Why should “they” judge us?

Can you come back from death after it all? Nope. Yes, that is a spoiler (chuckle). Bayerl throws in a different mystery for missing souls, but anyone addicted to mysteries could figure it out within a few chapters. I will say this, my Mom and I talked about Limbo all the time. She told me that it looked like Hawaii. Ever since that’s what I tell people and you know what? They’re not so scared anymore.

What Comes After has no scares or thrills. It just deals with the same human emotions that we deal with everyday. Mari makes it worth reading.

What Comes After had such a cool premise. It was giving The Good Place meets Black Mirror, which immediately caught my attention. I was excited to dive into a story about the afterlife with a more reflective, philosophical twist, especially one that felt grounded in a secular perspective.

That being said, I struggled to really connect with the characters. None of them truly grabbed me and that made it harder to feel fully invested in their journeys. The "before" chapters didn’t add much for me either and kind of pulled me out of the main storyline.

The world-building had so much potential but it ended up feeling a bit muddled. The rules of this afterlife weren’t super clear and while I was intrigued enough to keep reading, I was hoping for more resolution. We got closure for some individual characters but not much explanation around the bigger picture or the mysterious Powers That Be.

Still, I appreciated how thought-provoking it was. It’s definitely one of those books that makes you reflect on life, death, and everything in between even if the execution didn’t totally land for me.

Oh man, this was a really stressful book! What happens to Mari in the afterlife is pretty much my version of hell. Group meetings? Affirming messages on t-shirts? Being monitored constantly? UGH. WHAT COMES AFTER is a unique novel, and I liked certain elements a lot, particularly the genuinely messy and complicated relationship between Mari and her mom, Faye. It's one of the better mother/daughter depictions I have read in a novel. The world-building, while the world itself was super stressful, was also pretty extraordinary, and while it took me a while to get into the book and over the ickiness I felt at the "youga" and self-help-iness, I really liked the book overall and look forward to reading more of Bayerl's books.

As a fan of The Good Place, I was immediately interested in this book and it definitely delivered in the concept of a faulty afterlife that needs a revolution. I like that the story presented both Mari's live, death and afterlife in quite a good way. There was some mystery to the events that were presented slowly throughout the book. As were many other details - first hidden and revealed when needed. The afterlife in this book was quite capitalistic, full of propaganda and trying to influence people who recently died to make up things for personal gain of three people who self-appointed themselves. Perfect ground for revolution.

What brings my enjoyment of this book down is the ending. The last couple of chapters had events that happened too fast for no reason. They could be talked about deeper and in detail to be more interesting. It just felt like things happened just so the book could end. I wouldn't mind more chapters. Mari often did not seem in control in what is happening to her and at the end, it was way too easy to resolve everything. I was expecting she would have more of a role in improving the situation.

What Comes After is a story about a girl that died and how the afterlife is and how she figures it out. I enjoyed this book. I liked how they portrayed a version of the afterlife. I enjoyed the flaws and quirks of the main characters and how they interacted. I’d recommend this book to anyone that’s interested in books with the afterlife and what happens after.

This one feels like someone mashed up The Good Place with a self-help parody and then threw in a mother-daughter reckoning just to keep you emotionally off-balance. It’s bizarre in concept, sometimes bumpy in execution, but oddly compelling anyway.

Mari’s voice works. She’s prickly but real, and the tension with her mom gives the story something grounded to hang on to. I didn’t always follow the rules of Paradise Gate (and I’m not sure the book fully does either), but I was along for the ride.

It’s not a home run, and the pacing stalls more than once, but there’s something here—especially if you like stories that are a little weird and a little sad and also somehow full of scarves.