ARC Review: Afterworlds - Scott Westerfeld

Title: Afterworlds
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pub Date: September 23rd, 2014
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Page Count: 608

Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings…

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.

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This book was horribly disappointing. I've read Westerfeld's other works and they aren't the best (I'll be honest, I don't get the hype) but they aren't terrible either. I'm very impartial to his writing. However, I can't deny that I hated this book! It's actually a DNF in some ways because I gave up seriously reading after 450 pages. After that, it was just some skimming and figuring out where the story was going.

I was bored. This is my main problem. I thought this book would be an inception kind of thing where it would be very interesting. It wasn't. Half the book was about Darcy's life as an author and the other half was about Darcy's story, Afterworlds. I hated Afterworlds by Darcy Patel and was somewhat bored with Darcy's life. Darcy's life was interesting because she was on her way to becoming a debut author, but it wasn't what I signed up for. I wanted a mix of realism with supernatural. However, all I actually got was a terrible supernatural story and dry writings about Darcy's life.
In addition, this book was too long. TOO LONG! I don't really need 600 pages worth of this. So much could've been cut down and that would've kept my interest for a bit longer.

My main problem with Lizzy's story (Afterworlds by Darcy) is how bad the pacing is. I liked how the beginning started with a bang and it totally cut to the chase. I was intrigued for a bit and then it went downhill from there. There was instalove and so much of it. They kissed at page 31. I read that and knew, I just knew it wasn't going to be good from there. And instead of building towards a climax, this book fell flat. I was so bored and nothing exciting happened. When something did happen, it was emotionless and bland because there was no rising action. It felt very erratic and honestly? Weird.

And Darcy's story? It wasn't bad. It wasn't really good (not what I wanted) but it wasn't nearly as bad as Lizzie's. However, I found it so hilarious that Darcy got so much praise about how good her book was because I thought it was horrible. So I got a really good laugh out of that.

I'm going to stop talking now because I've made my points. This book didn't agree with me at all. I was bored out of my mind and the only reason I was still reading was because I wanted it to magically get good in the end. Sadly, that didn't happen.

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Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He was born in the Texas and now lives in Sydney and New York City. In 2001, Westerfeld married fellow author Justine Larbalestier.

He is best know for the Uglies and Leviathan series, and his next book, Afterworlds, comes out September 23, 2014.

His book Evolution's Darling was a New York Times Notable Book, and won a Special Citation for the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award. So Yesterday won a Victorian Premier's Award and both Leviathan and Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour won Aurealis Awards. Peeps and Uglies were both named as Best Books for Young Adults 2006 by the American Library Association.