Afterworlds, by Scott Westerfeld, is a Young Adult (YA) book that shifts between the lives of Darcy, a talented young author, and Lizzie, the protagonist in a book written by Darcy. The chapters that focus on Darcy’s life tell the story of a pensive, scared 18-year-old who thrusts herself out into the world. Darcy has written a book in just 30 days, and she has already received a book deal from the Underbridge Literary Agency. Darcy packs her bags and moves to New York, where she finds a new life filled with agents, editors, and writers.

Lizzie is flying back to her mother when a terrorist strikes. To save her life she plays dead. Lizzie forces her way to the “Afterworld,” a dimension next to ours filled with ghosts and a beautiful boy named Yamaraj. Soon Lizzie is whisked away into a new world with mystery and romance.

The story of Lizzie follows the storyline of most YA novels: a brave teenager is thrown into a new world with danger and a love interest. Although that portion of the book is well written and very suspenseful, what makes this book interesting is Darcy’s more mundane problems, and the juxtaposition of the two stories. Darcy is more pensive and thoughtful than Lizzie, which makes for a nice change and allows for deeper themes and storylines to be developed.

Although neither of the stories is truly ground-breaking, it was interesting to see the representation of the process of writing. Darcy’s narrative was realistic and didn’t seem like just a filler story for Westerfeld to create a new book format. The alternating chapters were refreshing and seemed to highlight the good aspects of each genre (fantasy and realistic fiction).

This would be a good book for a YA reader who wants to start transitioning into more grown-up material. If you enjoyed this book you might like more of Scott Westerfeld’s writing, such as the Uglies series. The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins as well as The Hunger Games and the Percy Jackson series are other great YA series.