Between the Spaces

Afterworlds
By Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel participated in a month long novel-writing challenge (not NaNoWriMo *wink*) and mailed in her manuscript. The Publisher sends her a contract and suddenly she's off to New York to begin a bright shiny life as a writer. We read her novel in alternating chapters as she polishes and gleans ideas from her peer writers.


Coolest idea for a book. It pulls back the curtain on the methods behind writing and how life experiences can effect the writing process. I love the tidbits of writing advice.

The voice of Darcy is believeable. She is confident and insecure at the same time. There were a few eyebrow-raising unrealistic parts, however, for the most part I was able to remind myself that it's fiction and Westerfeld was having fun.

Her novel: After an attack at the airport, Lizzie can now pass in the space between worlds. The Afterworld. There she meets Yamaraj, a sort of god of the underworld... but not quite. Now able to go between worlds, she begins a quest of revenge and soon realizes the consequences.

But of course there's love in this YA novel. Not the kind you're expecting though and it is utterly refreshing. In both stories!

I enjoyed both stories, neither being in my regular comfort zone genre. And, I didn't mind jumping back and forth.

The best part about the book was being aware that Darcy was the strings behind Lizzie. Darcy would say "I need to put that somewhere in my book" and then a few chapters later in Lizzies story there it would appear.  It brought us out of the Lizzie story, but further into Darcy's.

One downside: what genre is this?!??! One story is paranormal, the other is contemporary. Love the idea of bending the genre, two-in-one.

Overall, recommended to writers certainly. It's fun. And yes, a little long, but what do you expect when an average book is three-hundred and this is really two books in one.

4/5 STARS

The cover: The abstract tear with the ink makes more sense as you read the book. Something that doesn't come across in digital form is the pearl finish of the book. It shimmers. And the purple is a deeper indigo than your eyes can comprehend. Very striking.