Afterlife - Claudia Gray

Afterlife – Claudia Gray

Pages: 360
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 3rd March 2011

Other Titles in this Series: Evernight, Stargazer, Hourglass

!SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ THE SUMMARY AND REVIEW IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES.

Destiny awaits Bianca and Lucas...

Bianca and Lucas have always believed they could endure anything to be together. When a twist of fate not only transform Bianca into a wraith but also turns Lucas into a vampire – the very creature he spent his life hunting – they are left reeling.

Haunted by his powerful need to kill, Lucas can turn to only one place for help...Evernight Academy. Bianca is determined to remain with him. But with the vampire leader of Evernight waging a war against wraiths, her former home has become the most dangerous place she could be, despite the new powers her ghostly transformation has given her.

A battle between wraiths and vampires looms, and Bianca and Lucas face a terrifying new reality. They’ve overcome every obstacle life has thrown at them, but is their love strong enough to survive the challenges of after life?

We left Hourglass on such a cliffhanger that Afterlife had to be amazing just to live up to it. And I did really enjoy it.

The theme that ran through the novel was Lucas and Bianca’s acclimatisation to their new states: a vampire and a wraith. The two things that they had hated and would have least liked to be from the very beginning of Evernight. Bianca had to face living as a wraith, basically getting used to being dead. There was also the indecision about revealing herself to her parents back at Evernight. Though Bianca struggled, it was even harder for Lucas whose worst fear had come true. As a vampire, Lucas had become the thing that he had been trained to hate, hunt and kill since he was old enough to stand. But now he was left facing an eternity as a vampire.

His struggles were written with such feeling that I could feel his pain at having to try so hard to resist his hunger that threatened to consume him. And then at the place that was supposed to help him come to terms with his new life, well, death I guess, he was constantly worried about Bianca’s safety. With all of the changes and adjustments that Bianca and Lucas faced, Afterlife didn’t really feel like the last book in the series. There were still more questions arising: What did Mrs Bethany want with the wraiths? Was Bianca going to reveal herself to her parents? Would Lucas be able to manage being a vampire? With all of these questions it felt like a new chapter of their story was beginning.

However, all my questions were eventually answered. We learned more about Mrs Bethany and the story behind her transformation and what she was doing with the wraiths and why. It was a little bit disturbing and completely unexpected. Even though all my questions had been answered, I did feel that some of the secondary characters had so much more story to tell. I wanted to hear more from Skye, I’m sure Ranulf would have some amazing tales, Vic seems like so much fun and, of course, there’s Balthazar. I’m so glad he’s getting his own book!

With the sweetest ending ever, Afterlife finished off an engaging, twisty and lovable series brilliantly.

Sophie