Afterworlds [B2223]

2014 HCDJ in Gift-Worthy condition. Ages 14 & Up! From the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy/YA author Scott Westerfeld comes a "masterful" (Cory Doctorow) novel-within-a-novel that you won't be able to put down.

Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she is taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love.

Woven into Darcy's personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved-and terrifying-stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love . . until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Scott is a brilliant and talented author. What a great book! This book was completely different from The Uglies, yet still just as good. I appreciated reading about how an author writes their books, and THEN read the book the author is writing as well. Every other chapter is the story of the author and how she found inspiration and ideas for her very first book. We get to see her journey and watch her grow, and even being able to read her entire book, and watch as it all comes together, how the author struggles, as well as meeting other authors who advise her and help her. You'll be glad to experience this book I am 99.9% sure of it.";

"Afterworlds is really two books in one: a young debut author writing her first novel - and the novel itself, a paranormal romance that begins with a terrorist attack. It's a lengthy book, but it rushed by because the two interwoven narratives are so compelling.";

"The parallel perspectives of Darcy and Lizzie were a lot of fun! Peeking into a debut writers experience definitely got me excited about reading. I liked Darcy's story better than Lizzie's, which is surprising because I typically love fantasy style romances, but I think the contemporary content brought a good balance of realism to the psychopomp adventures. Overall a nice YA coming of age story I'd recommend to people with interest in these genres."