The originality of this book is that we actually have two stories including a setting in abyss (a book in a book!). We first follow Lizzie, a young girl seventeen years that followed a kind of near-death experience, discovers the power to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. Do not rely on the summary and the catchphrase that give a false idea of the book. Lizzie is an imaginary heroine, is a fictional character, created from scratch by our "second" or true heroine (to you): Darcy.
Indeed, the story of Darcy and her character Lizzie, interspersed throughout the 672 pages.
This double narrative is surprising: we move from a paranormal romance novel to a well anchored in reality. Darcy is a young writer who has just arrived in New York, we will discover the editorial process through his days. Which is rather fun, is that Darcy has named his book Afterworld, as same novel we are reading!
I enjoyed the two stories although my preference is to Lizzie. It was frustrating to go from one girl to the other, and I am often chosen me to skip chapters to read in one go the same story. When it's his turn, Darcy talks about his book and we discover As his inspirations and the changes it wishes to make to its history. The construction of the novel I liked, although I was expecting a real link between the two girls, the blame for this sentence on the cover "one writes, the other lives." Once I realized that Lizzie was not real, I had more trouble mimmerger in the narrative. When I read, I like to believe that the characters actually exist. The first chapter from the perspective of Lizzie: the terrorist attack completely conquered me because I believed ... For me, Lizzie existed.
Darcy does not always interested me. Certainly his daily teaches us a lot about the world of literature "young adult" American but I felt little affinity for the character. Darcy is not always without its mature decisions and lack of background. I am more attached to her heroines (Lizzie and Mindy) to itself, which is supposed to be real!
The big problems of this novel is that it is far too long. After the first 300 pages, the story does not really advance. Lizzie side, the story stagnates and being constantly "cut" to return to Darcy does not help. I read the beginning of milking, without coming to arrest me but then I had to force myself to move forward as it does virtually nothing more happens. The concept of the novel is interesting but at the same time, I quickly tired me this double reading. I had the impression that remained too superficial and in the end, despite the thickness of Afterworlds, it lacks substance, I stay on my hunger ....
Finally, Afterworlds is an original novel but it suffers from too present lengths. A notice so lackluster for the new book by Scott Westerfeld.
Other opinions to be found on megworld.fr :)
