Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld                              599 pages

This is Westerfeld’s newest book.  For people familiar with his previous books, this book is very different.  This is the story of Darcy, who, during her senior year of high school wrote a novel, which has been purchased and will be published in another year.  Darcy was paid a large advance and her plan is to defer college for at least a year and spend the next year in New York doing the rewrites for her book and writing the sequel, which has also been purchased.  Her parents, although not thrilled, agree, and Darcy is off to New York.  The story is told in alternating chapters between Darcy’s story of moving to New York, writing, finding love, and learning about life, and the story she is writing, about a girl who has a near death experience when terrorists attack the airport and then finds that she can see ghosts and travel to their world.  It’s possible to just read Darcy’s story or her book, if one of the stories doesn’t appeal, but both stories are awesome and there are some parallels that are fun to see, like when Darcy learns a new word, the word finds its way into the story she’s writing.  I think that a lot of teens would like this book, including fans of Westerfeld, but they should be prepared for the differences between this and his previous books.