Life After

Life After by Katie Ganshert  352  pages

I was intrigued by Life After’s dust jacket. There is a fascinating picture of an elevated train juxtaposed by an old-fashioned lamp. I was hooked when I read the back copy:

            Snow whirls around an elevated train platform in 

            Chicago. A distracted woman boards the train, takes her               seat, and moments later a fiery explosion rips through

            the frigid air, tearing the car apart in a horrific attack on              the city’s transit system. One life is spared. Twenty-two are 

           lost.

The Prologue does a great job in capturing that moment without going into a lot of detail…it works perfectly. It lets the reader know that this is a story of survival, not of the horrific event the Chicago media dubbed, “Tragedy on the Tracks.”

The plot line then moves forward one year. Autumn Manning is the “One life spared.” She is still dealing with survivor’s guilt. She spends her days and nights virtually bound to her apartment, flicking through Netflix, doing jigsaw puzzles, and pouring over the other passengers’ obituaries that she has organized in a binder. When she does go out, she visits the graves of the deceased. She’s even been getting letters from one of the victims’ daughter, Reese Rosamund Elliott.

With the one year anniversary of the tragedy quickly approaching, the city was to erect a memorial to those who perished. One of the people is Vivian Elliott. She left behind an 11-year-old daughter, a seven-year-old son, and a loving husband. Or so the world thought. Paul was a psychiatrist who did work with his church. He is known as the Marriage Doctor.

One day, without warning, Reese goes to visit Autumn. It’s weird for Autumn, and even weirder for Paul Elliott. The Elloitt’s and Autumn are forced together, and whether that swings good or bad most often depends on the day.

Life After has many layers that are slowly revealed as the story progresses, yet Ganshert’s flow is steady and easy. This had the potential to be an incredibly sad, depressing story, but in Ganshert’s hands, it becomes an uplifting story about the power of forgiveness.

I stayed way past my bedtime a couple of nights; I just had to discover what happened next. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to read more of Ganshert’s work. Life After receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.