Amber Crane doesn’t know why her mum is screaming. She’s just arrived home from high school as she does every day, on the bike her much-loved aunt bought for her birthday. Others her age are driving to school, but Amber still loves her bike painted the same colour as her name. So why is mum still screaming?

Her sister looks different. Her hair is blue and she’s taller. How can that be? Her father arrives and whilst not screaming, seems to be in shock. So is Amber when she’s told that she died seven years before, on the very bike she just rode home on.

Still in disbelief herself, Amber realises it must be true as everything she left behind has changed. Her little sister is now the same age, her mother is a mess, and her father doesn’t even live with them any more. She reaches out to her boyfriend and others she knew to try and make sense of it all. This causes even more fall out and she wonders why she has returned at all.

Her family however don’t want to lose her again, and start to plan….

Told in multiple viewpoints – which don’t seem to make much sense at first, After Life is a beautifully told young adult novel about our effects on people in life and in death. These effects are like a rippling pond, reaching further than we can ever imagine, and Gayle Forman portrays this brilliantly.

Like no other ghost story I’ve read, main character Amber is solid and real in every way to her loved ones, but Amber herself can’t feel them. All of the emotions are front and centre however. Shock, Grief, Love, Betrayal, Joy, Confusion and more, as Amber along with her family try to make sense of what has happened.

The multiple viewpoints all tell their own stories, finally ending up woven into Amber’s at the end.

An enjoyable read.

Author – Gayle Forman

Age – 14+

(2025, Allen & Unwin, Hot Key Books, Betrayal, Family, Friendship, Ghost, Grief, Love, School, Secret, Boyfriend, Future Plans, Death, Truth, Faith, Miracles, Confusion, Questions, Siblings, Sisters, Guilt, Families, Flow on effects)