Afterwards (edition 2011)

Very interesting and unusual book. What happens after a horrific accident. ( )

Grace is attending her son's sports day at his private school when the school goes up in flames and she realizes her teenage daughter Jenny is in the building. Both Grace and Jenny are taken to hospital in critical condition - Jenny badly burned with internal smoke inhalation damage to her heart; Grace in a coma with no brain activity showing. The twist here is that Jenny and Grace are able to leave their bodies and through eavesdropping follow the clues to how the fire was set. Through this, they also learn about their love for each other, for others in their family, betrayal by friends and facing death. ( )

A very moving ending and plenty of surprises as to the perpetrators of the crime and their motives. I had to keep reminding myself who Grace was speaking to when she mentioned 'you' but that's most likely because a book is not so often written as if directed at another character. I felt Grace waffled a little in her thoughts occasionally but, apart from that, I enjoyed this book. ( )

There is a fire and they are in There. They are in there . . . Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and runs. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her. Afterwards, Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her family from the person who's still intent on destroying them. Afterwards, she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.

My Thoughts:

Firstly with this book I had to get used to the fact that Grace and her daughter Jenny are wandering around in the between worlds of life and death. Both have been seriously injured in a fire and are trying to find out who is the true culprit. I don’t think this book is fantasy or even a ghost story but the scenario has just added a different take to the story. It worked for me and would describe this book as a fast paced crime novel.

Having both Grace and Jenny not been able to get up and walk around as if nothing has happened but to rely on their souls ( if you like ) to do it for them it adds a certain vulnerability. Thus I felt I was right by their sides holding their hands.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this book and I found myself turning the pages quite quickly to see how the story was going to go. I didn’t guess at all although there were plenty of clues along the way.

Dare I say that tissues may be needed when reading this book. A worthy five star read. ( )

Gracie's a comfortable mother of two children, one of whom, Adam, attends an expensive private school in London, and the other, Jenny, is working at the school as she prepares to retake her A levels. On the morning of field day, as she stands watching the children and her son has been sent to the school building with the daughter of her best friend to retrieve his birthday cake, she sees smoke rising from the building and, running over, finds the school on fire. She sees her son is safely outside, but can't find her daughter, who was working up on the third floor.

There's an odd twist to the narration of this story that took a little adjusting to; Gracie tells the story in the first person, from the events of the day of the fire and then forward as she lies in a coma in a hospital bed. She's able to roam around the hospital invisibly, and soon decides that it's vital to discover who set the fire and why. This really, really shouldn't work. I spent the first chapters wondering if Lupton had decided to write sentimental weep-fests instead of crime novels, but soon it became clear that this was a mystery and one full of possible suspects and motives. Lupton made both the unconventional set up work and when the culprit was finally revealed, it was both a surprise, and someone indicated from the beginning. ( )