What do readers think of Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton? Write your own review.

I found this book very easy to get into right from the beginning. The characters are well developed and the plot kept my attention. Although I found the ending to be predictable, it will be a good book club pick as there are a few twists and good conversation issues.

Rosamund Lipton's Afterwards is a well-written, riveting novel. The characters are engaging; although the twists and turns of the whodunnit plot are surprising, they are believable. Nonetheless, as much as I enjoyed the fast-paced, readable book, I ended up of two minds about it. Why? The two main characters are disembodied souls of critically injured patients, and that situation felt somewhat forced and prevented me from becoming immersed in the story. I do, however, recommend it as a fun read that touches on a variety of current social issues.

I do believe in "out of body" experiences but I wasn't sure that I would enjoy a book with that theme. I almost didn't finish this book but once I decided to give it a chance, I found myself enjoying it more and more. The story is told in a unique way and the plot twists and turns to keep you interested. It is a well written commentary on family relationships - how much we know about our loved ones - how much we think we know - and how much we don't know. I think book clubs would love this book as there is quite a bit to discuss. I am now going to go back and read the first book by this author.

Page turning thriller that is told by not quite ghosts. At times the implausibility of it all was frustrating and hard to get past. As a detective story and a tale about familial love this story was firing on all cylinders. Another good book from Rosamund Lupton.

After the sudden fire at a primary school, a mother embarks upon a crusade, with her daughter's aid, to get to the bottom of this senseless and horrific act. The twist here is that both mother and daughter have been existing in an outer-body dimension, which proves problematic for crime solving. Although this book is very well written with characters that evoke genuine feelings on the part of the reader, had this story been written in traditional prose, it would stand out as a top-notch mystery, with emotional and gripping unforeseen twists and turns.

This was an exciting thriller. It had a chilling story line and believable characters. However, I would have happily traded some of the "twists and turns" of the plots, (there seemed to be several) for a better exploration of the relationship between the mother, Grace and the daughter, Jennifer. I think that Ms. Lupton could have done both. She gave these characters the opportunity to be able to step outside themselves and she easily could have allowed them to explore being a mother and a daughter while the rest of the family raced against the clock to save them. I also felt that Jennifer would have more likely suffered brain damage rather the cardiac damage by the actions taken against her. So much of the story was about "who done it", there was ample time and opportunity to explore the tenuous relationship between a teenage daughter and her mother. The reader never doubted their love for each other or the need to protect Adam, but so much could have been done to allow the reader to come away with a better knowledge of the emotions between the two main characters. Exciting it was, but excitement just was enough for me.

After reading Rosamund Lupton's 1st book "Sisters" I eagerly awaited her sophmore effort. Was even happier to find out that I could receive an advance copy through BookBrowse but maybe I was too eager because I was very disappointed. I thought the literary device of having Grace & her daughter be like 'spirit detectives' was really reaching for something it never quite grasped. It didn't help that I found Grace to be a silly naive woman. The reveal of "who-dun-it" was a total letdown. at that point I was so irritated with Grace and her silly daughter that I just wanted the book to end. I really wanted to like this book just as much as I had Lupton's first book (which I loved) but unfortunately it just wasn't that good. It reminded me a lot of "Passages" where the main character did the same thing - run around and around a hospital never paying attention to anyone or anything but her own agenda. Totally clueless to everything except herself. Grace unfortuntately reminded me of that character.

The story is interesting, I wanted to know what would happen at the end. I enjoyed Rosamund's imagery, two examples are: P161 - "I'd seen each medical fact ... hitting her face like flying glass, cutting new lines." P381 - ..."A guest still at the table when the hosts are washing up the kitchen".
This type of writing added to the enjoyment of reading the book.
But, I think overall the story was a bit soapy in Grace's wanting to keep her daughter a teenager and not giving up control. She was not letting Jenny find her own different way.
For me, the vocabulary was too British, that is, too many words and phrases to figure out.
In addition, her pronoun use was very confusing.
I wasn't always sure who the speakers were at times. It took me a few sentences to realize who she was talking about.
Overall though, I enjoyed the book, and the story line was interesting. I kept trying to guess the ending.
My final say is I probably would not recommend this for a book club selection. Although I'm not unhappy I read this book
I would give the book a 3.5 rating.