Title: Afterlife
Author: Claudia Gray
Genre: YA
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 3 March 2011
Summary:
The fourth and final novel in the internationally best-selling EVERNIGHT series – a vampire romance with a shocking twist.
Bianca and Lucas have always believed they could endure anything to be together. When a twist of fate not only transforms Bianca into a wraith but also turns Lucas into a vampire – the very creature he spent his life hunting – they are left reeling. Haunted by his powerful need to kill, Lucas can turn to only one place for help… Evernight Academy. But with the vampire leader of Evernight waging war on the wraiths, Bianca’s former home has become the most dangerous place she could be, despite the new powers her ghostly transformation has given her. A battle between wraiths and vampires looms, and Bianca and Lucas face a terrifying new reality. Is their love strong enough to survive after life?
My Review:
I have to admit, I have bittersweet feelings about reviewing this book, not least because it’s the final book in the series and I’m going to miss the main characters. Those of you who have read the previous books in the Evernight series (Evernight, Stargazer and Hourglass) will be familiar with the characters and storylines. Those of you who haven’t, I advise you to read those three books first, before continuing with this review as it does contain a few spoilers.
Whilst the Evernight series is primarily a book about vampires, it’s also a book about other supernatural beings, namely wraiths who are ghost like creatures who haunt the Evernight Academy and who are sworn enemies of the Vampires. Towards the end of Hourglass (book 3 in the series), we learned of the reason why the wraiths have a claim on Bianca and in Afterlife, we learn of the depth of that reason as well as few other surprising plot revelations.
For me, Lucas has always been the main player of this series, despite the fact that the story is told entirely in Bianca’s point of view. However, it’s Lucas’ struggle with finding out what Bianca is, to then having his loyalties divided between Black Cross (the family he has grown up with) and the love of his life that held my interest. Afterlife is the culmination of these struggles as three individual battles come to a head in one final climax.
I have to admit to finding it difficult at some chapters to accept some of the decisions that Bianca (and even Lucas and Balthazar to a certain extent) make in order to try and overcome the enemy. However, as I soon found out, these things happened for a reason and with a plot twist that even a hardened fan like me didn’t see coming, certainly added to the mix of drama that leads up to the final battle.
All in all, Afterlife is a fitting conclusion to the series. There tears, there are scars, there’s loss and, yes, there is a happy ending. I’ve been with these characters for a couple of years now and I will miss them, but as the title suggests, they are now in their afterlife and I, like many other fans, will need to find another book series to satiate our needs.
