How do you envision the afterlife? Do you believe in a heaven and hell? Or do you imagine an infinite void of nothingness? Katie Bayerl gives her take on life after death in her new YA speculative novel, What Comes After.
What Comes After follows sixteen-year-old Mari Novak, who wakes up in the In Between stage following her untimely death. She must deal with the unfinished business from her former life, including fixing the relationship between her and her mother, who died only six weeks before Mari did.
We enjoyed Katie Bayerl’s take on the afterlife, and it makes for such an interesting storyline. Here are three reasons why you should read What Comes After!
Book Overview: What Comes After
Content warnings: parent and grandparent deaths, violence, vomiting, references to suicide, gun violence, and other forms of sudden death
Summary: Mari never gave much thought to the afterlife before her untimely demise, but she certainly didn’t think it would be an experimental wellness enclave called Paradise Gate—a place where the newly dead go to sort out the unfinished business of their lives. She also didn’t think the biggest problem to plague her in life would follow her into the great beyond: her also recently deceased mother, Faye. Mari quickly realizes Faye is her unfinished business, and in order to move on to whatever’s next, she’ll have to find a way to forgive her dysfunctional mother for being no mother at all. But there’s so much to forgive: never holding down a steady job, never having a stable home, and abandoning Mari in the end.
It’s a lot to sort through, but faced with the possibility of being turned out into the abyss, Mari gets to work. She enrolls in the prescribed self-actualization classes (think: journaling, positive self-talk, and lots of Youga™). It all seems pretty hokey, but still, the assignments force Mari to confront difficult truths about her past.
When a shocking revelation about Mari’s death captures the attention of the afterlife media, Mari is suddenly in the spotlight, her messy history being judged by the whole realm. She finds escape in an equally troubled boy, who takes Mari to an obscure part of Paradise Gate and introduces her to rebels who show Mari that this “wellness center” is not all it pretends to be. With classmates disappearing and an afterlife revolution brewing, Mari must decide whether to play it safe or break the rules. At stake? Her eternal fate. Literally.
Trouble In Paradise (Gate)
At first, Mari plays by the rules of Paradise Gate and tries to get her karma points and mood up. But no matter how many wellness classes she takes, her mood tracker can’t seem to stay up. She soon notices trends between the number of people who make it to the In Between and those who actually pass the process for ascension. Then her classmates start disappearing. Mari’s morbid curiosity (haha) eventually leads her to a group of rebels who seek freedom from the system. Will she decide to stand on the side of the revolution?
The Dark Humor
When you’re reading about the afterlife like in What Comes After, there’s bound to be dark humor involved. It often has to do with Mari and the characters being dead, therefore unable to get hurt or die (again). Although Mari gets the ick from these dead people jokes at the beginning, she eventually warms up to it. We think dark humor is a great way to cope with taboo topics like death, so this novel has our stamp of approval!
Mari’s Character Development
Another reason why you should read What Comes After is for Mari’s character development. This coming-of-age story is so important for readers who grew up with dysfunctional parents. Especially for readers who became parentified when they were far too young. Mari holds so much resentment toward her mother when they reunite at Paradise Gate. But the more she looks into their former lives, the more she realizes that neither of them were perfect. Mari and her mother ultimately manage to put in the work needed to mend their relationship. And we love that for them.
For the morbidly curious and eternally hopeful readers, What Comes After by Katie Bayerl tells a unique coming-of-age story about trust, self-love, and forgiveness.
What Comes After by Katie Bayerl comes out April 29th, and you can order a copy of it here!
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