After Life

Gayle Forman

Jan 2025 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A Good Morning America Book Club YA Pick

"Gayle Forman has an uncanny ability to create characters in which we see ourselves, and her latest—which looks at where love goes, after a loss—is an honest, heartbreaking elegy to how memory makes relationships eternal." —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"I was consumed by this thought-provoking, deftly written, multilayered novel. Gayle Forman reigns as the queen of breaking hearts with a touch of magic." —Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End

One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.

Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now. 

This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther out: Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?

This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.

But as Amber tries to piece together the life she left behind, will she find answers or only more heartbreak?

• YA Magical Realism: Amber died seven years ago. Now she’s back on the same bicycle, with no memory of where she’s been, forcing her family and friends to confront the impossible.
• Sibling Relationship: Once the protective older sister, Amber must now rely on Melissa, the little sister who is suddenly seven years her senior and holds the secrets to the life Amber can’t remember.
• Teen Romance: As Amber reconnects with her boyfriend, Calvin, she discovers that seven years of grief and secrets have changed him—and their ‘forever love’—in ways she never could have imagined.
• Multiple POV: Uncover the full story through the eyes of not just Amber, but her family, friends, and even strangers whose lives were irrevocably touched by her death.

Ratings and reviews

🚲Poignant look at one teen death's aftermath 4.5🌟 After Life had so much heart as it highlighted the longer-term reactions & effects of teen Amber's senseless death in a road accident. It's so poignant the way she and her sister Melissa interact, and though there were moments that almost brought me to tears, the overall effect was positive and inspirational. Her parents, sister and boyfriend, all have different reactions that come to a head when Amber suddenly turns up 7 years after dying!

Good

About the author

Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for children and adults, including After Life, Not Nothing, the Just One series, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.