ammaarah
Written on Jul 29, 2016
"We can always hate that which we loved and with a fire as great as our love once was." (Christopher Bethany)
Afterlife starts right where Hourglass ended. Lucas has turned into the creature that he hates, a vampire, and Bianca is a wraith.
Afterlife deals with Lucas and his adaptation to his new vampire status along with whole mystery and issues surrounding the wraiths.
Ultimately, Afterlife and the whole Evernight series is entirely dependent on the romance between Bianca and Lucas. I was never a fan of Bianca and Lucas and I'm still not a fan. I have always seen their romance as "shallow and fragile young love" instead of the "deep soul-bounding" relationship that they are portrayed to have. In this book, their relationship faces a lot of trials and obstacles, but I never doubted that their relationship wouldn't withstand the stuff that was thrown at them. The way that Afterlife dealt with their relationship when this novel ended, was extremely unsatisfying.
I was most excited about reading how Lucas deals with being turned into a vampire. In Hourglass, I warmed up to Lucas, but Afterlife destroyed any connection that I had to him as a character. In Afterlife, Lucas has to not only deal with the transition, but he also has to cope with the extreme blood lust that he feels. Lucas becomes a brooding and moody guy and while I could understand this, I found his overwhelming hunger and feelings about it repetitive.
I don't even feel like talking about Bianca. She was a character that loved, but in Afterlife her life literally revolves around her relationship with her boyfriend, although she doesn't have much to live for, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't annoying. In Evernight and Stargazer she was her own character and could make her own decisions, but in Afterlife that part of her character has disappeared.
The secondary characters are the highlight of this series. Bianca blames Balthazar for leading Lucas into a battle and his death, but her conflict with Balthazar feels forced. Balthazar is a great guy and I can't wait for read his story. I also enjoyed his friendship with Lucas. Vic and Ranulf are the coolest guys ever. I wish that Dana featured more in this book and I almost forgave Raquel.
The plot in this book was extremely slow for the first half as it deals with Lucas's bloodlust, but the second half is extremely rushed. Events that happens at the end of the book feels like such cop-outs such as Mrs Bethany and Christoper both dying, Lucas turning back into a human and Charity leaving Lucas's dreams alone after Balthazar intervenes although she's been the villain..
I'm disappointed with the ending of this series, but I can't wait to read Balthazar.