My So-Called Afterlife (Afterlife)

by Tamsyn Murray

[Leah]

I first heard of Tamsyn's book early last year. I thought it sounded incredibly interesting but at the time I didn't read anything other than chick lit so I quickly dismissed it. However, when I finally got into the YA genre I found myself reading more and more reviews for My So-Called Afterlife. I managed to read the first chapter online which I loved but I was hesitant to spend 6€ on a book that was barely 200 pages long. However the fantastic first line made me purchase the book and I'm so glad I did.

"I knew it was time to move on when a tramp peed on my Uggs," begins My So-Called Afterlife. As far as opening lines go, that's quite a corker. I rarely pay attention to first lines but there are two that have caught my attention recently and the one above is one of them (the other is the opening line to Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor). The opening line of My So-Called Afterlife enabled me to quickly get into the spirit of things and to enter into Lucy's world. If six months ago you had told me I'd absolutely adore a book about a ghost, I would have told you to stop talking crazy and yet I find myself, more and more, getting into books that have a paranormal heart.

The fact that Lucy is stuck in a men's toilet provided many laughs, particularly when we first meet Jeremy, the man who ends up helping Lucy enormously. It set the tone for the rest of the book and I enjoyed the rapport between Lucy and Jeremy immensely. I haven't read many ghost stories but I feel like Tamsyn Murray managed to put her own mark on what it means to be a ghost. I thought the way Lucy was able to leave her toilet incredibly interesting as well as what would happen if she wasn't able to keep a hold of what it was she needed to be able to leave the loos.

I thought Lucy made a fantastic young heroine. She was witty and sarcastic and I loved her right from the word go. When Jeremy suggested they try and find Lucy's killer, I felt hugely sympathetic with Lucy's plight and fear of remembering the night of her murder. I actually really loved Jeremy too, despite him looking like a geography teacher. How he handled being able to hear and see a ghost was fantastic and I loved it when he refused to believe Lucy was really a ghost. The entire ghost community whom Lucy gets to meet were also fantastic. Ryan, although a ghost, definitely sounded like a hot ghost (I never thought I'd ever write something like that)! Ryan had an incredibly sad back story and, yet, he still seemed so sweet and relatively upbeat. Hep, a ghost whom Lucy befriends, also has an incredibly sad background and I also really loved her. I actually just wanted to give Hep a hug. The only other character who makes an appearance is another, more unfriendly, ghost Kimberley. She really wasn't very nice to Lucy and I really didn't like her.

Although it may seem that My So-Called Afterlife is relatively light-hearted you will be surprised to learn that it deals with a plethora of teenage issues: death (obviously), suicide, bullying and many more. Murray handles all of those issues incredibly sensitively. Murray's writing is actually quite fantastic. My So-Called Afterlife is immensely easy to read and Lucy's voice easily shines out from the pages. Murray has gotten into the head of a teenager incredibly easily. Even the length of the book didn't bother me. Obviously I could have continued reading about Lucy and co. all day long but the 170+ pages was seemingly the perfect length for the book.

I hugely enjoyed My So-Called Afterlife, it did deal with some serious issues teens face but still manages to be witty and relatively light-hearted. I never thought the murder of a 15-year-old teenager could be so witty, I must say. If you can pick yourself up a copy of My So-Called Afterlife, I urge you to read the first page and see just how quickly this book pulls you in. Believe me, you won't be disppointed!