I absolutley loved this book. I would recommend this to anyone. I love the way that Jessica Warman brings the characters to life and sucks you into the book as if you were there with Allison, Josie and Richie and Alex. The shock of it all still has me in total aw... ( )

Liz wordt in de nacht van haar achttiende verjaardag, die ze met vrienden op het jacht van haar ouders heeft gevierd, wakker van een hardnekkig gebonk. Als ze de oorzaak van het gebonk ontdekt, verandert alles.

Review also appears here:https://reviewsofyabooks.blogspot.com/2020/10/between-by-jessica-warman.html

Introduction

On the night of her 18th birthday, Elizabeth "Liz" Valchar dies. Stuck between life and death, she finds her body knocking against her family's boat long before her friends find her. Liz can't remember anything from her life, or her death. Everything has holes. She has no idea how she managed to drown on her 18th birthday, surrounded by her friends. The only way she can figure it out is by waiting for the memories to hit her, and by silently observing her family and friends as they grieve.

Luckily, she isn't alone. With her in this limbo like state is Alex Berg, a boy who was hit by a car a year prior to Liz's death. They had no connection in life. Liz was popular, and had everything anybody could ever want. Alex was introverted, from a modest family, and spent his school days trying to avoid being bullied. They have no idea why they're together, but slowly, together, they're going to figure out what happened on the nights of their deaths.

Characters

Almost all of the characters are very difficult to like, which is usually what happens when all pf the characters are spoiled rich kids. They are the classic rich kid characters who are all troubled in some way, but I found a lot of their troubles fell a little flat. They are all very real and tough problems, but most of them weren't delved into deep enough for me to really care about them. As a result, a good number of the characters were never very interesting to me, and a couple of them felt completely pointless to the story.

Liz did a lot of growing and maturing throughout the book--a result of seeing herself in her memories--and seeing her grow into a less stuck up version of her was wonderful.

Mystery/Ending

I had predictions about the ending very early on in the book. probably less than halfway through, and when I got to the end, all of my predictions turned out to be right. The ending felt a little predictable to me, and because of this, I wouldn't label it the most effective mystery. However, even though I figured out what was going to happen early on in the book, I still enjoyed reading it as it all unfolded.

Romance

I was very pleased that no romance happened between Alex and Liz. I admit, I really expected that that was what was going to happen when I first started the book, but I think if it did happen, it would have made the story entirely different than what it was and I'm really glad that it didn't go that way.

Conclusion

Despite not truly connecting with many of the supporting characters and essentially figuring out the mystery long before the ending, I did find this book entertaining to read, and I think I will try to read more from Warman. This book does feature a few mature themes, and does depict disordered eating as a large part of Liz's life, so if that is triggering to you, I would stay away from this book. ( )

Il mio primo approccio verso questo libro è stato un magnetismo verso la splendida copertina. Ebbene sì, di solito non mi faccio fregare dalle immagini che cantano come sirene, ma lì, sul banchetto della fiera, quel vestito rosso ha fatto breccia nelle mie difese. Quindi, prendo in mano il libro - e già la frase sulla copertina "Vidi un cadavere galleggiare. Era il mio." mi incuriosisce -, leggo la trama e voilà, sto pagando. No, non è vero, prima ho sfruttato la connessione del cellulare per cercare informazioni, ma non è che mi abbiano influenzata poi molto di più visto che avevo già il portafoglio in mano.

Di solito scrivere recensioni per libri con voti così alti mi viene semplice perché sono talmente eccitata, talmente euforica per quello che ho letto che sprizzo amore da ogni poro, ma con After questa semplicità mi viene negata, perché di semplice questo libro non ha proprio niente.
Leggere After è stato un viaggio inaspettato. Dalla trama, dall'incipit, dai primi capitoli, sembrava dovesse trattarsi di un paranormal thriller a tutti gli effetti. con una carica di tensione molto alta; invece si è rivelato un cammino introspettivo, attraverso i personaggi, alla scoperta delle persone che siamo e che vorremmo/dovremmo essere.

Liz e Alex sono due persone diametralmente opposte: lei bella, popolare, viziata, ricca e con un'anima fragile come cristallo; lui anonimo, che deve lavorare per vivere e nascondersi per sopravvivere, ma che si rivela molto più forte e determinato di chiunque altro Liz abbia mai incontrato.
Il mistero della morte di Liz (e di quella di Alex) viene rivelato a poco a poco, ma... continua a leggere su http://theinkspell.blogspot.it/2016/08/recensione-after-di-jessica-warman_25.htm... ( )

When I received this book at BEA, I first thought it was another book - I’m not sure why, it was a long day - so when I brought it home and read the back of it and realised that it wasn’t a fantasy novel I was a bit cautious. While I step outside of fantasy novels every once in awhile, it’s mostly on recommendations or because I’ve heard great buzz about it, so going with no buzz and no expectation I started to read Between.

I was blown away.

Jessica Warman spins the tale of a high schooler named Elizabeth. Liz is pretty, rich, popular, dating a popular boy at school and at the top of the high school social food chain. Liz is a runner. Liz has a secret. Liz is dead.

When Liz awakes to her death she finds that she cannot remember the events leading up to her body being found face down in the water near her parent’s boat.

The biggest thing that struck me about Between was how much I disliked Liz. Yet, I still wanted to hear what she had to say; this is a balance that I don’t often find in books where I dislike the protagonist. Jessica Warman kept the mystery alive long enough to see past Liz’s superficialness and realise that she was a living and hurting teenager just like the people she tormented in her life. Joining her in her death is Alex, a boy from her school who died the year before. In her life she would never be caught dead with him - death is indeed the great equalizer.

As their time together unfolds, Jessica paints a portrait of the life of Alex and Liz through Liz’s eyes. After a point I started to like Liz as a character. She is more complex than we are initially lead to believe and these complexities all tie into the path that leads to her death.

The more I read, the faster I wanted to get to the resolution, while, at the same time, not wanting it to end. The writing is gripping, and as the mystery slowly unraveled, the depth of the players are revealed as well. Yes, you might be able to figure it out before the big reveal, but it was the character development and the emotions that came bursting through the pages that was the most fascinating part of this novel. I could almost close my eyes and see high school again.

Once the story was over and the book was closed I still carried the characters around in my head. It shook me a bit, how easily life can be taken away, how delicate a world we live in and how much the things we think matter don’t matter at all when we die. Sobering, Between is a must-read. ( )