What do readers think of Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton? Write your own review.

A beautiful and sad book that I couldn’t put down. A woman and her teenaged daughter are badly burned in a school fire. While in the hospital, they get together in an out-of-body experience to solve the mystery of the fire and why and how it happened. A very moving story about love and loss.

"Afterwards" was captivating from the beginning with lots of suspense. I loved this book because it never once gave away who did it and it told another story within that story of just how far a mother is willing to go to save her daughter.

Shocking and suspenseful, this book is about the tangled relationships of parents, children and staff at a private school in England. When an arson fire badly injures a teaching assistant and her mother, it is the unconscious victims who reveal the trail to uncover who is guilty. The author accomplishes this by the clever convention of allowing them to leave their bodies. There are many twists and turns involving a solution to a hate crime as well as the disclosure of financial problems at the school. Many twists and turns keep the reader engaged.

Page turning thriller that is told by not quite ghosts. At times the implausibility of it all was frustrating and hard to get past. As a detective story and a tale about familial love this story was firing on all cylinders. Another good book from Rosamund Lupton.

After the sudden fire at a primary school, a mother embarks upon a crusade, with her daughter's aid, to get to the bottom of this senseless and horrific act. The twist here is that both mother and daughter have been existing in an outer-body dimension, which proves problematic for crime solving. Although this book is very well written with characters that evoke genuine feelings on the part of the reader, had this story been written in traditional prose, it would stand out as a top-notch mystery, with emotional and gripping unforeseen twists and turns.

It is hard to read this book without thinking of "The Lovely Bones", but I thought that this book worked very well even though some elements are similar.

In this book a mother and her daughter are hurt in a fire at a school, and while their bodies are in the hospital the mother follows her friends and relatives around to figure out what happened to them. While this is an unusual way to solve a mystery (although it has some common elements with "The Lovely Bones"), I found it to a compelling read. I very much enjoyed the solving of the mystery and by the end of the book I thought that the emotional twists also worked well without getting maudlin or sappy.

"I couldn't move, not even a little finger, or a flicker of an eye."
With this riveting opening sentence the journey begins on a wild ride of suspense, incredible plot twists, and convincing characters. This British author is sure to amass many fans in the U.S. This is a thriller based on everyday events. Superb!

Moving at the speed of a runaway train, "Afterwards" propels the reader through an otherworld and a very real, painful reality brought about by an unthinkable act of destruction. Pulled by the emotional and physical thread invoked in her debut novel "Sister", Lupton brings home the truth that there are some bonds which can never be broken. Outstanding work....can be felt on a visceral level.