Thursday, October 26, 2006

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - The Afterlife

I just finished Gary Soto's The Afterlife. This one's about a high school senior who is murdered in the first 3 pages of the book. Normally saying that the main character dies, kinda ruins the story for anyone who wants to read the book, but in this case it doesn't. The story is really about what happens after Jesus, or Chuy as he's known to his family and friends, dies. It was well-written, but it just didn't really grab me like some other books I've read recently. Maybe it's partly because it reminded me of how little I remember from 3 (or was it 4?) years of high school Spanish from way back when. Don't let that frighten you away from this book though. Because Chuy is Hispanic, there are some Spanish words sprinkled lightly through his speech, but there is a glossary in the back of the book, and even without that, you'd still get the gist of what he was saying. For books about after death experiences, I liked Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere better. If you've read either book, let me know what you thought.

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