The Afterlife

The Afterlife is about a young boy who is murdered for an innocent crime. 17 year old Chuy comments on a guys yellow shoes while combing his hair in the bathroom waiting for his date, Rachel to arrive. Chuy said to the guy, "I like your shoes." The man in the yellow shoes pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed Chuy 3 times till he fell to his knees and drowned in his own blood.

As Chuy's soul rose from his bloody death, it sank in that he was dead. Chuy thought his life was over, but this is when his life gets exciting. Chuy gets used to flying around in his new ghost body. He visits his family and his killer. Chuy discovers he has ghostly powers. Though he can't be heard or seen by others he can be sensed. When he meets yellow shoes again he digs his hand into yellow shoes's heart. Yellow shoes gets the chills and he knows somethings up.

During Chuy's afrerlife, he meets two other ghosts. First he meets a pretty girl named Crystal and falls in love with her. He finds out she overdosed on pills because she was afraid she wouldn't make it and that she wasn't good enough. Even though she was intelligent and popular she couldn't see the talent she had in herself. As Crystal and Chuy are strolling, they come across a homeless guy. He was sitting outside underneath a tree and shivering like crazy. THe man had a fever. Chuy saw the homeless man's ghost start rising from his body and touched the man's forehead with his icy breath. The man's ghost sank back into his body. Chuy had saved this man's life for the moment but he eventually died. Chuy met him again as a ghost and they became friends.

one thing Chuy realizes is he is slowly disappearing. Crystal and the hobo, Robert, are disappearing too. Chuy is kind of scared because he doesn't know where he'll go when his ghost body is all gone. THe book leaves you somewhat hanging because it never tells you where they go after they disappear but it insinuates that they go to heaven.

I though this book was uniquely written because Gary Soto added some spanish in it. It made it more real in my opinion. This book didn't have much suspense because right away it told about the murder. It had a great intro and it hooked me. Even though this book wasn't exactly my type, I still enjoyed reading it. B-