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Afterlife
Afterlife
Author: Douglas Clegg
A school for special children. An unsolved murder. A terrified widow. A dream of blood and lost souls. A stranger with an unspeakable secret. It all comes together in the afterlife.
ISBN-13: 9780451411679
ISBN-10: 0451411676
Publication Date: 12/7/2004
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 30

3.4 stars, based on 30 ratings
Publisher: Onyx
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Afterlife on + 110 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
Everyone has their own private hell, and Bram Stoker Award winner, Douglas Clegg, is a master at leading us down the path to his character's nether realms of the devil and the demons. The threads of Julie Hutchinson's sanity begin to unravel when her husband, Jeff, is murdered in an act of bestial depravity. Julie begins to have erotic nightmares and hallucinations as she tries to find out what was behind Jeff's murder.

Julie brings to light bizarre secrets involving Jeff's past connection with "Project Daylight," a privately funded school that conducted experiments on children with ESP. She consults a psychic named Michael Diamond who dreams of blood and lost souls, and knows unthinkable secrets. He's prepared to go to any extreme to keep them hidden. And what about Livy, Julie's daughter? Can she keep her safe?

Clegg's inventive mind introduces compelling characters in a complex plot that is filled with bizarre twists including the conceptual reality of reincarnation and psychic phenomena. The suspense is nearly unbearable and the climax caught me by surprise and has me wondering about my own soul. No question....Clegg is a writer at the top of the horror genre, and classic horror has not gone out of style. This story kept me up most of the night to find out what happened.
reviewed Afterlife on + 119 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Every one of his books just keep getting better. Really good ghost story.
nana23 avatar reviewed Afterlife on + 243 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Very suspenseful novel--if you like terror!
Bettyjean avatar reviewed Afterlife on
Helpful Score: 2
Not as good as other Clegg books. I lost interest in it about half way through.
reviewed Afterlife on + 222 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I was liking this book until I got towards the end of it, then it sort of failed
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reviewed Afterlife on + 23 more book reviews
The author almost tries to essay a new genre, a sort of "supernatural/horror cozy", if you will, with a part-time SAHM as heroine. While the concept is interesting, the book drags and the mysterious/supernatural aspects very parsimoniously doled out for at least the first half of the book, consisting almost solely of creepy dreams the heroine has as she goes about in a grief-inspired daze. If you want the book because you think the description of a "special school for children with psychic ability" seems interesting, don't be fooled - this aspect of the story is a very tiny part of the whole and doesn't really come into play until the last 15% of the book. Most of it is living inside the heroine's largely prosaic world with "occasional weird things happening", which is the sort of amateurish mistake you expect from a writing student. (Oh, and don't be fooled by the lavish praise on or inside the cover from the likes of Dean Koontz and John Saul, or the "subtle" reminder that Clegg is a Bram Stoker Award winner. He certainly didn't win for this book, although the publisher does their level trickery best to try to make us think he did by pulling in prior glowing reviews from other Clegg novels, and carefully leaving out any details identifying the actual work which earned the praise.)


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