Reviews

The Afterlife of the Party, by Marlene Perez

cinephilegirl_'s review against another edition

DNF at 65% not for me at this moment.

erinreve's review against another edition

4.0

Probably more of a 3 or 3.5 star for 38yo me, but I can’t shake the feeling that 16yo me would have LOVED this. A bit campy, but very entertaining and easy to read. I doubt I’ll continue with the series, but I enjoyed my reading experience. If you’re looking for an angsty YA romance involving vampires (where the vamps are the bad guys,) very strong friendships with heavy emphasis on music - this book is for you.

destany's review against another edition

4.0

I was so not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did! I wasn't fond of the ending but I know it had to happen to amp up the drama. I'll be reading book 2 soon.

julieannasbooks's review against another edition

2.0

⭐⭐

The Afterlife of the Party follows Tansy, who is dragged to a party in Hollywood Hills by her best friend Skyler, and leaves one as a vampire. Now her and Skyler are stuck on the road as groupies with a band of vampires. But when the girls find themselves within a vampire war, will Tansy be able to save her friends?

I personally was never really much of a paranormal reader back with the original wave of vampire content in YA books and TV/film, but lately, I’ve been enjoying it much more. So when I saw The Afterlife of the Party available for request, I thought it would be a great fit for me. There’s vampires, there’s bands, and it sounded like a really unique adventure and an interesting start to a trilogy. And while the plot did prove itself to be unique and fun, I wish we got so much more out of the book.

The Afterlife of the Party takes place in our present day, but with the presence of paranormal creatures like vampires and witches. Tansy is a witch herself, and upon finding this out early on in the book, I was excited to learn more about the world and how witches tied into the story. However, I feel like we never really got that. There’s never any sort of in-depth, fleshed out explanations about the paranormal worldbuilding and the detailed origins or backstories of paranormal life. Each time I thought there would be more depth, the explanations barely scraped the surface, and I was really hoping we’d see more of that, at least in the first book.

I also struggled with the characters at times. They are supposed to be in their late teens, but if I didn’t know better I would have considered these characters to be tweens by their levels of maturity. That being said, this book might be better suited for readers around the age of thirteen, but if your expectations are for older teenage characters, you may find that they act much younger for their age. Ultimately, I feel like their behavior conflicted with the situations that they were in because of this. Despite this, I really did like the exploration of Tansy and Vaughn’s relationship as they navigated everything that was thrown at them throughout the book.

At the end of the day, I feel like The Afterlife of the Party has a really cool and fun concept, but I really wish we got more details and backstory than was there. I find paranormal stories to be much more interesting and fun when there’s more to learn about the world behind the paranormal characters themselves, and I do wish that this book had more of that as the first in the series – I would love to see more of these explorations (especially Tansy’s family and history as a witch) in book two.

CW:

Spoiler

Violence/gore, non-consent

You can find more of my reviews here: www.julieannasbooks.com

fringebookreviews's review against another edition

4.0

Help??? I actually really liked this and am totally gonna read the sequel. It was unhinged but I don’t know why the reviews are so low?? Vaughn is a hunky love muffin and I was interested in basically everything going on. I got confused at some plot points but understood everything by the end. Transitions between chapters were a bit funky nuts but the tone was likable and I like Tansy as well.

The narrator was also great and I wish she narrated more YA books. She’s also one I can listen to at a comfortable 2.0x speed so the book cruised along.

lilibetbombshell's review against another edition

3.0

This is definitely a comfort-read-style YA contemporary vampire read. It’s nothing too deep, it’s not rife with meaning or metaphor, and it’s not asking you to think too much. It’s just asking you to sit back and enjoy yourself a little and let yourself relax as we watch our main characters, Tansy and Vaughn, try again and again to rescue their mutual bestie, Skyler, from the lead singer of a band made up entirely of vampires that she has fallen under the thrall of.

Tansy is a witch, who, due to some sort of quirk in her family lineage, is resistant to vampire compulsion and can perform compulsions herself. We don’t get much in the way of an explanation about her family lineage and this particular magic (which seems to either inspire awe or fear--Tansy gets both throughout the book), but that’s because Tansy and Vaughn spend a good 60% or so of this book spitballing plans at the wall, trying their best to execute them, and then watching as something goes wrong because they’re teenagers and not exactly vampire experts since they didn’t know vampires even existed until the beginning of this book.

“Afterlife of the Party” both likes to draw from previous vampire lore and sources both literary and not, and then it likes to turn around and poke fun in doing so. Sometimes those self-deprecating gestures will go over the heads of younger readers, but if you’re an older reader, like me, they’ll catch you and make you snort-laugh.

Honestly, if you just like some cute, vampiric fun with a little witchy mystery on the side, it wouldn’t hurt to check this book out before the sequel comes out.

akacya's review against another edition

3.0

tansy didn’t even want to go to the party that caused her best friend to go missing and left her with vampire bite marks. now, she’s on a mission to get her friend back, while worrying that she might be becoming a vampire herself…

honestly, this wasn’t a bad book; it was just way too similar to every other ya vampire book out there for me to fully enjoy. nothing about this book really stuck out to me, i guess except for tansy being a witch (which wasn’t a huge plot point) and what happened at the very end? still, i might continue this series to see what happens.

storieswithsoul's review against another edition

3.0

I don't like being harsh in my reviews but I can't help but say, this book reads like a bad joke. It's true that I haven't picked up paranormal fiction in a while and I'm no fan of vampires, that's exactly why I had such high hopes for this novel. Unfortunately, it's not what I expected. The story is good. I even liked the characters but the way it's written, the downplaying of serious situations, the dialogue that is cringe-worthy... It just wasn't fun reading it at all. In fact, I had to force myself to keep reading.
It's possible that I'm over paranormal fiction or maybe my expectations were too high, but whatever the case, this isn't something I'd recommend to anyone.
I do believe that this book has potential and that's the only reason I'm giving it a three stars rating.
P.S. I received a complimentary copy of this book.

bookish_heidi's review against another edition

I wish I could say I enjoyed this book, but I just couldn't get into it. It's super YA and just didn't hold my interest at all. DNFed at 30%.

gabbysnieto's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated