Afterlight (Rebecca Lim, Text)

Recently orphaned and a nobody in her final year at school, Sophie’s life was tough enough before the night a silent ghost called Eve showed up in her bedroom—a ghost who looked eerily like her dead mother, and who wanted Sophie to do things for her. Eve’s missions seem like good deeds, but they draw attention to Sophie, and while she welcomes suddenly being noticed by mysterious and beautiful classmate Jordan Haig, some of the attention is from very dangerous people. Afterlight is a spooky and somewhat grim supernatural mystery set firmly in Melbourne. The world of the book is deliberately dark and gritty—occasionally in ways that strain credibility—with visceral scenes of school bullying, domestic violence, bikies, a strip club and at least one corpse. The prose is sometimes vivid, but often mundanely conversational. The romance is oddly free of emotion: Sophie has a crush on Jordan when he’s an unapproachably gorgeous stranger at school, and her feelings don’t seem to change or deepen as she actually gets to know him. Fans of Rebecca Lim’s previous books will probably enjoy Afterlight, as it has several of the same qualities: a dark premise, an unpopular outcast heroine, a beautiful and brooding love interest and a mystery.

Jarrah Moore is a primary literacy editor at Cengage Learning Australia