It's harder than you think

Book 47 - A book with more than 500 pages

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

599 pages, to be exact. Which means that I'm now briefly allowed to refer to myself as an overachiever. Look out world!

Let me tell you the spectacularness that is Afterworlds.

Now, I was already a large fan of Mr. Westerfeld before this novel became a thing. He is one of those authors that you just buy the next book he publishes, because you already know that it's going to be a wonderful experience reading all 599 pages within a week. (I hope you are all following the fact that I work 37.5 hours a week and was in Toronto all weekend. Yes, I can read 599 pages much faster than a week. Let's stick with the overachieving idea.)

This novel, is a novel within a novel. (Mr. Westerfeld must be taking a page from Mr. Shakespeare's book. Although in that case we'd be referring to a play.) 

In any case, this novel is based around Darcy who is writing a novel over the course of this novel. One chapter is Darcy and how her novel came to be, the next chapter is the said novel. This continues back and forth through the 599 pages until the very lovely set-up-for-a-sequel ending. Are we complaining? Nope!

Darcy, being the author of the novel, writes about a character named Lizzie. Now, if you have ever even lived upon this earth, then you will know that these two characters are the loveliest of lovers brought about by our dearest, Jane Austen. Let me tell you the shock that Darcy has when she realizes the connection she has created between her name and her characters'. This is something that I love about writing. There is so much room for little clues to be dropped about, just waiting for someone to pick them up. 

Throughout the entire novel, I felt such a connection between myself and Darcy. She is a young author, embarking on the journey that is her first published work. As I have not come to such an achievement in my twenty-one years, I can't entirely relate. Nonetheless, I feel that Darcy and I could have spent a lot more time together. 

Something that I kept thinking about as I traveled from 1 to 599, was that Mr. Westerfeld got to create two lovely intertwined stories within the same hard covers. He got to connect a "real" and a fictional life to make so much more out of the fantastic world that is writing. 

I don't have many other thoughts about the novel, other than the fact that I was right there the whole time. Right in that novel's face. I don't know how I'm suppose to continue on with my life at the moment. I sure hope that I figure it out before work tomorrow morning. 

3 to go! This is t-bear signing off