Book review: Life After by Katie Ganshert

Life After: A Novel ~ It could have been me.

Snow whirls around an elevated train platform in Chicago. A distracted woman boards the train, takes her seat, and moments later a fiery explosion rips through the frigid air, tearing the car apart in a horrific attack on the city’s transit system. One life is spared. Twenty-two are lost. A year later, Autumn Manning can’t remember the day of the bombing and she is tormented by grief—by guilt. Twelve months of the question constantly echoing. Why? Why? Why? Searching for answers, she haunts the lives of the victims, unable to rest.  Paul Elliott lost his wife in the train bombing and wants to let the dead rest in peace, undisturbed and unable to cause more pain for his loved ones. He wants normalcy for his twelve-year-old daughter and young son, to see them move beyond the heartbreak. But when the Elliotts and Autumn are unexpectedly forced together, he fears she’ll bring more wreckage in her wake.   In Life After, Katie Ganshert’s most complex and unforgettable novel yet, the stirring prose and authentic characters pose questions of truth, goodness, and ultimate purpose in this emotionally resonant tale.

Heidi here. Oh. My. Goodness. Life After was one of the best novels I have ever read. It grabbed me from the very first sentence. Katie Ganshert starts with an amazingly deep premise that she fully explores, and follows through with deep character development and a page turning plot that never lets up.

I cared deeply for Autumn and Paul and Tate and Reese ~ I wanted to find out what happened in their lives. I enjoyed how the mystery around the life of Paul Elliott's marriage/dead-wife unfolded. And how the author gradually pieced together the hours and days that survivor Autumn Manning could not remember. But the neat thing was that when those mysteries were resolved, the book wrapped up quite nicely, with the reader still wondering "what if" about so many little things in life in general.

Grab your copy of Life After today!