I didn’t even want to go to the party.Seriously, I’d rather have stayed home with my librarian-witch grandmother and her mystical book club than go. But my best friend Skyler begged me. So I went.And it was the worst party of my life. Actually, it was the last party of my life.Not only was there something very strange about the band, but the lead singer bit me afterwards. And then took off with … afterwards. And then took off with Skyler.
Now I’m chasing down a band of dangerous vamps with my best guy friend Vaughn—the boy I’ve been secretly crushing on forever.
But anything can happen on the road.
I thought all I wanted was for things to change with Vaughn. For him to finally see the real me. But this wasn’t what I had in mind…
Let the afterlife begin.
The Afterlife series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 The Afterlife of the Party
Book #2 I’m with the Banned
more
This was a ridiculous book, but in a fun way.
It starts with a group of three friends who are heading to a gig. It soon takes a darker turn when the band members turn out to be vampires and kidnap one of the girls to use as their own personal blood bank.
Skyler’s two friends will do anything to get her back, and so begins a crazy journey full of (bad) music, stinky vamps and one teenage witch determined to raise hell.
First thing’s first, Vaughn. I usually really like friends/best friends to lovers, but boy, Vaughn pushed all the wrong buttons for me. No matter what he did I couldn’t start liking him.
The romance was a necessary plot point, especially for the rescue mission so I can’t complain, but it just didn’t do it for me.
Moving on to Skylar. She spent most of the book feeling dozy so we didn’t get to know her that well. Still, she was a lot better than Vaughn.
Tansy was the best of the three, I really liked her, minus the Vaughn shaped flaw in her heart. She proved that she was ready to do whatever it takes to save her best friend and didn’t stop there. She really can’t see anyone suffer.
I also liked the cool grandma and Armando. I wish we saw more of them both.
Now for the other stuff. It was easy to read yes, and funny too. Although, occasionally the dialogue felt jumpy.
For example, one character would say something or ask a question and the other character would act as if that never happened and would say something else and the original asker seemed to forget they said anything as well. This happened even when only two characters were present in a scene, and there was no indication that they were being ignored on purpose.
And the battle scene at the end could’ve been written better, it was both anticlimactic and all over the place at the same time.
Honourable mention: I love that Tansy smells like a strawberry milkshake. That’s the best smell.
I loved the “Death is…” series and I was excited and curios to finally see a new book by Marlene Perez. I didn’t know it would be a series when I started the book, but maybe I didn’t check that out, so that’s probably on me. I liked the fast pace and the funny moments in the story. Sometimes I wanted to smack Tansy because she can be annoying and always knows best. But, I liked “The Afterlife of the Party” and I really want to know how Tansy is dealing with all the open questions.
Witches hunting vampires… I LOVE IT!! This story is adorable in all the right ways! I like that there doesn’t seem to be any veil between the human and paranormal world in this book. The fact that the two worlds mingle and intertwine and even interbreed is entertaining. The depths of the love between the main characters is almost shocking. They would literally do anything for one another, making the scenes feel as real as possible. I recommend this fun read!!
** A very special “THANK YOU” to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for the { #Gifted } copy of this book to read and review.
I definitely enjoyed this YA PNR story, the characters were good, I love vampires so this was one I wanted to read, the pacing of the story was fast or slow at times, the friendship side of the story was good. Skyler, Tansy, and Vaughn best friends. It had a bit of a Twilight feel when I first read the blurb, but it didn’t go that way at all, it was a fun light read, I would like to read the next one to see how things develop.
I had fun with this book! I like vampire stories so I decided to give this book a try. I hoped to find an entertaining story within the pages, which I did, but I did really expect to find a unique tale with a good dose of humor mixed in. I found this book to be very entertaining and I am glad that I decided to pick it up.
Tansy goes to a party at the start of this book, along with her best friends Skylar and Vaughn. Skylar’s boyfriend is in a band, The Drainers, who will be playing at the party. It becomes evident pretty early on that this is not your normal party and soon Tansy and Vaughn learn that Skylar’s boyfriend and his band are really vampires. And they want Skylar and Tansy for themselves.
I liked the characters in this book. Tansy is a witch and after she is bitten at the party strange things start to happen to her. I loved that she was willing to do whatever it took to save her best friend and Vaughn was right there with her. Vaughn and Tansy made a very strong team and I think that they really tried to do what was best in every situation. They were both very brave and I found them to both be very competent.
I enjoyed the lighter tone of the story. There are some terrible things that happen in the book but those scenes were balanced out by the more comical parts of the story. There was quite a bit of excitement in this book and there were times that I was really worried that Tansy and Vaughn were not going to come out of everything in one piece. I loved that the book was able to keep me guessing and there were some pretty big surprises along the way.
I would recommend this book to others. I thought this was a well done young adult vampire story with great characters and enough excitement to keep things interesting. I am looking forward to finding out what in store for Tansy, Vaughn, and Skylar in future installments in this trilogy.
I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from Entagled: Teen via NetGalley.
With a fun dance between magic, vampires, bffs, romance, and a pinch of quirkiness, this is a light read with a dark beat.
After being dragged to a party she never wanted to go to in the first place, this teenage girl finds herself heading against a band of vampires, who leave death and blood in their wake. Unfortunately, her best friend is on her way to become their super-groupie with more than a few bite marks to show for it. Add a strange past, a witch grandmother, a hot guy, and a pair of very strange paranormal agents, and this girl is in for the strangest moments the afterlife can offer.
If you’re looking for a refreshing story which packs tons of subtle humor into a furious vampire hunt, this might be what you’re looking for. I’d shove this one into the direction of a ‘wild and crazy ride’ category. The mix is quite original as it take very violent scenes, hits upon sexual abuse, slams groupies and cliches, nests with hot guys and romance, and weaves in a wild chase which borders on the edge of humor. And it was fun.
I did read this one in one sitting simply because it was an easy read and did have me wondering what in the world would happen next. And yet, the writing wasn’t nearly as tight or smooth or flowing as it could have been. There are tons of sudden revelations, scenes which are raced over without depth or enough set-up time, and beats in the plot which just drop away and leave gaping holes. It many ways, it resembled the vampire band’s music—not the best but for some reason, still hypnotizing. For all of the technical issues, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the read.
So, I’m finding this one very hard to rate and will simply go at it as fast and furious and ridiculous as the read itself. Because sometimes this is exactly the kind of read a person needs.
I received an ARC copy and got a read I would have never suspected.
There is a special place in my heart for stories that do not take themselves seriously, that add in a ton of humor and life references (in this case horror movie history). Afterlife of the Party is exactly that type of read. The story is humorous and bold, interesting, snarky, and even a bit campy but only in the best of ways. I am a huge fan of 80’s and 90’s vampire movies and I think this story fits that genre perfectly.
We meet the main characters and almost immediately the story takes off, with the premise being: a woman who goes to a party (full of vampires) and gets turned all while trying to save her friend.
The action is based loosely on vampire lore and the secondary characters really add spark to this adventure. Just when you think things will be easy or familiar the author makes a left turn and I found myself caught up in the next adventure.
I loved getting to know the main characters, their relationships, and the crazy amount of adventure this story took them on. I cannot express how much fun I had with this read and a lot of moments that had me laughing out loud. I have not been so entertained in a quite a while!
This is a lite and easy read, a story that is purely for fun as there is not a serious note within the pages. This is exactly the kind of read I love between my darker ones to level out my emotions. I will be adding this story to my yearly Halloween list and will continue to enjoy it for years to come. SO MUCH FUN!! I received n ARC via Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC and this is my honest review.
The Afterlife of the Party Marlene Perez an overexcitable five-star read. I had a hard time coming up with a rating for this one, as it was a bit marmite for me, I loved it then I hated it and then I loved it again, and was like that the whole way through. It was funny and dramatic, but then it tried to hard, I finally decided on five-stars as I really did enjoy it overall and cant wait to see what chaos will ensue in the follow up story. Tansy was a good character, her loyalty for her friend Skyler even when she really didn’t deserve it just astounded me. This has so much going on, like what really happened with Skyler’s boyfriend, why did he really leave, and what secret is Vaughn keeping, there hasn’t been one, but something is bugging me and I need to know, all of these things added to the drama and the twists and kept this a thrilling and compelling read in more ways than one.
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.
When Skylar disappears with the band, Tansy and her would-be crush and best friend Vaughn will embark on a roadtrip to follow the band to their next concert venues in hopes of finding Skylar. While Skylar’s presence seems to continuously elude the pair, Tansy and Vaughn discover all the other young women who need their help too. What started out as a quest to save her friend, has now turned into a quest to save the world.
With the publication of another book in that other popular vampire series recently, I was drawn into Afterlife of the Party because I was really feeling the YA vampire vibe.
Afterlife of the Party has the most wonderful campiness about it. I do not mean that as a bad thing whatsoever. While reading, it brought back memories of watching like part seventeen in a horror movie franchise. Not quite as good as the original, and reaching to some far-fetched heights, but still mighty entertaining all the same.
I liked the play on the romanticizing of the vampire. Yes, Skylar is drawn to the band, as are many others, but it’s through compulsion. If she were able to think clearly she would be running in the opposite direction from these predators. Tansy, who by virtue of her witchy roots, is able to ward off the compulsion and see their true natures which she describes as everything from rotting to putrid to greasy to dirty, is not the, dare I say, sparkly, ethereal visage we are often given.
While I can take all these aspects and enjoy the story, I do have to review it and in focusing a more critical eye, things pop out that may not have bothered me otherwise. Such as the abruptness to some of the character’s movements. On one page you have a character who is critically wounded (a page before they were almost dying) and then turning to the next page they’re up and walking around like nothing happened. This is just one instance, but it is something that happens constantly throughout in varying situations. Enough that I had to keep going back and making sure I didn’t skip the moment where we hear about so-and-so’s miraculous recovery. It felt like the book was written in small snippets and then pieces together to make a whole but without the important parts that make it cohesive.
Plus, the story doesn’t seem to know, yet, how to utilize Tansy possibly becoming a vampire while also having magic in her family, specifically witches. She seesaws too much between owning her inherent powers, and not believing they’re real. It comes across a little messy. I don’t think it helps Tansy deal with who she’s becoming if she doesn’t believe in who she was before.
If you are able to get past some of the inconsistencies within the story, I think Afterlife of the Party is enjoyable. It definitely sets the mood for the fall season. As the first book in an apparent series, I’m hopeful it will get stronger with each book.