Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Scott Westerfeld has been a supporter of NaNoWriMo for quite some time, so I was pleased to see him put out a book that mentions the program, even if just in the acknowledgements (but the novel in thirty days sounds familiar, no?). It’s good, too. Sometimes it seems a little long, but the alternating chapters (one a story of a high school novelist who miraculously gets a publishing contract on her NaNovel, the other the actual story she wrote) are easy to distinguish and both tell good stories.
I’m sure someone has done the math to see if Darcy’s story really is 60,000 words (that’s 2k words/day if you want to end up with a novel in 30 days), but I didn’t feel like counting. The book certainly is long enough to contain two novels, but it read pretty fast. You’ll care about the characters and want to know what happens to Lizzie, and you’ll root for Darcy to find the perfect ending. Since I’m not a published author (yet?) I don’t know how accurate Westerfeld’s portrayal of the New York pub scene really is, but it sure sounds authentic, and scary and exciting at the same time. I certainly would never take the giant step of going off to NY on just my first book advance, but maybe that’s just me and my severe risk aversion.
Knowing what I do about agents’ dislike of NaNovels, I’m surprised Darcy got an offer on her (unedited?) manuscript. But that aside, AFTERWORLDS is a very interesting book, with characters aren’t the typical tropes, a very cute and heartbreaking romance, and enough meta touches that anyone who wants to realize their dream of becoming a published author will appreciate reading this book.
I can only hope that one day my NaNovel will be worthy of a hundred-grand advance.
Read for free via pulseit.com.