Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Darcy Patel has written the story that could change her life. Leaving behind college and the ordinary world, she moves to New York City to publish her debut novel, Afterworlds. As she steps into the chaotic, glittering world of young authors and book deals, her fictional creation — Lizzie, a girl who slips between the land of the living and the dead — begins to take on a life of her own.

Told in alternating chapters between Darcy’s reality and Lizzie’s haunting afterlife, Afterworlds is a breathtaking, inventive novel about creation, courage, and the blurred line between imagination and experience. Scott Westerfeld delivers a story that’s as much about writing as it is about love, fear, and finding your own voice.