Firstlife Series by Gena Showalter

The tagline of Firstlife, by Gena Showalter, “Step one... you die” had me captivated before I'd even opened the pages of this book. Fantasy, romance and sci-fi are all wrapped up in this fantastic YA series, and there’s something so moving and intriguing about this interpretation of the afterlife.

Firstlife, Lifeblood and Everlife are a series that sticks with me regardless of the time that passes since I last read them. The distinctions between light and darkness and how the choices we make slide us either way on that ambiguous scale is something that has changed my outlook not only on my life but also on my writing.

The story begins with the main character dying, in which she must choose between two realms where she will remain in her afterlife. Sought for recruitment by one realm and the desire to be with the boy she’s falling in love with, she finds herself on the run and caught in the middle.

While the two realms of the afterlife, Troika and Myriad, do at times embody the exaggerated and stereotypical look and feel of “good” and “evil”, as the books progress we begin to see that these realms are more than they appear.