Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions in this review are all my own.

After You Died follows Asher, a bisexual teen who supposedly murdered his best friend, Olivia. Asher knows he never could’ve committed this heinous crime but can't fully remember what happened. The only person that truly believes Asher is his sister, Eden, though she cannot prove it. Instead of going to prison, Asher will be shipped to a juvenile detention center where boys are routinely abused or murdered by guards and other residents. Will Asher get to the bottom of what happened before it's too late?

I’ve put this book off for months. Not for any significant reason or anything, but I put it off nonetheless. Now I'm split on how I feel about that decision. The upside to picking it up is that no part was boring. You grow to be invested in the two main characters because the dynamic is just that well-written. The negative aspect to reading it now is that this book is part of a series, and that wasn't something I knew going into reading this story. Now I'm sitting here knowing it's going to be a while until the next book. That's my second least favorite thing, though it may be close to my absolute hatred of carrots. I guess if I had one gripe, it would be the ending. Again, I know it's a series, but the conclusion was just so abrupt. I wanted just a bit more clarity from this novel. It is what it is, though.

After You Died is a 3.5-4 star read for me.

After You Died, by Dea Poirier

Short Take: Haunting in a number of ways.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello my beloved nerdlings, and welcome to the apex of summer! It’s juuuuust starting to get insufferably hot out, but right now, we’re still in the place where watermelon, sparklers, cook-outs, and a dip in the pool are heavenly. And did I mention the cook-outs? Because I’m a sucker for a table loaded with grilled meats and chilled desserts and let’s not forget the fruity iced vodka drink. In a word… SUMMER.

Summer’s also the season of campfires, with ghost stories and s'mores, and it’s that feeling that After You Died evokes SO FREAKING WELL. It’s 1968 when we meet seventeen year old Asher, and he’s already been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Olivia. It’s tricky though, because although he was found next to her body, covered in blood, and holding the murder weapon, he has no memory of committing the crime. By all accounts, Asher’s been in love with Olivia since they were children, and would never have hurt her.

But the only person who really believes Asher is his sister Eden, and he soon finds himself being shipped off to the worst juvenile detention center in the country, where boys are routinely tortured and sometimes killed. Dozier is the stuff of nightmares except for one bright spot: Sayid, the kid with “sources” who can get everything from dirty magazines to drugs and booze if the price is right. Asher is happy to have Sayid’s friendship at first, but gradually, as the boys grow closer, their feelings deepen into more.

Despite the semi-idyllic setup I’ve described above, Asher is still carrying a heavy load. His memory hasn’t come back, and the blank spots seem to be growing. And there are hints that something older, darker, and hungrier is trying to revive a centuries-old curse.

Duckies, I have to just put the best thing first: Ms. Poirier is a poet. Her prose is lyrical and beautiful, and even the hell of Dozier holds a kind of dark enchantment. Asher is an incredible character - so wounded and lost, and still so vulnerable and kind. His relationship with Eden is perfect in its sibling-ness, and his blossoming romance with Sayid is utterly charming.

The multiple timelines were also a lot of fun - we get little bits and pieces, not quite the whole story, never just a meandering info-dump, but always a tantalizing loose end that kept me hanging till the very end.

And it’s the end that is giving me my only real quibble. It’s too abrupt. It’s all built up to this exciting crescendo, we’re about to get some final answers and then… The End. I get that this is the first book in a planned series, and I don’t even mind the occasional cliffhanger, but there was just TOO much left undone, and I was left feeling like I only got to read half of a book.

A beautifully written, intriguing, marvelously-paced half, but a half nonetheless.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and another smore, please!)

WOW! two stories in one! I am intrigued! I cannot wait for book two! such a well written book with, love, hate, good and evil, such a page turner! loved it!

It's 1968 and Asher is sentenced to five years in a reform school after he's discovered standing over the body of his beloved girlfriend, Olivia. And also, he doesn't remember killing her.

Man, there's a lot going on in this story. Asher suffers from memory loss and bouts of lost time, he wakes up in weird places (sometimes covered in blood), his dead girlfriend visits him in his dreams, inmates from the school are missing or turning up dead, his friend Dominic might be stalking him, there's a blossoming romance with his roommate, and there's flashback chapters to an unknown time that suggests there's some weird supernatural ritual/murder plot going on - and with that abrupt cliffhanger ending, there's so many loose threads left hanging in the breeze.

I liked the writing style and found this book easy to read, but I'm still not sure what the hell happened to the plot. Very few answers are offered and there's too much going on to be a really satisfying read. I did like Asher and Sayid's relationship though - it starts off with Sayid helping Asher learn the ropes to surviving the school, and then develops into something more.

I loved this book so much!!! I loved the diversity of the characters, as well as the entriging and enticing plotine.

After You Died is a strange book for me to try and review, mostly because for a lot of it, I truly had no idea what was supposed to be happening. I think, in attempting to write from Asher’s POV (a POV where the mc genuinely has no clue what’s going on, and keeps forgetting things, leading to a confusing, muddled first-person narrative), the author ended up making the book confusing and muddled for the reader too.

It’s not that that can’t be done well, but I just felt it wasn’t here. Yes, you want to show that Asher is confused, you want the reader to be equally confused, and curious as to what’s going on, but there also has to be some level of clarity that the basic plotlines can be followed, even as the details are obscured. And that’s where I think this fell down. It’s not tightly plotted enough to carry off that confusion. I wasn’t compelled to keep reading to find out what was going on, I was just bored.

I also found that, for all that the narrative says there are high stakes to this detention centre, it never really felt like there were for a lot of it. And then it’s like a switch is flipped, and suddenly Asher is being sent off to be tortured every few pages. There was never a real balance to those two things, and eventually the violence started to feel gratuitous and pointless. Those scenes never really felt like they moved the plot along. They were just… there. It’s like someone said, as I did at the start of this paragraph, that it didn’t feel like there were stakes. But those “stakes” never really integrated into the plot.

Which, speaking of, there was very little. For all that Asher is, according to the blurb, investigating his girlfriend’s murder, of which he is accused, there’s very little actual investigating. Okay, so maybe that ties into Asher’s confusion, that he keeps losing time, but this didn’t feel very integrated either. Also, kind of separate issue, but the losing time, in a first person POV, where it’s not clear that the mc has lost time, to himself or the reader, before someone else points it out for me, doesn’t really work? There needed to be a better way of indicating it in the narrative because you genuinely just can’t tell.

And then the ending comes and, I realise this was probably supposed to clarify things, but it really really didn’t. I’ve not read such a confusing ending in a while. It left me with more questions than answers (not necessarily a bad thing, sure), and yet also no inclination to find out what those answers would be. In a book that I expected to be simply a historical thriller, it turned into… God knows what. It’s not even very well telegraphed, to me, which comes again to the dichotomy of confusion/clarity that this book overall fails with.

In the end, then, I just gave up on understanding this book. The actual culprit was barely hidden, and the plot twists came out of nowhere, in a bad way. The writing wasn’t awful, I’ll admit, but that’s the highest praise I can really bring myself to give.

If I'm being honest I was a little skeptical at first, the concept seemed to be all over the place. By the time I finished it I realized how well written it actually is. The plot makes you wonder what's going on, which makes you wanna keep reading. The characters are all enjoyable and intriguing. I cannot wait till the next book comes out, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat! Author has some great talent I can't wait to see more of it.

Thank you Netgalley, for providing me with the opportunity to read and review After You Died, prior to the release date. This is my first novel by Dea Poirier , but it will not be my last.

After you died is a haunting thriller. After a bit of research, I realized this novel is based loosely on the Dozier school. Knowing that a bunch of boys really did suffer this type of cruelty hit me a bit harder .

This novel is filled with unsettling events, twists, turns and secrets you wont see coming. I was unable to put this book down once I started. It was well written and the characters were well developed and really came alive.

I was a bit annoyed with the ending as I still felt I had a bunch of questions unanswered, however, I do believe this could have a sequel?

I would love to see where Dea Poirier is heading .

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good thriller.

As Asher's possible body count grows, he knows the answers he needs are trapped within his own mind, and in ghosts from the past. He needs to find out who he is and prove the murders aren't connected to him or risk losing his sanity and freedom forever.

AFTER YOU DIED is a paranormal thriller loosely based on true events. This was a fun book to read and I highly recommend getting a copy of it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this book!

A haunting, dark mystery weaved with paranormal elements and an unreliable narrator. I enjoyed the pacing and the movement with the "Before" and "After" chapters. I also love the first person POV of Asher with his emotional state during this story.

I questioned who killed Olivia throughout the story. I am looking forward to the next book because I am invested. A few comments for my rating. The setting at an elusive reform school could have been more horrifying and foreboding - even a character in itself. I think I just wanted more!

The paranormal element here dragged the story down, imvho. How Olivia died and who killed her are enough of a mystery, particularly given the fact that Asher doesn't remember anything and there was the creepy incident with Dominic earlier (and that Dominic seems to be stalking both Asher and his twin sister). And the horrors of Dozier are enough to keep the suspense going--what is going on with the missing boys? how does anyone come out of that place sane (let alone physically in one piece)? The rest wasn't necessary! I did wonder about the dorm/cabin Asher and Sayid are in, because at times it feels like it's just them in the building and other times that there are more boys living there. And setting this in the 60s didn't really seem necessary, except it fits in with Dozier's timeline as a real place. But it's fiction, and this story could have been set at any time.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

I love Dea Poirier's writing, and when I saw this was available for request, I quickly did just that and was thrilled to be approved. Solid title, beautiful working cover, I quickly dove in.

When Asher is found guilty of murdering his best friend/almost girlfriend Olivia, he's sent to Dozier, a reform school with a nefarious reputation. He wants to believe he's innocent, but he has no memory of that night. His sleep is plagued by horrible dreams, and as he dives into therapy trying to remember what happened, his grip on reality slips. With Sayid at his side, he hopes to survive Dozier, if only to find out the truth--a feat, he realizes, that becomes more dangerous than anything he could have anticipated.

I really enjoyed this book.

Asher is a wonderful narrator. Unreliable yet endearing, you root for him as he fights through his days. You assume his innocence because of his love for Olivia, and when the memories get murky, perhaps unearthing truths he may not want to hear, you're just as tormented by the revelations. His relationship with Sayid is probably my favorite aspect of this book. The intimacy and trust-building, it is impossible not to get wrapped up in their unrequited moments.

Poirier also does an amazing job with the setting. Dozier, the outskirts of swampy Florida, becomes its own character, loaded and unstable. Ominous, and it makes for excellent atmospheric suspense. And even though this is set during the Vietnam War, you wouldn't know that. The writing is timeless, the characters stand on their own without markers of eras. It is removed, its own time and space, and this really goes a long way in tying the parallel storylines together.

Overall, After You Died is a twisty, fast-paced, gruesome read and an excellent introduction to what should be a thrilling series. Brutal and beautiful, you want this book in your life.

Thank you to Agora/Polis Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Book Review for After You Died
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Mystical.. Dark. Haunting.

A bisexual teen in 1968, sentenced to five years at a reform school because of the murder of his (girl)friend. But he doesn’t remember.

I requested this ARC at random. I read the above and didn’t even bother to read the blurb any further. I’m a curious person, and those words: bisexual, 1968, a dead girlfriend, murder immediately made me want to read the story. Choosing a book at random is risky. What if I wouldn’t like it?

I read this story within a day. The environment, the forests, the swamps, the heat, and the stickiness in Florida, made me experience this mystical and haunting story even more. The alternation between now and then, Asher’s life at Dozier, and his dreams left me constantly sitting on the edge of my seat. The story is so intriguing: not knowing what Asher’s dreams meant, Asher being watched, the line between what was real and what was not becoming blurry more and more. I’m glad I requested this book without reading the blurb any further!

I loved the writing. I’ve stated it more than once in my reviews, my favorite writing style is first person, present tense (even in a timeline in the past). It makes me feel part of the story. I also love dual timelines.

There’s one thing, though, I didn’t understand at first. Why is this story set in 1968? I couldn’t find a lot of indications in the book that lead me to that time. The only reference was in the beginning about the war in Vietnam. And maybe because everyone was smoking cigarettes (but that could also apply to the fifties or seventies or eighties). To me, this story felt timeless. Then I found out that the Florida School for Boys, Dozier, really existed from 1900 until 2011, and in the fifties and sixties, the White House was the site of most beatings of students. I got goosebumps all over my body when I realized this school and the White House really existed.

The story is not over. There was a cliffhanger and bam, the end of book 1. So there’ll be a second book, and I hope Asher, Eden, and Sayid will return. I’ll definitely read it!