Death is a natural phase of life; creation follows death as death follows creation, it's a cycle of fact. Merrie Destefano takes the fear of dying to the next level in AFTERLIFE by throwing readers into another apocalyptic universe where the race to immortality becomes unavoidable and chaotic with the technology of resurrection in the works.

You can jump when you die, into another body made and ready to download your past life. You get nine tries to get it right; new body, same memories. As the Nine-timers draw closer to their last days, the race to finding immortality becomes strained. Riots turn into mass killings; each life becoming shorter than the one before it when those who have tasted the dangling samples of immortality wish to never leave. This is a world where people pray for the living instead of the dead and where a baby cannot be born without a true death certificate from someone within the family.

AFTERLIFE is a macabre hidden thriller written in first person with a different character perspective each chapter. At first the writing style takes away from the hourly action of the book, but the story continues and facts are unveiled as more gothic truths are placed within the pages. Destefano takes the power of life and death away from the master himself. Characters question if technology and life should be mixed and altered when they remember a shorter lifespan was originally given to them.

Defying death is portrayed well in AFTERLIFE, the first of the Resurrection Chronicles, but can Destefano continue to give us more within her gothic city of New Orleans? Her unique imagination gives us a great first story and readers something to look forward to in the rest of the series.