September 2023 Indie Book Review

Afterlands: Into the After by Boots

An Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
Refugees’ Nautical Journey
4 stars

Afterlands: Into the After is a paperback novella with delightful illustrations & cracking vocabulary.  The heroes’ tale has a bygone, Narnian tone.  Naming similarities or conventions aided my comprehension of the umpteen kids.  I found it teeming with life lessons of varying magnitudes from little, everyday reminders like ‘No one’s perfect” & “Practice patience” to “Everything changes,” a tremendously tautological principle, and, unfortunately, “Go, run!  Get to the boat!” the worldliest of realities.  Facing certain imprisonment or worse, Nix, et al., flee from an oppressive society clinging to dead traditions & its resurrected army blindly enforcing failed politics.  Is escape possible?

Neither prior events nor the saga’s forthcoming adventures are required reading to enjoy this self-contained installment.  But afterward, one would, I wager, likely wish to take in those imaginative backstories first-hand… and then eagerly await the next tale!

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