The Afterlife

Gary Soto's exposition in The Afterlife starts off fast paced, but the plot falls flat half way through. The concept--a cliche. Boy gets killed an urban area and his ghost must walk the streets as it fades away. Still, I bought this for my students because it presents an idea for them to consider and relate to. It sits in my classroom library waiting for a freshmen to pick up at the right time...more

Gary Soto's exposition in The Afterlife starts off fast paced, but the plot falls flat half way through. The concept--a cliche. Boy gets killed an urban area and his ghost must walk the streets as it fades away. Still, I bought this for my students because it presents an idea for them to consider and relate to. It sits in my classroom library waiting for a freshmen to pick up at the right time before they make a mistake they can't go back from that year.   hide

I should probably re-read this one.

was great the first time i read it, but i found it painfully slow the second time.

Buried Onions is much better!

Shh.. he was talkin from the dead

Chuy is a normal teenage guy who has grown up in the barrios of Fresno, California. He is an ordinary guy whose most pressing thought is of catching the attention of a pretty girl. He is happy--combing his hair in the restroom at Club Estrella, when he is murdered by a punk wearing yellow shoes after he compliments the punks shoes. Chuy bleeds to death on a dirty restroom floor and...more

Chuy is a normal teenage guy who has grown up in the barrios of Fresno, California. He is an ordinary guy whose most pressing thought is of catching the attention of a pretty girl. He is happy--combing his hair in the restroom at Club Estrella, when he is murdered by a punk wearing yellow shoes after he compliments the punks shoes. Chuy bleeds to death on a dirty restroom floor and soon finds himself looking down on his body. He floats through Fresno for about a week, doing many of the things he didn’t when he was alive--understanding how much his family and friends loved him, saving a man's life, and even falling in love (with a fellow ghost). The ending was a bit of a letdown, but otherwise the story was wonderful. I loved the way Soto wove in Spanish words here and there. Kind of a Lovely Bones for guys.   hide

It was okay... I didn't really care too much about flipping to the back of the book to read the spanish-english translations... it would've been nice to have the translation at the bottom of the page. Also I wasn't happy about how the book ended... I felt it was unfinished. It wasn't that good of a read. =/

This was a great book overall. Though I did think the plot could have been developed more as well as the characters.