Book Review: Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike

By: Aprilynne Pike
Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: April 30th, 2013
Source: ARC to review from publisher
4 Stars: I Enjoyed It
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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Moving to a new high school sucks. Especially a rich-kid private school. With uniforms. But nothing is worse than finding out the first girl you meet is dead. And a klepto. 

No one can see or hear Kimberlee except Jeff, so--in hopes of bringing an end to the snarkiest haunting in history--he agrees to help her complete her "unfinished business." But when the enmity between Kimberlee and Jeff's new crush, Sera, manages to continue posthumously, Jeff wonders if he's made the right choice.

Clash meets sass in this uproarious modern-day retelling of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

What happens when you take an unrepentant mean girl who's dead, and can't move on, a new guy in town, a mess of left over drama, a bit of romance, and some fun? Life After Theft, Aprilynne Pike's newest release, has a great mix of ghosts, romance, and has a touch of humor similar to that of Ally Carter and Kiersten White. Much of this story focuses on Jeff, and the mean girl ghost Kimberlee, who's trying to fix all the wrongs she did while alive so she could move on. As the story progresses and the more we find out about Kimberlee, the more we learn about the secondary characters, who in my opinion really steal the show.

I loved getting to see the story from Jeff's point of view, and being able to more fully understand Kimberlee, her friends whom are really more Jeff's friends now and why things are the way they are. Confusing? I promise it's not that way when you're reading the book. I'll be honest, I couldn't stand Kimberlee. I mean I liked her at first, but the more I got to know of her through the other characters, and find out from her through Jeff, the less I liked her. She really was a mean girl, but interesting enough, towards the end of the book I ended feeling sorry for her. She redeemed herself a little too late for me to really like her more, but she does change to some degree. Her progression is one that was spot on, and I wouldn't have excepted it any other way. This girl had some problems, and being a ghost didn't change those for her, and I liked that aspect of her story. There's more to Kimberlee than just her mean actions and what she has to live with now (or live without).

One of the things that Aprilynne cleverly does in this story is she made me realize there is much more to each of her characters than meets the eye, and much like life itself, everyone has a story to tell and everyone has a reason for their actions. Some are intentional, some are not, and some are mistakes that characters wish they could correct. It was interesting to see how each of the character's lives have been woven together, and how Jeff jumps into the mix with it all. I liked Jeff. He's a good guy who really is trying to help Kimberlee and fix the problems that those who used to be Kimberlee's friend or I should say those who knew her before she died, are now stuck with. My favorite character in this story is a secondary character, Khail. Oh Khail! What a great character. It wasn't just for the fact he would do anything for his sister, and love interest Sera, he really is one of those all around good guys who is admired by his team mates and fellow classmates, and so easy to like. Okay fine and I'm sure he's hot, but really he is an all around fabulous character.

Can I just say how much I enjoy that this book is a stand alone!? There isn't enough stand alones out in the YA world, and I LOVE that this one is! We need more books like this. OKay, back to Life After Theft. I enjoyed this book. It was one of those fun, fast paced books I spent the afternoon reading. Aprilynne Pike stayed true to the teenage voice of her characters. She tackled realistic teenage issues, and did an excellent job at staying true to those issues, and the reactions many teens would have to them. Kudos to Aprilynne for tackling/mentioning a variety of topics that teens face in real life, drugs, drinking, sex, being gay, friendships, the dramas of growing up, lying, stealing, being true to yourself, love etc. That doesn't mean these things were heavily mentioned in the book, because they're not, but they are mentioned and some topics play a bigger role in this story than others.

Life After Theft has the perfect amount of realism mixed with the right amount of paranormal elements, and given a touch of humor, and romance. As I mentioned before, I enjoyed this book. If you're an Aprilynne Pike fan, please don't go into this book thinking it's like her Wings series, it's nothing like it. Aprilynne is a diverse writer and it really shows in this book. I'm looking forward to reading whatever she's got coming out next!