Review: My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray

My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray (February 2010, Piccadilly, ISBN: 1848120570)

First Line: I knew it was time to move on when a tramp peed on my Uggs.

Review: Meet Lucy Shaw. She's a fifteen-year-old ghost stuck haunting the place she was murdered: the Carnaby Street men's toilets. Her boring afterlife starts to look up when, much to her surprise, one of the patrons is able to see her. Jeremy, a 27 year-old with no fashionable dress sense is about to turn her "life" around.

Through him Lucy gets to have a bit of a life with friends and an enemy and even a burgeoning romance but Jeremy is keen to help her move-on and begins the search for her killer hoping that that is the unresolved business tethering her to this plane of existence.

I enjoyed My So-Called Afterlife which despite its themes of loss, forgiveness and the murder storyline is a sweet tale culminating in an ending which brought tears to my eyes.

Lucy is sharp-witted character with a nice line in sarcastic and humorous comments though Jeremy is able to hold his own, in the main. The ghostly world is well thought out and given some rules which gives the characters some freedom but with an underlying restraint to their long-term mobility.

I found this a quick read and there's a lot of incident packed into its 180 pages. I believe My So-Called Afterlife should prove popular with younger teenagers and up. I'm looking forward to reading the next two books, which feature a new protagonist: My So-Called Haunting and My So-Called Phantom Lovelife.

Tamsyn Murray - Publishing Deal

My Waiting on Wednesday post this week was for My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray and news reaches me via BookBrunch that her publisher has bought a second teenage book:

Piccadilly has bought a second teen novel (autumn 2010) by Tamsyn Murray, author of My So-Called Afterlife. Brenda Gardner at Piccadilly says: "We love the vivacity and quirkiness of Tamsyn’s writing, and the plus is that she also deals with 'real' issues with compassion and humour."

Waiting on Wednesday - My So-Called Afterlife

My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray will be published on 1 February 2010 by Piccadilly Press. I'm looking forward to this one as it has both crime, ghosts and romance!

Synopsis from Tamsyn Murray's website:

Lucy Shaw is a ghost with problems. First, she’s stuck haunting the men’s toilets on Carnaby Street, not the best place to spend eternity. Second, no-one can see or hear her. And third, the man who killed her last New Year’s Eve is still on the loose. Is it any wonder her mood is blacker than a tramp’s fingernails? So when a lighting engineer called Jeremy walks into the toilet and asks her what she’s doing there she’s not exactly Miss Congeniality. But given that he’s the only person who can see her, she decides to overlook the fact that he’s drippier than a toddler’s nose and accepts his offer of help. Before she knows it, she’s out of the toilet and meeting other ghosts, including the emotionally unstable Hep and the lip-smackingly gorgeous Ryan.

Together, they track down Lucy’s killer, encountering meerkats, exorcists, and the world’s stroppiest tattoo artist along the way. Will their efforts to catch Lucy’s murderer succeed? What happens if they do? And just how do you go about snogging the boy of your dreams when you don’t actually have lips anymore?

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