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Summary: The Ghost of Chuy
Review: The book The Afterlife was a great description of what a person may encounter in their afterlife. At a school dance Chuy was stabbed three times by a strange man. From that point on the ghost of Chuy told the book and gave great description of how a person may act or what a person may do after they pass away. I thought that this was a great book that gave a person a good look of a different perspective of life and how or what we may encounter it after our human life on earth is over. Although the book seemed to get repetitive in the ending chapters I thought that is was well written. The main character, Chuy, certainly went through a life changing experience and was well developed in the novel. This is a great book that is though provoking and really triggers your mind.
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Summary: Not every author kills character first!!!!!!!!!
Review: As you have read in most books authors kill them in the last pages of the book but not Gary Soto. Thats what makes this book so special he writes things from a dead persons point of view or what he thinks it would be like being a ghost. I really liked this book. There was a ix of a little bit of everything. Love, death, awesome writing. Chuy meets this girl names Crystal who he falls in love with. He meets her beccause she had died too. In the book Chuy learns an important lesson. He learns that his family and freiends loved him a lot when he thought they didnt even reconzie him before. So reda this and find out what happens!!!
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Summary: WOW
Review: Growing up, i always feared death. At night, i would get on my boney, scraggly knees and beg my parents to let me sleep in thier bedroom. Even the thought of dieing and not knowing what would happen after that made me toss and turn all night.
In Afterlife by Gary Soto, we learn about Chuy, but only after hes dead. On the second page, Chuy gets stabbed my a misunderstanding and finds himself hovering over his bleeding lifeless body.
But the book is more than that. It shows how Chuy realizes that his life only begins when it is acually over. He finds that he cares about everyone that he has ever met with passion. And it tells how he finds the love of his life, well....afterlife, Crystal.
This book helped me understand that death is whatever you want it to be, and that in death, there is no fear, only serenity.
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Summary: WOW is all i can say
Review: Growing up, i always was scared to death of death.I would always beg my parents, on my stubby knees, if i could sleep in their room at night, because even the thought of death made kept me tossing and turning all night long. But now after i read The Afterlife by Gary Soto, im a much more secure about death.
On the second page of this coming of age novel, Chuy gets stabbed (a great way to start a book....no joke), and that is where the begining of the end of his life starts. He discovers how much his family and friends truely cared for him, and he even meets the love of his love...or afterlife.... named Crystal.
This book gives a great oppinion of how death is, and really opens eyes to a whole new world.
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Summary: he's done it again
Review: i have always been a fan of gary soto, he is an amazing writter, so amazing i cant even describe it, byt he takes hispanic life and turns it into something beautiful so other people can truely see what our culture is about. hes done it yet again with this book the afterlife. I would strongly recommend that before reading this you read buried onions...a book about chuys cousin. in buried onions eddie tells us about jesus's death...and you find out who did it and what happened to them.
Rating:
Summary: A New Way to Look at Death
Review: Killed before his time, Jesus, or Chuy as they call him in Fresno, discovers that his life in not completely over. In a way, it has just begun! After his brutal murder, the wind carries Chuy's ghost all over the city to see his grieving friends and family, and even his killer. Along his journey, Chuy meets the ghost of a young girl who has committed suicide. Together they are able to come to terms with their deaths, say their goodbyes, and move towards the afterlife.
Another compelling novel by award-winning author Gary Soto. It is filled with love, loss, compassion, and even humor. Death is so unfamiliar to us all, that it is always interesting to see a new idea of what goes on in the afterlife. Like Chuy, do we really visit the people we care about, torment the people we hate, or fall in love with someone new? The Afterlife makes us look at death and life in a new and refreshing way. The book is slow at times and there are some unresolved issues, but that is the way it is in real life, and somehow it makes the story more believable. Without being too dark, it's a great read that makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: A New Way to Look at Death
Review: Killed before his time, Jesus, or Chuy as they call him in Fresno, discovers that his life in not completely over. In a way, it has just begun! After his brutal murder, the wind carries Chuy's ghost all over the city to see his grieving friends and family, and even his killer. Along his journey, Chuy meets the ghost of a young girl who has committed suicide. Together they are able to come to terms with their deaths, say their goodbyes, and move towards the afterlife.
Another compelling novel by award-winning author Gary Soto. It is filled with love, loss, compassion, and even humor. Death is so unfamiliar to us all, that it is always interesting to see a new idea of what goes on in the afterlife. Like Chuy, do we really visit the people we care about, torment the people we hate, or fall in love with someone new? The Afterlife makes us look at death and life in a new and refreshing way. The book is slow at times and there are some unresolved issues, but that is the way it is in real life, and somehow it makes the story more believable. Without being too dark, it's a great read that makes you think.
Rating: 
Summary: The Afterlife
Review: Sure, not many authors kill their main character off in the second page. However, there is a reason for this: the emotional contection between the reader and the character. While I began to read "The Afterlife" I find Chuy at a dance club waiting for his date. He's at the restroom making sure he looks good. The guy next to him has "cool looking yellow shoes". Chuy compliments the owner about the shoes and returns to the mirror. Seconds later he's stabbed three times. Why? Because the owner of the shoes took the compliment the wrong way. A pretty pathetic way to die. Reading this I could have cared less if Chuy died or not. Why? Because I didn't know the character. The beginning of the story felt more like the middle of the novel with the "true" beginning missing. Chuy finds himself as a ghost. He sees the reactions of his loved ones he once knew and the affect his death has on their lifes. Then he meets a girl ghost. Crystal. After about two paragraphs Chuy has already decided that he loves Crystal. Talk about moving fast. Chuy's love for Crystal seems very unrealistic and rushed. The problem with the character Chuy is the same with Crystal. We don't know her well enough to care about her. As I continued to read I felt that the author tried a little too hard to write in "teen slang". Soto uses the words: dude, dawg, homegirl (Really embarrassing to read that one. Chuy is addressing Crystal when he uses it. That's how you impress the girl...), dude, and dawg (have I mentioned the last two already?) all the time. Another problem with the book is that you never find out what happens with Yellow Shoes. Does he turn himself in for Chuy's murder? Does he leave the city? The book never tells you. Other events are unresolved but I don't want to spoil all of it. The book just kind of ends. Honestly, I had no expectations for the book. I picked it up because it looked interesting. I don't think I could recommend anyone reading this with as many problems as it has. Save your reading time for another.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it sounds
Review: The Afterlife by Gary Soto seems like a really twisted, new book from the review, but after reading the first few chapters you get bored. Everything seemed to take forever to happen, and the book really isn't that long. Chuy, the main character, is also pretty boring. True, he tells us about his life when he was alive and the neat things he did, but he whines a lot and he just isn't someone you would care about. He doesn't pop out of the book like some main characters do. What I did like about the book was the writer used spanish words added a glossary. Take it out of the library if you still want to read it, buy don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: I really wanted to like this book...
Review: The problem with killing your main character off in the first chapter is that it usually doesn't leave room for much of a climax in the end. I wanted to like this book, it's a great concept! The first chapter is very gripping, however, I just wasn't impressed with anything that followed. While the book is short, it seems repetitive and boring. Furthermore, the characters are very distant and unconvincing. While the entire book is spent following Chuy's ghost and listening to his thoughts and feelings, I never get a feeling of who he really is/was. Another downfall of this book is all the Spanish words thrown into it. Luckily there is a glossary included in the back, but since I *had* to know the meaning of every Spanish word I came across, I was constantly flipping to the back of the book. While it's interesting to study languages and cultures, I don't really think the words added anything to the book and they slowed down the flow of the story.
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