What Comes After

Sixteen-year-old Mari Novak is dead--and her problems don't end there. For Fans of The Good Place.

Mari never gave much thought to the afterlife before her untimely demise, but she certainly didn't think it would be an experimental wellness enclave called Paradise Gate--a place where the newly dead go to sort out the unfinished business of their lives. She also didn't think the biggest problem to plague her in life would follow her into the great beyond: her also recently deceased mother, Faye. Mari quickly realizes Faye is her unfinished business, and in order to move on to whatever's next, she'll have to find a way to forgive her dysfunctional mother for being no mother at all. But there's so much to forgive: never holding down a steady job, never having a stable home, and abandoning Mari in the end.

It's a lot to sort through, but faced with the possibility of being turned out into the abyss, Mari gets to work. She enrolls in the prescribed self- actualization classes (think: journaling, positive self-talk, and lots of Youga(TM)). It all seems pretty hokey, but still, the assignments force Mari to confront difficult truths about her past.

When a shocking revelation about Mari's death captures the attention of the afterlife media, Mari is suddenly in the spotlight, her messy history being judged by the whole realm. She finds escape in an equally troubled boy, who takes Mari to an obscure part of Paradise Gate and introduces her to rebels who show Mari that this "wellness center" is not all it pretends to be. With classmates disappearing and an afterlife revolution brewing, Mari must decide whether to play it safe or break the rules. At stake? Her eternal fate. Literally.

Author: Katie Bayerl
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Published: 04/29/2025
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.80w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780399545283
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/20/2025
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2025
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 03/01/2025
Booklist 03/01/2025 pg. 101
School Library Journal 04/01/2025 pg. 128

About the Author
When Katie Bayerl isn't penning stories, she can be found dancing, writing about social causes, or herding a trio of (mostly well-behaved) cats. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is on the creative writing faculty at Grub Street. Katie lives in Boston, Massachusetts.