Mal Caldera enters the world of the dead, much as she left the world of the living; empty, bored, and unsure of what to do next. A former rockstar, she had little family left to speak of when her religious mother kicked her out. Her only remaining worry is that her younger sister Cris thinks that Mal offed herself. Mal makes contact with ghosts who party in an abandoned mansion known as The Haunt. She gets the idea from one of her new dead friends to communicate through a medium. Ren, the medium, lives a life where he suffers from almost everyone thinking he’s crazy for being able to speak with spirits. As he and Mal form a friendship, it doesn’t take long for the two to fantasize about what would have happened if Ren and Mal met before she died. Mal has to learn to let go of the living before she drags them down with her.
Like Mal with Ren, Mal Caldera eventually wraps around your mind and makes you adore her. Writer Nadi Reed Perez creates a bevy of fun and tragic characters to populate Mal’s afterlife. From two students taking polls of the recently dead, to a beautiful teenager, or a classically handsome man keeping everything together, it’s the side characters that make the book so loveable.
The Afterlife of Mal Caldera comes to stores June 11, 2024.
