(Life After 1) Huntress by Julie Hall

The room was packed wall-to-wall with huge, well-muscled guys! My stomach dropped. I’d been mistakenly drafted by the afterlife division of the NFL. This had to be a mistake.

Then I thought, "Eaten alive? How was that even possible when you were already dead?"
  

(Life After 1) Huntress by Julie Hall Review

My thoughts on Review spoilers, and ratings may be relevant before you venture below --- the spoiler line ---. Click the [Back] button there to return here if you take a look. Original draft review 05/20/2021. Final Review 1150± words, 5/6/2021

My Rating

I recommend this 3 star Young Adult, Christian, Fantasy novel... It is lathered in she-teen hormonal love/emotional insanity. It has enough bad writing in it to make you scream, yet enough wonderful story to make you cry, or at least think.... that is if you are a Christian or are inclined to consider living as if Christ loved you enough to died for you.

I know 3 stars isn't a ringing endorsement. Then my opinion on ratings makes that moot. I will make another confession shortly.

Despite the glaring shortcomings in this book, Audrey's story does have it's moments, and I never doubted where author, Julie Hall's heart was. The story, overall, was good enough to get some bragging rights that you can find on Julie's website .

Internet going out isn't precisely helping here....

Pre-confession: During the time I spent on skid row, 100+ Christians handed me Chapter 24 of this book. Those pamphlets never convinced me. But they did make me wonder enough that when I could no longer stand to live, I said to the God I didn't believe in, "Just let me die." That was December 29, 1969. I've never doubted His love for me since. I've doubted His sanity, His choices, His intelligence, I've called Him unkind names, I've sworn at Him, I've spoken to Him in languages I can't understand, then wondered what the hell I said. My life hasn't been terribly different from others. I think my kids love me. I think everyone who's ever loved me, still does. May not like me much, but I deserve that. The "Pre-confession" is to alert you to the fact that this book can reach really deep into some people. I'm one of them.

As a character Audrey, in Huntress, is about two stars above Holden Caulfield in pitiful. 3 stars. Hands down, she is infinitely better than Holden in every other imaginable way, but damn, if her comprehension of the human male is as portrayed in this novel, we are doomed as a species.

Confession: I've listened to the entire "Life After" series at least 3 times, possibly as many as 6 times. Always, sleeping, working, doing chores, shaving, showering, or otherwise not listening to it. You do wake up, take breaks, turn off the shower, so eventually you hear a lot of it. So to be fair to Julie (and to add 4 reviews to my 2021 count) I decided I would actually listen to the entire Life After series, one book at a time. I know this is a magnificent book. I know it is a pitifully bad book. Yep, both. The story is rather consistent. It is a good story from Huntress through Dominion (with a novella on Logan thrown in). The twists and character grown as the books go by can make it great fun. I cried, for personal reasons, and for our entertainer, Julie Hall's magic.

Okay, you made it pass the TMI section...

The book reminded, in some ways, of Frank Peretti's Darkness series. That is largely due to the prologue and epilogue in Huntress, but I'm cheating slightly here... I've actually read the whole series as well.

Generally: ----- The Spoiler Line ----- Audrey dies, lands in Heaven, entirely mind wiped (as in no memories of her life). Through no fault of her own she misses the (apparently) mandatory "Newly Dead, Welcome to Heaven Orientation". Then all 5 foot 3 inches of her gets assigned to demon combat duty. After the "assignment" Angel's double check to make sure God knows what He's doing, One Angel takes Audrey to meet her mentor and trainer, Logan.

Logan, a good looking, slightly older hunk, stops his combat training with another "hunter" to speak with the Angel who informs him he will have a new trainee to mentor. With Audrey the only other person with the Angel, Logan looks pass her and then says, "Great, where is he?"

Did I mention Audrey is a sheltered, confident, hormonal, and oblivious about males, teenage woman?

Audrey dies lands in "heaven" as a warrior with "Logan" as trainer. Romona becomes her nearly only friend. She's missed "orientation" that provides the newly dead all the details they need to fit in so "Audry" isn't fitting in at all.

Seriously, this novel is a baffling mess. Julie Hall does so many things right, I could kiss her. She also does so many things wrong... well the story makes up for almost all of that.

It all does make sense in way I suppose any born again Christian 17 year old hormonal confused dead girl would entirely understand.

My Notable Notes: One minute I want to strangle Julie for writing Audrey the way she did. Then I'm touched. Then my inner critic goes to sleep. Then Audrey tries to figure out Logan again... and I'm back to strangle mode.

Likes and Dislikes: If you haven't figured it out, I'm all over the place with this novel. Bad writing, but touching. I've critiqued a lot of manuscripts. This one would have taken me days to write. But when I can suspend my disbelief about Audrey's thick naivete about Logan in particular, I can roll with this story. Julie may have needed more help getting this story to market, but she clearly understands what it takes to tell a story and does a pretty good job at that.

The Technical: About the writing critique? Sorry. I'll need cash up front to do this critique.

Conclusion As I've "pre-confessed", I'm a Christian and the later chapters in this book rang my "too close to home" bell. But it is essentially a story about a confused girl thrown into a confusing (to her) situation, and then most the rest is her trying to figure out what most dead folks learned in "Orientation" which she missed for some unclear reason. Although there was mention of some people learning better by doing.

Read on: FIX THIS , 2021
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Author: Julie Hall
Narrator: Vanessa Moyen
Book Retailers: Julie Hall Retail Links
Read & Runtime: Chapters: 29 - Print length : 360 pages Runtime: 8h 48min