I love Lauren James, her writing is always wonderful and this was no less true in this book. I loved the diversity of characters in this book and the intrigue was top notch. However the ending just left me feeling a bit let down. If this is a standalone then the end is a very weak point and if it isn't then I feel that knowing it was the first in a series would have allowed me to be prepared for the level of cliffhanger.

However the story is clever and interesting and I am really hoping there will be more because I need answers!

3.5 stars, removed half a star because of the abruptness of the ending.

Lauren James has done it again with another brilliant story full of diverse, well developed characters, and twisty plot. This title is particularly gruesome, dark, and twisted, which makes it the perfect read for around Halloween. Any fans of ghost stories and urban fantasy will love Harriet Stoker.

I absolutely loved the concept presented in the book, including the multiple narrators and especially the one unknown for most of the story. The writing and world building is as amazing as i'd expect from Lauren James and her characters are well developed to reflect that.
The titular character is an enigma to me. It's almost as if she is displaying signs of being on the spectrum, but it's never identified. As it stands, I have a strong dislike for her as a person and it actually makes for a refreshingly different sort of read.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending as the story is left with a number of loose ends and because I don't know if there is an intended sequel I feel really uneasy about it. I think that's because it doesn't feel like one of those deliberate 'I'm leaving it to your imagination' sort of endings... it feels like there is more waiting to be said.

******* What is written below will not be shared on my blog or any sites when it comes to publication*****
Something I really did struggle with was Kasper talking about his ability to possess people who are alive. I find the line "It might not kill them, but it's- it's rape. I can't be that person." rather problematic because what he is talking about is not rape, nor could it be. I understand that the author is trying to convey that Kasper's idea of consent and that is great. However, I've spent 10 years teaching young adults PSHCE and the level of misunderstanding regarding rape and consensual sex is rather worrying. Yes, I understand the book is fiction and that someone may use the word rape in the way Lauren James has (Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park says "I call it the rape of the natural world") however, I'm just concerned that it could add to the misinformation. It could also lead to problems with Religious Education and the impregnation of Mary. Some students since the development of the 'Me too' movement have been questioning if Mary was raped by God. Which, while debatable among theologians, is not something entered into within the classroom. The reason for it not being considered rape is because of the lack of intercourse, which is the same for what is being said here.
I know I've rambled and perhaps no one will see this, but those few words have caused a lot of conflict for me. It is amazing the power of words. Had it have read "It's like rape." I perhaps wouldn't have even have picked up on it.
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Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and I look forward to reading anything else Lauren James writes.

This is really more of a 3.5 star review!

When I read a Lauren James novel, I know I'm in for a good time. The three books I've read from her in the past - The Next Together, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, and The Quiet at the End of the World - were packed with enough twists and turns to keep me racing through, eager to discover what would happen next. I opened The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker, saw that the first line began with, "Twenty minutes before her death...", and figured that I was in for an equally fun ride.

The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker is, true to form, full of plenty of 'oh!' and 'wait, what?' moments. I've found James to be really good at that: she gives tiny hints so that you'll start to figure out plot twists before the characters do, and certain things revealed towards the end practically beg you to read the whole novel again with that new knowledge in mind.

This means that our protagonist, Harriet, who was a first-year at university studying Photography until she died, is an interesting one. I started out sympathising with her - no one wants to die at eighteen with a bunch of unfulfilled life goals, surely it's only natural for her to be a little power-hungry in an attempt to regain some control over her (after)life - but her villainy grew chapter by chapter. As her morality declined further and further, I began rooting for the close-knit group of friends who'd died together in a mysterious incident back in the 1990s, hoping they'd find a way to stop her before it was too late. Speaking of those friends, Felix, Kasper, Rima, and Leah were such fun characters, and I especially liked Rima's cute little pet fox spirit.

There's a great setup here and I was thoroughly prepared to be blown away by one hell of an ending, but I was quite disappointed by the fact that this novel ends on such a cliffhanger. I have been known to enjoy books that leave everything so open, but considering all the buildup, I was expecting much more. We're asked to question so many things as the plot unfolds (what is the purpose of the narrator of the italicised chapters, and what cataclysmic events are they constantly referring to? were the deaths of Felix, Rima, Kasper, and the other ghostly inhabitants of Mulcture Hall truly due to a carbon monoxide leak one night, or something more sinister, as police reports suggest?) and aren't given answers to them. Later on, the book even brings attention to a strategically-placed tripwire being the cause of Harriet's fall, suggesting that her death might have been a murder rather than an accident, and while I have what I think is a pretty solid theory, I need some actual answers!

Putting my disappointment in the cliffhanger ending aside, James has without a doubt succeeded in making me want to know more, and now I'm hoping for a sequel!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5

This book is about Harriet, a student who has the brilliant idea of going into an old building to take some photos. She ends up dying and she gets stuck in this "place" with a lot of other people who also died there. She gets close to a group of ghost close to her age and they show her how her "life" will be from now on.

The author's writing is very gripping - as it was in her other books I've read - and it went by very quickly. There was also a nice twist - which I didn't see coming AT ALL - I also liked the concept of each ghost having a specific power and I enjoyed the atmosphere. However, the character were a bit bland for me and I was expecting MORE about from the story's development.

Overall, it's an entertaining and interesting read - specially for halloween - but there are better books in this genre.

I'm so embarrassed. Luckily, I huffed and puffed and scoffed at this book in private. I had read the premise, but not very thoroughly. At the start of the novel, I made the assumption that Lauren James was making a lot of silly mistakes. I thought she was accidentally depicting Harriet Stoker, the protagonist, in a weird and almost negative way. For example, Harriet would have a way of getting what she wanted by either flirting with people or by using them in other ways. There are so many more examples though.

It took me around 100 pages to realise that our protagonist is actually meant to be an anti-hero. That's so clever!

The story is about a girl, Harriet Stoker, who goes to a derelict building to take photos for her Photography course. She accidentally dies in the building, and straightaway her spirit wakes up. A group of friends are "on the other side" to welcome her into the life of a ghost. They explain that every ghost has their own power, and if Harriet is patient, she will find hers. Harriet isn't patient though. She wants to leave, and she wants to find her power even if it destroys everyone around her.

The premise that I'm giving you isn't a spoiler, but as I said I didn't know these facts going into the novel. I loved every bit of it though! I thought it was an incredibly clever way to make a break with the traditional friend group. I liked the diverse cast of characters and the world that Lauren James created. It makes a lot of sense for ghosts to feed off of energy, and to each have their own powers in order to explain why cultures have a different definitions for ghosts.

I didn't necessarily enjoy the love triangle. That having been said, it's wasn't overshadowing the plot or development of characters in any way.

The novel is written from multiple perspectives. You hear the story from Harriet's and from four or five of the friends' point-of-views. There's also one unknown character who gives the reader a bit more of an insight into the future and the past. I think that's a clever addition to keep the reader guessing a bit more.

I didn't expect to be giving this novel 5 stars. However, here we are with a very well deserved perfect rating! I can't wait to read more of Lauren James' work.

Harriet Stoker is dead. As a consequence of an unfortunate accident- or was it murder- in the decrepit former student housing Mulcture Hall, Harriet is now a ghost. And she’s not alone- the place is full of spirits, including a large cohort of benign former students who died en masse in a mysterious event at the Hall some years ago. The building also contains older- and considerably more sinister- presences. Harriet just wants to get home to her grandmother but some of her fellow ghosts have very different ideas as to what path she should take in her new afterlife. And who is the unseen narrator, foreseeing all the events as things unfold?

In many ways, this was really a perfect lockdown read because one of the central themes of the story is being trapped in a place, unable to leave, which resonates very well with living in quarantine! In the world that author Lauren James’ has created, there are rules for the afterlife, one of which is explained very simply in that if the ghost leaves the place they died, disintegration of their spirit being follows. Without giving too much else away as spoilers, it’s integral to the plot that the ghosts also have certain special powers and require to find sustaining forms of life energy in various ways to continue existing indefinitely. This is all explained with some relatively simple exposition that works best if accepted at face value.

There’s a solid core cast of supporting players with varying degrees of sub-plot including a sweet romance, although personally I found some of the banter between the friend group a little tiresome at times. The plot skips a long at a decent pace- in fact, Harriet is dead within a couple of pages and it adds quite the frisson to the first paragraph to know she has 20 minutes left to live. Mulcture Hall is a fantastic atmospheric setting, lending an extra spooky ambience to the proceedings. And as for what resides in the basement…

As a character Harriet is a very unpleasant piece of work and in some ways it’s hard to care too much about what happens to her. The story offsets this by seeding an interest in the hidden narrator and by putting things from that perspective (rather than solely through Harriet) is largely what saves the book becoming overwhelmingly negative for me. There’s also a very clever plot twist albeit one with some loose ends. Again, without giving too much away about the ending, I can only guess that perhaps a sequel is intended because in a one star-losing move, the final chapters felt quite rushed and it wasn’t totally clear if the ending was intended as cliff hanger or if that was just...it? If the latter, I have Lots. Of Questions. I’ll be intrigued to see what other people think. For me, this was a highly original, fun, engrossing and very entertaining read, with just the right amount of horror factor and certainly one that I’d both recommend and will be thinking about for some time. 4 very solid stars,

Thank you to Walker Books for provided an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren James’ book The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker is about a scheming ghost named Harriet who sets out to cause chaos in an abandoned building filled with ghosts.

I was very intrigued by this story because it’s not what Lauren James normally writes. You can definitely see her science background shine through however, especially with the character of Qi, and her experiments.

I found the time scale of this book didn’t quite work for me, as the events happening in the presence only seem to last over a week, yet we keep looking back to Roman times to show how long the ghosts have been around. I feel that it would have been better if the ghosts had no real sense of time, so the character development worked more.

I liked Harriet, but after reading Lauren James’ Fan Treaty, I would say that her and Gottie are pretty much the same characters. They both talk the same, and both scheme and plot to get their own way. I liked having a ‘bad’ protagonist, but some of her thinking was very simple, especially when she’s trying to manipulate people into doing her own thing.

I really loved the narrator twist- Lauren James had mentioned that the narrator would be important in a tumblr post, and I was very surprised when I found out who it was! I thought it was a really interesting twist, and it means re-reading with a whole different viewpoint.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the main cast of characters, but I loved the Tricksters. Maybe it’s because I’m a villain kind of person, but I thought Rima, Felix, and Kasper were incredibly boring and twee. I find most friend groups in YA fiction boring however, so another reader may love them.

I also wasn’t sure about the whole ‘powers’ thing. I feel like it didn’t work in a book about ghosts, which seems strange to say, but I found it really strange? I’d much rather read about physical scheming than Harriet being invisible (that she hardly uses), and Rima randomly turning into bats.

*Spoilers* I was also very surprised by the ending! Lauren James often leaves her books open ended with the potential for sequels (Which I’m not entirely sure about anyway), but to leave on an actual cliff hanger? I definitely understand that there is more story to tell, but I’m not sure what other readers will think.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC.