Title: Afterglow
Author: Phil Stamper
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Publication date: February 7, 2023
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Summary
It’s senior year, and Gabriel, Heath, Reese, and Sal are all trying to figure out what they want to do with their futures. After all four of them had unforgettable summers, they now feel like they have to decide the direction of the rest of their life.
Gabriel is excited about his school’s first LGBTQ+ advocacy group, but his long distance relationship is harder than he expected. Heath knows where his furture is going, but his anxiety about succeeding in baseball could impact his future. Reese knows he wants to go into fashion design, but perhaps not in the way people expect. And Sal might not want to go to college, but he’s not sure how to tell his mom. It’s sure to be a year none of them will forget.
Review: Afterglow
Thanks to Bloomsbury YA and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Afterglow by Phil Stamper to review! This is the sequel to Golden Boys, which came out last year. And yes, you definitely need to read that one first because you will miss a lot of character development that is very important in this one!
I actually enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed Golden Boys. The story goes in a bit of a different direction than I was expecting, and we get to see more of the four friends interacting. We didn’t get a lot of that in the first book because they all went different places for the summer. Overall, this book felt like a more cohesive story, even though it still had four different narrators. You’d think you’d get overwhelmed by that, but you don’t really in this book.
A lot of teens will relate to the boys’ fear that after they all graduate, they’re going to lose touch with their high school friends. They’ll relate to the anxieties of graduating high school, of feeling like you have to have it all figured out. Stamper hits the tone just right in this book, and with the four strong main characters, you’ll be sucked right into each of their lives.
I did think that maybe the book was a tad longer than it needed to be, but other than that, this is a great follow up to the first book. If you enjoy Stamper’s writing, you’ll want to pick this one up!
4/5 stars