From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld comes a &;masterful&; (Cory Doctorow) novel-within-a-novel that you won&;t be able to put down.Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she&;s taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love. Woven into Darcy&;s personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the &;Afterworld&; to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved&;and terrifying&;stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love&;until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most.