With a story focusing less on plot and more on developing and exploring character dynamics, namely those between Mal and her still-alive sister Cris, and of Mal and the reluctant medium she enlists, Ren, to help mend her relationships, Nadi Reed Perez eschews some of the trappings of other ghost-lit-fic (usually a secret murder or mysterious happening) in digging deep into thorny emotional territory and the grief-laden questions that follow the passing of a loved one. The Afterlife of Mal Caldera is not a light read by any means, but for the right reader, might be the one that they need at that time.
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The Afterlife of Mal Caldera isn’t always divine, but it is a largely enjoyable character study of a selfish, flawed, deeply relatable woman who the reader will come to love by the end of the story. Reed Perez is a talented scribe and if they continue to create heartfelt, poignant tales like this, they’ll find themselves a devoted niche of readers ready to follow them to hell and back (pun very much intended).
The Afterlife of Mal Caldera is out on 11th June from Titan Books.
