Tosca Lee quotes:

Merrie Destefano storms the world of urban fantasy with AFTERLIFE, breathing new life into the vast genre of the undead. Gritty, poignant, in the tradition of Bladerunner, with the nostalgia of New Orleans. With crisp and beautiful prose, AFTERLIFE blurs the line between the living and the dead to ask life's ultimate questions-even if they take nine lives to solve.

I wonder now if [the gods] take from us that which we love so we must seek them, if only to scavenge for meaning in this existence.

I was beloved. I had been hoped for. Somehow, I was necessary.

And I know that God made the heart the most fragile and resilient of all organs, that a lifetime of joy and pain might be encased in one mortal chamber.

God has a story to tell about you. A major part of it is you telling yours.

How mighty, how great the One must be, I thought, to send the heavens careening, and yet hear the cry of a single heart.

The words, when they came to my heart, were so gentle, and familiar -- and so very sad: What is this you have done?