The Afterward Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Verdict: A warm, quietly radical YA fantasy about what happens to the heroes once the quest is over, with a tender knight-and-thief romance that is undercut by a split timeline many readers struggle to follow.

Best for: Readers who grew up on quest fantasy and want to see it remade around queer women, and who care more about character, found family and a kind ending than about plot momentum.

Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5 — behind closed doors)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.81 Goodreads average, with the Before/After structure as the most consistent complaint)

Tropes: Knight and thief, class difference, arranged-marriage pressure, after the quest, found family, dual POV, split timeline, all-women knighthood, standalone, happy ending.

The Afterward by E.K. Johnston is a standalone, traditionally published sapphic fantasy for teens from Dutton. It is set in the kingdom of Cadrium a year after a band of mostly female knights recovered the godsgem and saved their king. Its premise is a collision between two of the youngest heroes: Kalanthe Ironheart, an apprentice knight who now has to marry money, and Olsa Rhetsdaughter, a thief whom fame has made too recognisable to steal.

It holds a 3.81 average across 1,619 Goodreads ratings and 3.88 on StoryGraph. Kirkus and School Library Journal both reviewed it, and its audiobook is a three-narrator Penguin Random House production. The reviews divide more sharply than that tidy average suggests, and almost all of the division comes down to one structural decision. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.

What Is The Afterward About?

The Afterward is secondary-world high fantasy written for readers who know the shape of a classic quest. One reviewer places its feudal politics close to tenth-century Normandy, and several readers spot the David Eddings inheritance. Knighthood here is open to women and nobody remarks on it, but the old economic machinery still runs. Training costs money, and a knight without means marries to pay the debt. The whole book rests on that pressure.

Kalanthe lacks money. Her apprenticeship left her family in debt, and the honourable way out is a wealthy husband. Olsa lacks standing. She is the only lowborn member of the questing party, and she assumes, not unreasonably, that the people who needed her on the road have no further use for her now. The book alternates between them and between two timelines. “Before” chapters show the quest in fragments, and “After” chapters follow the year that comes next. It shows the bond forming and the bond under strain side by side, and it causes most of the book’s trouble.

What Makes This YA Sapphic Fantasy Work

The premise: Asking what the heroes do once the songs are written is the hook readers name most often. In the most-read reviews it comes up as the reason they picked the book up.
The cast: Female knights, a trans knight, a knight readers read as aromantic or asexual, and leads of colour. On StoryGraph, 97% of readers agree the cast is diverse, and both trade reviews single it out.
The romance’s tone: Readers who love the book describe a class-divided love story built on respect rather than drama. Each woman values the very traits in the other that keep getting her into trouble.
Found family: The knights mentor, rescue and argue with each other like people who have been through something together. StoryGraph readers rate the characters loveable at 84%.
A kind ending: It is a standalone with a happy resolution for both leads.

Book Synopsis

A year has passed since the godsgem came home and the king of Cadrium woke from the spell that held him. The knights who found it are celebrated in every tavern song. Two of them are struggling. Kalanthe Ironheart, still only an apprentice, owes more for her training than her family can ever repay. Unless she accepts a rich man’s offer of marriage, the debt will follow them for good. Olsa Rhetsdaughter, the thief who helped them through, has gone back to the only work she knows and keeps getting caught at it. Being famous is bad for business.

On the road the two of them fell for each other. Off it, everything is in the way. Kalanthe cannot afford Olsa, and Olsa will not let herself be a burden or a mistress. Each time Olsa lands in a cell, Kalanthe’s patience runs thinner. Interleaved with the present, the story returns to the quest itself. It shows how a sheltered knight-in-training and a wary street thief became allies, then something more, in the middle of a mission neither of them expected to survive.

Then the court mage, Ladros, discovers that the godsgem is not as safely hidden as everyone believed. He needs a thief, and he needs the old company together again. One more problem has arrived that only the questers can solve. Kalanthe and Olsa have to decide whether they can stand beside each other once more knowing that, whatever happens, the money and the marriage will still be waiting when it is over.

My Review

The idea at the centre of this book is a genuinely good one. I want to say that first, because most readers who disliked it say so too. Most quest fantasy ends at the coronation. Johnston starts a year later, with the bills. The moment of glory has not paid off Kalanthe’s training, and fame has made Olsa worse at the only trade she has. The quest that made them heroes did nothing about who can afford to marry whom.

The second real strength is the world’s casualness about who gets to be a hero. An order of women knights, a trans knight, a knight who wants no romance at all, dark-skinned leads, and nobody in-world pausing to explain any of it. Readers who love the book love it first for this, and both Kirkus and School Library Journal credit the cast. The romance, when it is on the page, is gentle and adult in its manners: two people who respect each other, stuck on opposite sides of a money problem.

Where it struggles is structure, and this is not my own quibble. It is the most consistent complaint in the low-star reviews. Alternating Before and After chapters, switching between two points of view and between first and third person, leaves a large share of readers disoriented. Of the twelve one-star reviews Goodreads surfaces, five name the timeline jumping and four say outright they could not follow it. School Library Journal flags the same risk and warns that readers may at first think they have picked up a sequel. Around that sit the secondary problems. The pacing is slow and the stakes are low, and Kirkus agrees that it delivers slowly on adventure. The romance gets less shared page time than its billing suggests. The godsgem and the magic go largely unexplained.

One expectation to reset: the jacket sells this as romantic high fantasy and an epic quest. Most of the epic quest has already happened, and you see it in pieces. What you get instead is a character book about consequences, with a late-act mission to bring the company back together. If adventure is what drew you, calibrate. If you were worried this would be a long slog of battles, relax.

My honest note: A four-star premise and a lovely cast, held to three-and-a-half by a timeline that makes you work harder than the story pays back. If non-linear structure loses you, expect to be lost for the first third. If you can hold two timelines at once, this is one of the kindest books in YA sapphic fantasy.

Element	In The Afterward
Central relationship	Kalanthe Ironheart & Olsa Rhetsdaughter — indebted apprentice knight and lowborn thief, lovers separated by class
Core tropes	After the quest, class difference, arranged-marriage pressure, found family, dual POV, split timeline
Setting	Cadrium — a secondary-world feudal kingdom with an order of women knights, one year after the godsgem quest
Heat level	2/5 — behind closed doors
Series	Standalone — complete story with a happy ending
Content notes	Violence, death, confinement and imprisonment, sexual content (mostly off-page), sexual assault (minor), chronic illness, poverty and debt, a knight’s severe magical brain injury

How Spicy Is The Afterward?

Not very: a 2/5. Unusually for a young adult title, it has a romance.io entry. The rating there is 2 of 5, labelled “Behind closed doors”, from 25 ratings. Readers agree. The Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reviewer describes some making out, with most intimacy fading to black, and another reviewer calls the scenes mildly explicit at most. Amazon lists the reading age as 14–17.

The one thing worth knowing in advance is that StoryGraph readers list sexual content as a moderate warning and sexual assault as a minor one, so not everything off-page is gentle. No reviewer I found describes on-page detail beyond kissing. If you want this same low-heat, high-yearning band elsewhere, Of Fire and Stars and Crier’s War both sit at 2/5.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you grew up on quest fantasy and wondered what happened next, you want queer heroines who get a happy ending, you read for found family and character over plot, and you like a romance built on respect rather than angst.

You may want to skip it if: non-linear timelines and shifting narrators pull you out of a story, you want the quest on the page rather than in flashback, you need a slow romance with lots of shared scenes, or representation that names itself on the page reads to you as box-ticking.

In short: a generous idea and a lovable cast, told in a shape that will either charm you or lose you early.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

This is a 2019 backlist book, and the discourse around it is quiet rather than live. I found no organic BookTok activity for the title. I could not reach Reddit for this sweep, so I cannot report a footprint there either way. What it has instead is staying power. It has gathered 1,619 Goodreads ratings and 816 on StoryGraph. It got a repackaged paperback with an all-new cover a year after release, and it keeps turning up on Pride and YA sapphic fantasy lists. It is also not being propped up by advance readers: only three of the thirty most-visible Goodreads reviews mention an early copy. Readers are finding it through lists like this one, and through audio.

The audiobook is the strongest second door in. Penguin Random House Audio released it alongside the hardcover in February 2019, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Meera Simhan and Adenrele Ojo, and it runs 9 hours 15 minutes unabridged. A full cast suits a book that changes narrator. One admits the audio made the many names harder to keep straight, but no listener complaint about the narration itself recurs.

Prefer audio? Listen to The Afterward on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The cast comes first and most consistently. Knights who are women, trans and aroace characters, and dark-skinned leads are named in nearly half of the most-read Goodreads reviews, and StoryGraph’s 97% “diverse cast” agrees. Then the premise: readers love seeing the heroes after the adventure, dealing with debts and reputations. The romance draws real affection for its tenderness and mutual respect. Found family among the knights comes up repeatedly, and a handful of readers delight in recognising an affectionate nod to Eddings-era quest fantasy. Notably, a minority praise the very alternating structure others complain about, which tells you the main flaw depends on taste.

What readers argue about and complain about: Structure, above everything. The Before/After timelines, the switching narrators and the shift between first and third person leave many readers unsure where or when they are. More than one compares it to starting a series at book two, and School Library Journal makes the same point. Pace is the second theme. Eleven of the thirty two-star reviews Goodreads surfaces call it slow, dull or draggy, and they blame low stakes and a plot with no clear direction. Third: the romance. Readers who wanted more of Kalanthe and Olsa together say they got too few shared scenes, and that the turn from friends to kissing comes abruptly. Beyond that, there are recurring notes on thin worldbuilding and an unexplained godsgem. There is also a real split over the representation. A few readers find it didactic and quota-like, while a majority call it the best thing about the book. Separately, at least three reviewers raise concerns about how aromantic and asexual characters are handled, including a plot point that injures the ace knight. That is a cluster, not a consensus, but it is worth knowing.

The standalone question worth asking first: it resolves completely. There is no sequel, no cliffhanger and nothing further to wait for. Kalanthe and Olsa get a happy ending, though Smart Bitches, Trashy Books felt it turns on a convenient piece of luck. If you finish wanting more, the better next step is another YA sapphic fantasy, below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does The Afterward have a happy ending?

Yes. Kalanthe and Olsa end up together, and the book closes on a hopeful resolution for the wider cast. Some readers find the route there a little convenient, but the ending itself is happy.

Is The Afterward a standalone?

Yes. It is a complete story with no sequel. Its Before/After structure makes some readers think they have started a series in the middle, but there is no earlier book to read.

How spicy is The Afterward?

A 2/5. romance.io rates it 2 of 5, “Behind closed doors,” and reviewers describe making out with most intimacy fading to black. Amazon lists it for ages 14–17.

Why do readers find The Afterward confusing?

Because of its structure. Chapters alternate between the quest (“Before”) and the year after it (“After”), between two narrators, and between first and third person. It is the most common complaint in the low-star reviews, though a minority of readers enjoy it.

Is there an audiobook of The Afterward?

Yes. Penguin Random House Audio published it in February 2019, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Meera Simhan and Adenrele Ojo, running 9 hours 15 minutes unabridged.

If You Loved The Afterward, Read These Next

Readers looking for the same mix of court duty and forbidden feeling most often land on Of Fire and Stars, which sets a sapphic romance against a political betrothal at the same gentle heat. If the class divide between a knight and a thief is the draw, Crier’s War builds a romance across a sharper divide with far higher stakes, but it ends on a cliffhanger and you’ll need the second book. For another complete standalone that keeps the door closed, Sweet & Bitter Magic trades quest fantasy for a witch’s curse.

For more in this register, browse our full list of YA sapphic fantasy books or the complete Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

The Afterward is a book whose idea is better than its shape. The after-the-quest premise is genuinely fresh, the cast of women knights is warm and wide, and the romance between Kalanthe and Olsa is tender and ends happily. It is also hard to follow early on, slow to build stakes, and thinner on shared romantic scenes than its billing suggests. The reader who can hold two at once gets a kind, complete, quietly subversive fantasy with no sequel to wait for. Check The Afterward on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, The Afterward ranks as a gentle, idea-led YA sapphic quest fantasy. It is warm and generous with its cast, held back by a timeline that disorients, and best approached for the characters and the premise rather than the adventure.