Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle

Friday, May 22, 2026--San Antonio

Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle was named a top book of 2025.  It is science fiction dealing with an alternative concept of the afterlife.  (Another book I read previously, Under the Whispering Door, had a similar theme.)  In this book, a young man keeps having tastes show up in his mouth that are very detailed.  While working at a bar and serving a final customer of the night, he has the sensation of the taste of a drink.  He makes it and hands it to the man in front of him.  At the first sip, sparkles occur in the air that come together in a non-solid form but one that can communicate by voice.  It is the ghost of his lost wife.  They communicate with each other under he takes the last sip of the drink causing he to then disappear again.  Most of the tastes he gets like this are for food.  He tests a theory by trying to recreate them, but he doesn't know enough about cooking to do it exactly right, so he gets a job as a dishwasher in a nice restaurant and starts observing and learning from the cooks.  Eventually, he learns enough that he brings back an occasional ghost but not always.  When and why does it work?  Is he doing these people a favor by bringing back the ghosts?  Is he doing the ghosts a favor or creating a problem for them?  He approaches it all with an altruistc attitude of trying to help both people and ghosts.  But he is doing it still without complete understanding of the questions he had been asking himself--based instead on assumptions he is making.  And others who do not have altruistic attitudes become involved.  There is a grand climax with major aftereffects.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.