Allie explores her power while Nick begins to discover his own purpose.Īllie is captured by the McGill, a grotesque monster who controls a ship full of Afterlights who fear him. Allie gets Lief and Nick captured by The Haunter and learns that she can pick up living things and also possess living people, or 'Skinjack'. Allie sets out with Nick and Lief to see whether he has special powers and they meet The Haunter. Allie notices other Afterlights at the Twin Towers keep repeating and doing the same thing every day, becoming stuck in ruts. They settle down, but Allie is not content. She lives with the children under her care in the destroyed World Trade Center, which exists because things that are much beloved in the world can cross into Everlost when they are destroyed. There, they meet Mary Hightower, the 'mother' of Afterlights who keeps many Afterlights safe and is the author of hundreds of books about living in Everlost. He warns them of a dreaded and evil monster, the McGill, and Johnnie-O, and the altar boys before they make their way to New York City. They are somewhat like ghosts and retain the exact appearance they had when they died.

Nick and Allie, who have just awoken in a ghostly parallel to the real world, are saved by a boy named Lief, who tells them that they are called 'Afterlights' who cannot be seen by the living.

The story is the first in the Skinjacker trilogy that takes place in Everlost, the place between life and death. Everlost is a fantasy book published in 2006 by the young adult author Neal Shusterman.

Skinjacker trilogy series