Eighty-Nine Questions for After by Ashleigh Barton

Title: Eighty-Nine Questions for After

Author: Ashleigh Barton

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Published: 28^th July 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: A wise and beautifully written middle-grade novel about finding answers to the big questions in life from popular children’s author Ashleigh Barton.

Ester Star is a germophobe and hypochondriac and she’s convinced she’s going to die. To prepare for her imminent and inevitable demise, Ester keeps a list of all the questions she hopes to have answered in the afterlife – things she knows she’ll never have the answers to during her lifetime. What really happened to the dinosaurs? Just how big is the universe? Are ghosts real? She’s up to eighty-nine questions and counting.

When Ester’s usual after-school sitters announce they are moving away, her mum comes up with an alternative arrangement that turns her world upside down. Every day after school, Ester is to spend her afternoons with Mum at work. At a hospice. Terrified of all the things she might catch at a hospice, Ester is anxious every second she’s there.

But soon she meets Joan, an elderly lady who used to be in the circus. Joan tells Ester she doesn’t believe in the afterlife, but she does have one question she’ll regret never having answered while she’s alive. Why did her sister disappear all those years ago, after they had been so close growing up in the circus together?

With the help of Peter, another kid who spends his afternoons at the hospice, and her new next-door neighbour, a tech whizz named Mackenzie, Ester sets out to have Joan’s question answered.

Will Ester realise there’s more to life than worrying about dying?

~*~

Meet Ester Star. She lives with her mum, is a germophobe and hypochondriac. Until recently, she’s headed to a neighbour’s chaotic home after school until Mum gets home from work. But now that they’ve moved, Ester has to go to Mum’s work at a hospice after school. She’s preparing for her imminent demise by writing down all the questions she doesn’t think she will ever get answers to. Big questions about the world and history. But she’s anxious the whole time, even when people like her mother and Joan reassure her she won’t catch anything.

She also meets Peter, a boy who comes into the common room to do his homework as well, and who takes an interest in Ester and her questions without judgement. Joan has one last wish – to reunite with her sister, who disappeared after a fire at the circus they worked at over 60 years ago. When Ester tells the new neighbour, Mackenzie about Joan, they go on a quest to answer Joan’s question.

This is a tender book, which is equally heartbreaking and joyous, filled with adventure and experiences, and learning to live. Learning to see life as more than dying and asking the big questions. It is also about friendship and acceptance. Peter and Mackenzie accept Ester for who she is. They don’t judge, and they seem to understand she is the way she is, which I thought was beautiful. She was allowed to have her fears and worries, and allowed to grow throughout the novel.

The mystery about Joan’s sister drives the novel in conjunction with Ester making friends with Peter and Mackenzie, and finding that she doesn’t need to worry too much about everything. She can still have her questions, but maybe having friends will help her answer them. Delving into the past also takes her on fantastic journeys that don’t require technology. The balance of using it as needed but not relying on it makes this novel magical and contemporary. It allows readers to see how they can make fun without technology, and what it means to explore the world around you with great friends who are simply awesome people.

I love Ashleigh’s writing and her latest books tackling big emotions and big questions are lots of fun to read, because they are full of meaning. They are quiet and gentle, and have a beautiful power behind them that shapes the characters.

It’s a gorgeous book, one that is filled with ups and downs, laughter and tears, and some real gut punches throughout that show that life is never predictable. It’s messy and filled with surprises. We can’t plan everything out, nor can we know what is going to happen. I think the relationship between Ester and Peter was gorgeous and pure, and deep down, I felt a sadness about it at times. It showcased that life could teeter on an edge without us realising it, and I did love the way everything showcased accepting people for who they are, for how they come to us and the impact they can make on our lives.

This is a gorgeous book, one that grabbed my heart in so many ways, happy and sad, and I liked the way it ended. Is there more to Mack and Ester’s story? If not, the story ended beautifully.