What are the narrative afterlives of gender-based violence and death? How do we understand the meaning of these events, and what do we take forward as the members of a society that produces this violence? True crime, as seen in podcasts, documentaries and books, is one cultural response to storytelling around violence. Lauded by some, and hated by others, true crime has become a multi-million dollar industry within which true stories of violence are taken up and processed into scintillating, adrenaline thrilled narratives to entertain and interest audience members. However, true crime is not the only method of post-violence storytelling. It may be the “loudest” voice, but post-violence stories are widespread and multilayered. Within my thesis, I will examine two literary works, a book of poems by Olivia Gatwood called Life of the Party and a collection of short stories titled Her Body and Other Parties, written by Carmen Maria Machado. Gatwood and Machado each explicitly engage with the death and brutalization of women in their respective works, but their findings, meaning, and affective reality are localized in an entirely separate space from true crime. Here, I will attempt to understand how Machado and Gatwood create new meanings, and if a further investment in these alternative affects may help us find afterlives of violence that can break the cycle of further harm