Monday, May 24, 2010

Johanna Kelly's Book Review


After

Amy Efaw

*****stars

Could a woman, more specifically, a young teenager girl, convince herself that she was not pregnant? Could a young teenage girl hide her nausea, her swollen belly, her obvious signs of pregnancy, from everyone around her? Devon does. She does not accept the fact that she is pregnant.

She gives birth, on her cold bathroom floor, covered in birth fluids. She cuts an umbilical cord with fingernail clippers. She places her baby girl in a black trash bag, along with bloody feminine products and rotten garbage. She then proceeds to take this bag out to the dumpster.

Is Devon a monster? Or just a scared and helpless teenager, not realizing that she threw away a life? And an innocent, even more helpless life at that?

These questions raced through my mind while taking in the gripping 350 pages that make up After. Do you want Devon, A star athlete, an honor student, a girl with no criminal record, to be punished in an adult court with a life sentance for attemped murder in the first degree? Or do you want Devon to be conseled in the juvenille system, and released, with the maximum sentence, on the day that she turns twenty-one? I did not decide until the very last page. What will you decide? Read After and find out!

9 comments:

TheBookNurse said...

I'll have to check this one out!

Johanna said...

This one is different. You can't decide if you like Devon or not. It is told in third person. I really liked it!

Amy Lyon said...

It sounds like it has potential, I'll have to consider this one.

Ian Zig. said...

Well she sounds like she needs to get a grip on reality, honestly how could she make herself believe she wasn't pregnant?.. At some point you would have to accept that you're pregnant. She sounds like a nut case to me.

Aspen Gates said...

This one is really drawing me towards it. I don't like at all what she decided to do, but it looks like she almost had no other choice.

Bryce F. said...

this girl sounds insane to me. lol idk if this one will be on my reading list.

Johanna said...

Exactly! This is why Efaw made Devon seem as "normal" and honorable as possible. There are times when you want to hug her, and times you want to smack her. You don't necessarily have to like the main character to like the book

Jessica Johnson said...

this book sound REALLY good. i'll have to check it out soon.

Cassidy Lynn Monroe said...

I'm reading this book now, I'm only about half way through it, so far it seems like a really good, interesting story.