Author: Laura Wiess
Publication: February 18th 2014 by MTV Books
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: Provided by the kind publisher..
Laura Wiess captures the visceral emotion of a girl’s journey from innocence to devastating loss and, ultimately, to a strange and unexpected kind of understanding—in this beautiful and painfully honest new novel.
Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?
Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old—a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.
If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger’s shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother — and herself — from the endless replay of heartache and grief.
Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?
Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?
Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old—a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.
If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger’s shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother — and herself — from the endless replay of heartache and grief.
Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?
-- My Rating --
4/5 Oscars: Really liked it
-- My Thoughts --
Rowan's life is boring enough, for a high school student. But things take a different turn when a man decides to suicide on the bridge near her house with his little kid. This devastating incident takes its toll on Rowan's father, the police officer on the scene and one of the witnesses, Eli. Life will never be normal again for Rowan, and a while later, the person she loved her whole life is going to leave her and she has to cope with it alone.
This is a very dark read. It doesn't seem like that in the beginning , considering Rowan and her actions. She is a rebellious teenger who hates being under the control of her strict parents. It almost feels like she does things just to piss them off. Then her officer father witnesses a suicide by a man and his kid, and this changed everyone. This book takes a dark side when another suicide happens in Rowan's family. This book is mainly about suicide and the aftermath of it. How it affects the people who are left behind,not the people who are gone.
Rowan undergoes a lot of changes through the course of this book. Not exactly for the better, but not for worse, either. She just develops and grows up, which is something we need to do in our lives, sooner or later. Her relationship with her mother was a focal point in the story and i loved watching them cope with being left alone with their extreme sadness. It was a refreshing take on the whole aspect of grief and what it really means.
There is also a romance in this story and it was so beautiful. Eli is a broken guy, too. With his father dead and him witnessing a suicide, it changes him a lot. But together, Eli and Rowan try to fix each other and slowly, you fall in love with their determination and everything about them. Watching this whole reckless, sweet, and loyal love unfold was surreal for me.
The end was definitely not what I expected and it took me a little by surprise but it also healed my broken heart over the events in the book. Although this book might be a bit too dark for some people, I really couldn't find anything wrong with it. IT was thought-provoking and intense and it left me with a lot of thoughts, for later, I'm sure it would be for You readers, too.
