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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
The story was good, maybe even just okay, definitely not great. It dragged a lot and found my mind wandering, just reading but not really ready, quite often.
Reading this was like recognizing a soul mate or long lost love. It took a bit to emerge, but this has the wonderful writing qualities of Kent Haruf's Plainsong and Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, books read a long time ago but never forgotten.
Quiet families with teenagers in trouble, a slow and measured pace, and layers and layers of different kinds of angst, this character-based story based in the beautiful Northwest centers on a high school teacher, Isaac, who finds himself divorced and solo parenting his popular son. When the boy is murdered and his best friend confesses and a girl with a secret pertaining to both boys arrives totally upending his life, Isaac must find his way through grief and issues of forgiveness.
Isaac is a Quaker, a quiet faith I am quite familiar with, and this book honors that manner of thinking and living very well. But Isaac is a mess internally and it will take months to decide how he might move forward and create new relationships and reestablish familiar ones.
This is spirit-filled but not religious. There is no blame here, but rather, it sensitively sheds light on how people struggle in myriad ways. There are numerous low-key issues of betrayal and abandonment. Readers will feel for these teens and their parents. Nothing is simple. Life isn't simple. Oh this is SO exceptional.
Quiet families with teenagers in trouble, a slow and measured pace, and layers and layers of different kinds of angst, this character-based story based in the beautiful Northwest centers on a high school teacher, Isaac, who finds himself divorced and solo parenting his popular son. When the boy is murdered and his best friend confesses and a girl with a secret pertaining to both boys arrives totally upending his life, Isaac must find his way through grief and issues of forgiveness.
Isaac is a Quaker, a quiet faith I am quite familiar with, and this book honors that manner of thinking and living very well. But Isaac is a mess internally and it will take months to decide how he might move forward and create new relationships and reestablish familiar ones.
This is spirit-filled but not religious. There is no blame here, but rather, it sensitively sheds light on how people struggle in myriad ways. There are numerous low-key issues of betrayal and abandonment. Readers will feel for these teens and their parents. Nothing is simple. Life isn't simple. Oh this is SO exceptional.
This was just the book I needed to get out of a slump. It was beautiful, yet sad-all of what life is. When I began reading this book, it certainly gripped me at first, but I wasn’t expecting such depth and commentary on life. Or the tears. This is one of the best I’ve read so far in 2021!
Have you ever read a book that just sticks inside you? This author reminds me of Kristin Hannah in that this book was so deep and it hit you in your soul! I loved this book so much!
This was a poignant and suspenseful debut novel about the tensions of love, anger, courage, forgiveness and everything in between. It is a shame the epilogue wasn’t as perfect as the rest of the book.
This book tore me open emotionally.
Despite it’s slow build, the author captured so much human emotion in these characters that I felt like I was feeling as they would have felt.
The part about Rufus ENDED ME. It brought up so much raw / real emotion and heartbreak that I felt losing my own pet. She really did capture saying those goodbyes beautifully. I was a bawling MESS!!
The book is perfectly titled. What Comes After. How we grieve loss, come to terms with the emptiness that people / loved ones leave, the unanswered questions, the messes that they leave behind. And even how loss can be experienced in more ways than just death! Losing a friendship, breaking ties with toxic family members, losing your pride and breaking down barriers to be more vulnerable and honest, etc.
Just a hella good book.
Will be thinking about this one for awhile
Despite it’s slow build, the author captured so much human emotion in these characters that I felt like I was feeling as they would have felt.
The part about Rufus ENDED ME. It brought up so much raw / real emotion and heartbreak that I felt losing my own pet. She really did capture saying those goodbyes beautifully. I was a bawling MESS!!
The book is perfectly titled. What Comes After. How we grieve loss, come to terms with the emptiness that people / loved ones leave, the unanswered questions, the messes that they leave behind. And even how loss can be experienced in more ways than just death! Losing a friendship, breaking ties with toxic family members, losing your pride and breaking down barriers to be more vulnerable and honest, etc.
Just a hella good book.
Will be thinking about this one for awhile
This was a slow burn for me. It took me a while to get into the characters. Even by the end I still had mixed feelings about Isaac. On the whole though, this was great. Recommend.
What Comes After tells the story of Isaac and Lorraine, two parents grieving amidst the violent death of their children. A pregnant young girl, Evangeline, enters their lives and begins to help the parents move forward from their grief.
This book was heavy. It was a pretty sad read, and it seemed that bad things would not stop happening. I think I was satisfied by the end, but multiple times throughout, I wished things would get better for these poor parents. I think the mystery of the boy's deaths was the thing that kept me pushing forward throughout the book.
Overall it was an enjoyable read. I was expecting more of a murder mystery. But what the title entails, what comes after the murder, and what happens to the people left in the wake of such a tragedy.
This book was heavy. It was a pretty sad read, and it seemed that bad things would not stop happening. I think I was satisfied by the end, but multiple times throughout, I wished things would get better for these poor parents. I think the mystery of the boy's deaths was the thing that kept me pushing forward throughout the book.
Overall it was an enjoyable read. I was expecting more of a murder mystery. But what the title entails, what comes after the murder, and what happens to the people left in the wake of such a tragedy.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dnf @ page 135
I've only DNFed like two books before, and I expected to love this book.
What Comes After was an incredibly dull book. I didn't care about any of the characters or their motivations. I didn't care about the whole murder mystery. I didn't care about Evangeline's pregnancy. I feel like I spent days reading this but I only got to page 135.
I keep re-reading the same chapter because I don't want to give up, but it is time.
I've only DNFed like two books before, and I expected to love this book.
What Comes After was an incredibly dull book. I didn't care about any of the characters or their motivations. I didn't care about the whole murder mystery. I didn't care about Evangeline's pregnancy. I feel like I spent days reading this but I only got to page 135.
I keep re-reading the same chapter because I don't want to give up, but it is time.