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A review by kierscrivener
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
5.0
We follow twelve year old ZJ as his father, a famous football player becomes more and more sick. Beginning with migraines and memory loss and going to instability. This discusses CTE, a devastating and too common illness of those who play contact sports as traumatic brain injuries (concussions) continually affect the brain. It has taken the years and the lives of many people.
It was emotional. I loved that we followed a twelve year old boy amd he had good emotional intelligence and conversation with his core group of friends and even though this is a short book it also addressed the things in his friends lives as well. And they felt like fully fleshed out because the nuance given each one in their first introduction.
I loved that Woodson added no surplus of things to drive the plot. It is rather calm and emotionally focused which is my kind of story. I think that it is also written in verse, it is hard to tell as an audiobook if it has good rhythm or is in verse but it reads like poetry and is very short but was not lacking in plot or substance.
I like the open ending with the love but also the reality, and I cried throughout. Also someone who has a chronic illness, it was emotional to see them go through the unknown and the lack of help from doctors or medicine. I relate to this a lot.
It was emotional. I loved that we followed a twelve year old boy amd he had good emotional intelligence and conversation with his core group of friends and even though this is a short book it also addressed the things in his friends lives as well. And they felt like fully fleshed out because the nuance given each one in their first introduction.
I loved that Woodson added no surplus of things to drive the plot. It is rather calm and emotionally focused which is my kind of story. I think that it is also written in verse, it is hard to tell as an audiobook if it has good rhythm or is in verse but it reads like poetry and is very short but was not lacking in plot or substance.
I like the open ending with the love but also the reality, and I cried throughout. Also someone who has a chronic illness, it was emotional to see them go through the unknown and the lack of help from doctors or medicine. I relate to this a lot.