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A review by jasminebooknook
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
4.0
The Aftermath is a story that takes place in Germany after the second World War. The story follows Colonel Morgan, his wife and his only surviving son Edmund. The British family move into a manor that is owned and occupied by a German father and his teenage daughter. During, the requisition and renewal of Germany the Morgan family have been moved into this manor with the intent that they would make the German family leave, but the Morgan's decided to let them stay and live in unison despite the many new laws that disagree with this benevolence.
This book was listed in my journal ages ago and for what reason I don't recall. Aftermath was a book that I both enjoyed and kind of couldn't wait to get it over with. Part of the reason why I enjoyed it is because it takes place in or around World War II, which a theme in some of my favorite books revolves around historical time periods such as the deep south during slavery and World War II era. The characters were well developed except I felt that there was a part of the book that I felt wasn't necessary and would of been easier to just cut out a whole chunk of characters. It is one of those funny stories though that has a fun tie of characters that occurs towards the end but I also felt this could of been developed a little bit better. Really, I think the ending kind of just lacked anything interesting. It was a "ah, let's just end this real quick" kind of ending. It was even a bit predictable, although some small details were surprising, and others were just annoying.
Now to talk about some of the details that made this book a four star and not a five star book for me. The romance in this story kind of annoyed me, it was scandalous and sweet and then it ended abruptly only a few chapters later like nothing happened. The guy went on his way happy as though nothing occurred and then you never really got to hear the girls side of what she felt after the ending of it, if she could continue with how things were before. Like why go through all of the trouble in the first place if you can break off so easily? Perhaps that is the point. Another thing is the ending with Freda, Stefan Lubert's daughter. This seemed unnecessary but not surprising. Then of course considering what happens to the other parties involved just makes it seems so textbook for an ending.
Maybe I am just really picky and I thought that there would be more exciting things to this book but really once you got past the military stuff you get into the domestic relations and the social politics of a crumbled nation, which was probably the interesting part, and finally ending with the essential tying of loose ends. Ugh, it just seemed like the author got tired of his own story and in an effort not to make the readers wonder what happened or wish for a second book he cut off all the people who could possibly lead to an interesting second book.
If anyone would like to discuss and rant about actual details, please let me know because there's a whole lot more I feel like I could say about it but not without some spoilers.
Follow my blog at https://thecatsreadingjournal.blogspot.com/
This book was listed in my journal ages ago and for what reason I don't recall. Aftermath was a book that I both enjoyed and kind of couldn't wait to get it over with. Part of the reason why I enjoyed it is because it takes place in or around World War II, which a theme in some of my favorite books revolves around historical time periods such as the deep south during slavery and World War II era. The characters were well developed except I felt that there was a part of the book that I felt wasn't necessary and would of been easier to just cut out a whole chunk of characters. It is one of those funny stories though that has a fun tie of characters that occurs towards the end but I also felt this could of been developed a little bit better. Really, I think the ending kind of just lacked anything interesting. It was a "ah, let's just end this real quick" kind of ending. It was even a bit predictable, although some small details were surprising, and others were just annoying.
Now to talk about some of the details that made this book a four star and not a five star book for me. The romance in this story kind of annoyed me, it was scandalous and sweet and then it ended abruptly only a few chapters later like nothing happened. The guy went on his way happy as though nothing occurred and then you never really got to hear the girls side of what she felt after the ending of it, if she could continue with how things were before. Like why go through all of the trouble in the first place if you can break off so easily? Perhaps that is the point. Another thing is the ending with Freda, Stefan Lubert's daughter. This seemed unnecessary but not surprising. Then of course considering what happens to the other parties involved just makes it seems so textbook for an ending.
Maybe I am just really picky and I thought that there would be more exciting things to this book but really once you got past the military stuff you get into the domestic relations and the social politics of a crumbled nation, which was probably the interesting part, and finally ending with the essential tying of loose ends. Ugh, it just seemed like the author got tired of his own story and in an effort not to make the readers wonder what happened or wish for a second book he cut off all the people who could possibly lead to an interesting second book.
If anyone would like to discuss and rant about actual details, please let me know because there's a whole lot more I feel like I could say about it but not without some spoilers.
Follow my blog at https://thecatsreadingjournal.blogspot.com/