This book is a gift to the culture. --Amy Schumer, writer, actor, and activist
After her brother's death from a congenital heart defect,
twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at
school--especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that
happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and
divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her
family's own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her
peers.
Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the
absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an
after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many
shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.
AfterMath is a well-written book on grief in
its many forms. A young girl, Lucy, and her parents move to Virginia from
Maryland after her younger brother dies from a rare heart disease. Her parents justify
the move as an easier commute for them, but Lucy, who loses her friends,
believes it is an attempt to escape pain. They are trying their best to heal
from the loss of their child.
Lucy ends up in a middle school where most of the students are survivors of a
grade school mass killing. It is a tough adjustment all around. I found it very
easy to relate to Lucy’s need to protect herself and her heart. More importantly, my middle school
granddaughter easily put herself in Lucy’s shoes too. While we didn’t experience the loss of a sibling,
we have experienced devastating loss of close family members.
AfterMath flows at a steady pace that grows as Lucy faces some
challenges and a betrayal. Lucy’s inner
dialogue and use of math principles to explain her struggle, is effective in putting
the reader in Lucy’s head. Her pain and
her parents’ attitudes are heartbreaking at times.
"A square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that is has four
equal sides and four equal angles. What happens when one side is gone? Is it
still a square? No. If a family has four members, and one is gone, are we still
a family?"
This an excellent book for teens and adults. My granddaughter and I listened to
the story with the e-book to read along. The audio book is performed by the
author, Emily Barth Isler. She does an
excellent job performing a story that must be near and dear to her heart. There
are some political messages, but they are subtle. I'm not a fan of authors who
hit the reader over the head with their political beliefs, whether I agree with
them or not.
AfterMath is an excellent book to read and/or listen if you or your family has experienced loss or to help initiate discussions about personal loss with family members. I recommend the book for teens and adults alike.
If you are an audiobook fan, this is a must listen.
We both rate it 5 Stars.
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