Summary from GoodReads:

Sixteen-year-old Laurel’s world changes instantly when her parents and brother are killed in a terrible car accident. Behind the wheel is the father of her bad-boy neighbor, David Kaufman, whose mother is also killed. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laurel navigates a new reality in which she and her best friend grow apart, boys may or may not be approaching her out of pity, overpowering memories lurk everywhere, and Mr. Kaufman is comatose but still very much alive. Through it all there is David, who swoops in and out of Laurel’s life and to whom she finds herself attracted against her better judgment. She will forever be connected to him by their mutual loss—a connection that will change them both in unexpected ways.

My Review:

I’ve been in such a melancholy funk lately – I go through these stages where I need to read about tragedy and redemption, life moving on, just to feel as if I’m not the only one out there feeling these moments of sorrow and pain and to remind myself that there is worse and that I really am not all that bad off.

So with that in mind, it’s inevitable that I’d gravitate toward The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle – the story of a girl with two parents and a younger brother all taken from her in the blink of an eye.  Laurel is a Junior in high school at the time of the accident and she has to struggle.

There are things I loved in this book.  I thought the portrayal of her grief stages, of her wants, wishes and eventual acceptance were very realistic and portrayed well.  I felt for her, but it was hard to really feel moved for her because, in spite of it all, she still had so much and was so self-centered through it all.  She was not the only one affected by the accident, but it takes quite some time before she is even able to acknowledge that and… honestly, when a girl has to choose between ivy league schools and maintains a high GPA through a tragedy of this level, it just gets a bit unrealistic.  That was the part that turned me off – that in spite of this crippling event, she still manages to live a life that most of us would have loved to have.

Don’t get me wrong, a love a good “happily ever after”, but sometimes it’s too much and in the case of this story, it came off that way.   It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and was saved from being terrible with some fantastic writing and character building on the secondary characters, but still – I admit to rolling my eyes more than feeling as if I wanted to shed a tear.

Still, The Beginning of After is a worthwhile read and I read it easily in an afternoon sitting.  I’d highly recommend supplementing it with Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver or even something by Elizabeth Musser.

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