Review Detail

Ahh, The Beginning of After seriously made me tear up. I probably would have cried too, if I hadn’t read the entirety of it in very public places – between classes and before work. The Beginning of After such an intensely emotional book and I just felt like curling up under a blanket while reading it.

The The Beginning of After is a long book. It certainly has its slow parts. But I felt like, in order for Laurel to fully grieve, maybe there had to be a few slow parts and that they were necessary to the story/journey Jennifer Castle was trying to tell. Laurel’s family died. The Beginning of After is the story of how she deals with her grief and how she, basically, begins her after. It’s a very character driven contemporary, which are some of my favourite books to read.

I definitely believe everyone deals with grief in very different ways, and I love how Jennifer Castle represented that with not just Laurel, but David and Laurel’s Nana as well. And even though The Beginning of After focused on Laurel and her grief, we were able to witness David and Nana’s grief in other ways.

Also, I loved all the parts with animals.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Beginning of After. I know this review doesn’t really explain why, but I just did. I loved being with Laurel as she tried to figure out what to do next, how to put her life back together. The Beginning of After a wonderful contemporary with such an overwhelming sadness to it, and any fan of depressing (yet very hopeful) contemps should give The Beginning of After a try.

Review originally posted on my blog http://hobbitsies.net/2011/09/the-beginning-of-after-by-jennifer-castle/