Review: The Beginning Of After by Jennifer Castle

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5 (maybe 4)

Publisher: HarperCollins / HarperTeen

Spoilers?: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I had higher hopes for this book. At least, in the romance department. I had heard that there was more than there actually was; or, I took it to believe that there was more.

There was swoon, I will say that, but not a lot of physical stuff, until the very last bit of the book.

Um, anyway: this book is about Laurel, who’s family gets in a car accident with Davids parents, a boy she’s known since she was little, but isn’t very close with anymore. A lot of the book focuses on her trying to face what happened and get over it.

She tries to play it cool, like she’s alright, pretty quickly, before facing that she’s having a hard time and misses them and doesn’t want to do anything. It was pointed out a couple of times that she was being selfish, focusing only on herself and not on the people around her that are still there for her, but I didn’t really agree with that. First of all, she does have some reason to be, at first, but then later, for quite a bit of the book, it didn’t feel like she was focusing on herself. She just wasn’t focusing on anything, and just didn’t seem all there. Which is understandable as well.

I liked Laurel enough, understood her and maybe felt a little bit of a connection with her, but not enough. She didn’t pull me in or capture me like some have; which, I guess, is also understandable in some way, with how she was written. She just wasn’t there for a lot of the book, not feeling anything and trying not to feel anything, which I did kind of enjoy reading about. Not enough, though, I guess.

I think I just had a hard time with this whole book. I had a hard time with Laurel, the romance was taking too long, nothing really seemed to be capturing me or putting me off; it was all just, eh.

It did get better near the ending, I will say that. I started to enjoy it a bit more as it got more interesting, the romance really got going, and the ending was good. It left at a good place, and even though I would have liked to see more of her going to college and being with David, that was enough for me.