Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - After Annie

To be honest, had I not been reading this book for the book club at my store (which I moderate), I probably would have put this down around 20% complete, wandered off, and just never finished it. I ended up having to pick up the audiobook and listen to it at 2x speed to get through it. This was...fine. I just didn't find the three point-of-view characters to be distinct from each other in tone. Ali didn't even seem like a tween/teen girl, like, what does she like? Not like? Not feel like doing any more because she's sad?? An incredible amount is left unexplored in the Annemarie character.

I also had an incredibly hard time situating this book in a time period. It felt like Quindlen was trying so hard to make the situation and characters generalizable or perhaps "timeless" that she ended up making them just bland and gray. There are no references to...anything. We eventually get a few bits here and there where you can kind of figure out that it's maybe mid-2010s but we know more about the area (rural, eastern-ish Pennsylvania) because of Annemarie's contacts with the Mennonites and Amish than we do about the three main characters themselves.

And, had I DNF'd at 20%, I would have been spared the use of the Jenny storyline, which I felt was extremely poorly handled, particularly when her older sister shows up out of the blue and trauma dumps in the school counselor's office.

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kellijones's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The further I got into this book, the more I liked it. In her almost stream-of-consciousness writing, the author fleshes out the characters so vividly. The book was sad in a matter-of-fact way that was not emotionally manipulative but emotive nonetheless. There are many profound observations about the ordinariness of loss, the things we tend not to talk about.

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marypaz13's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

"The hardest part of friendship, she'd sometimes thought, was accepting that your friend wants what you think is not worth having."

Format: Audiobook
Medium: Penguin Random House Audio
Narrator(s): Gilli Messer

TWs: Death, Loss of a loved one, Mention of Anxiety, Mention of Depression, Mention of Miscarriage, Mention of Bullying, Mention of Child Abuse, Inferred Sexual Abuse

My Review & Thoughts (more so ramblings though):
--> Read for #BNBookClub

I don't know what to say. I mean, death isn't a topic that's fun & rainbows. I haven't lost a parent, so I can't really relate to the book in that aspect, but I have lost many loved ones. To me, each character depicts the stages of grief (his is good, simplified article explaining it: https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief#the-kubler-ross-model">Mourning and the 5 Stages of Grief).

Denial:
--> the phone & voicemail
--> Bill & Ann Marie

Anger
--> Ann Marie 100%
-->

Ant being mad at Bill for dating someone 3 months after his mother's death

Bargaining
--> Bill & Alli

Depression
--> Everyone's depressed

Acceptance
--> it's different for everybody

The story is interwoven by the past and present. You see the special moments, albeit not all good, of instances where Annie made an impact in the character's lives. You also get to see how each character change with that particular memory of her. You also see a 14 year-old being an adult to make up for her dad -- honestly, not uncommon. At least these kids, well Ant & Alli, go to therapy, and at some point the dad does too.

Some of my favorite [out of context] quotes:
⇒

"...people's sympathy was well meant, but made him feel freakish and set apart, and how bothered he was by that."

⇒

"...he had always loved being one of the guys. Being ordinary. Wasn't that weird? Most people wanted to be special and he missed being ordinary."

⇒

"I think they both feel like you disappeared your wife. Not that she's dead, but that she has vanished. Which is different and much worse."

⇒

"'Was your mother a good mother?' Elizabeth asked. "Did she take good care of you?' Alli nodded. 'You're lucky,' Elizabeth said and turned away."

⇒

"'What's the point of grown ups if they can't fix things.'"

⇒

"There's some things you can't fix no matter how hard you try.'"

Rating Breakdown
Writing Style & Pacing: 3.5
Characters: 3
Storyline/Plot: 3.25
Audio Narration: 3.75
Overall Rating: 3.375 rounded to a 3

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lrystarr's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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carolynlovesbooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was hard to put down! The subject matter is difficult, overcoming grief after losing your wife/mother/best friend, especially at such a young age. Its really well done and your heart breaks for the loss of Annie (she's amazing!) but it's easy to fall in love with her daughter Ali (my favorite character in the book, along with Ms. Cruz).

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