Twelve year old Lucy and her parents are mourning the death of her little brother who died from a heart defect. Her parents thought moving to a town healing from a recent school shooting would help them better fit in because their neighbors would understand their loss. This is exceptionally hard on Lucy who struggles to fit in and keeps her brother Theo’s death a secret. Her mom throws herself into therapy sessions and heart defect organizations to occupy her time, but her father is withdrawn and barely engages with the family.
Lucy’s kind and dynamic teacher draws her into an after school miming club he advises which allows him to strengthen his relationship with her, helps her express her grief in a safe outlet, and creates some friendships although she is hesitant to call them that.
Avery, the stepsister of the shooter responsible for the deaths and injuries affecting many of their classmates, is shunned by her peers. Lucy is warned to avoid her, but people hesitate to tell her why. Lucy befriends Avery and the relationship is life-altering for both of them.
I loved seeing the trust build, witnessing baby steps of the characters in healing from their losses, and the way Lucy’s love of math was interwoven throughout the book, especially the concept of infinity. I was very touched by this book and its message of forgiveness and trust.

Lucy loves math, it just makes sense to her when everything else around her is out of sync. Lucy moves to a new town after her brother Theo passes away, but the town is dealing with there own grief from previous events. This is a great story about loss and grief and learning to move on.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This certainly doesn’t beat around the bush, does it?

Lucy and her parents have moved to a new town after the loss of her younger brother who had a fatal heart condition, but their new town is cloaked in a grief of its own. Four years prior, the elementary school experienced a school shooting that claimed the lives of teachers and third graders. Lucy enters 7th grade, filled with the survivors of that third grade class.

I kept reminding myself as I read that grief affects people differently. This comes from the frustration I had with Lucy’s parents, in that they, for whatever reason, move their daughter specifically to a town that suffered a horrific tragedy. Lucy is told that they are the first new family in town/she is the first new student in their class since the shooting. Her classmates talk and emote openly about their struggles and go into detail about what they witnessed without being prompted or asked. Lucy now has to juggle dealing with her classmates’ experiences as well as the recent death of her brother. On top of that, her mom and dad almost downright refuse to talk about their son and how it’s affecting their daughter. It’s…a lot.

There is a very cute and welcome side-plot with Lucy joining a mime club spearheaded by the math teacher, who was my favorite character. I wish the author would have gone into more of what their performance night was like.

I did like Aftermath and I think it’s important. I don’t see myself recommending this to each and every kid who comes into the library—it’s too heavy for casual reading. But I’m sure many young people (and adults!) will pick this up and get something out of it.

4 Stars,

Wow this book was well-written and had covered such an important topic in today's society. It's a heavy read that addresses grief and loss in a several different ways.

Lucy, a 12 year old girl, moves to a new town after the loss of her brother to a rare heart condition. Her family is looking for a new place to start over, but this town is still mourning their school shooting that occurred 4 years prior.

Even though their grief is different, Lucy is able to show compassion and healing as she navigates middle school.

TW: School Shooting, Chronic Illness, Death, PTSD.

Aftermath is a Middle-Grade book about a girl Lucy Rothman. Lucy the protagonist of our story is a thirteen-year-old math geek who is way more mature for her age. After the Death of her little brother Theo Lucy and her parents move to Queensland. The new town, house, and school which were supposed to be a new start for Lucy end up being the total opposite. Grief hangs on every corner of the town, especially in her school. Her classmates who were victims of mass school shooting carry grief on their shoulders like a heavy backpack. Death and grief are something they talk about freely like it doesn't matter. How does one compare grief? Who's loss is more painful? How long does it take to get over the death of a loved one?

Beautiful, Funny, and yet utterly heartbreaking. This book deals with such heavy topics in a light yet meaningful way. Emphasizing important topics such as grief in families and PTSD. There was such beauty in the development of every character by the end of the book that it left my heart so full. The author manages to portray such real and raw emotions that keep you hooked till the end. Also, every child needs a teacher like Mr. Jackson. With occasional sprinklings of some really funny and witty math jokes, this book is just a joy to read.

This is another beautiful middle-grade book that has made its way to becoming one of my favorites. I don't think the words I have said are enough for this lovely book. I would highly recommend this book to everybody!

I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an amazingly heartbreaking story about kids dealing with death and loss, how a family deals with the death of a child, and essentially the aftermath of a school shooting that reverberates years after the final bullet is shot. The story starts out with a 7th grader named Lucy who moves into a house where a girl named Bette lived, who died in a school shooting four years previous. Lucy is the first new kid to attend any Queensland school because of the shooting so her classmates are the kids that were in third grade when it happened. They introduce themselves by telling her where they were during the shooting and who they lost. At the same time Lucy reflects on her brother Theo’s death from a rare heart disease. She starts sitting at a table with a girl named Avery who everyone else avoids, but Lucy befriends her. Lucy also decides to join a mime class after school which turns out to be a way for her to escape. She doesn’t think about math equations—she loves math—or the death and loss that surrounds her and her classmates. The mime class becomes a safe space for them all. This story is about coping with loss, but also about learning to heal from the wounds of losing friends and family.

I really enjoyed the writing style and the overall storytelling.

Um livro muito interessante e estreia da autora Emily Barth Isler. O enredo de After Math nos apresenta a jovem Lucy, que está de mudança para uma nova escola após a morte de seu irmão. Porém, essa mesma escola foi cenário de uma tragédia anos atrás, e muitos estudantes lidam com o trauma até hoje. A história apresenta temas pesados, mas os mesmo são abordados de uma maneira leve e pertinente. Aviso que devem separar alguma lenços, pois algumas lágrimas serão derramas ao longo da história.

Aftermath is a debut Middle Grade novel by Emily Barth Isler. Wow. It tackles a lot of serious topics head on. Grief of the loss of a brother/son, moving to a new school ... which had a school shooting, bullying.

It has been years, but the location that Lucy's family moves to integrates Lucy with the same grade that had been the target of a mass shooting. Lucy is dealing with the loss of her brother, but everyone around her was also impacted by loss.

Lucy is very good at math, but having a difficult time with the concept of infinity. Her math teacher leads an after school activity and it is a good way to help the students deal with their unique circumstances.

Throughout the book there are math related bad dad jokes that provide a refreshing breath; this works really well with the serious subject matter.

A really great book. I think it is a book that is very readable, even with the serious content.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher (Carolrhoda Books and Lerner Books) and the author Emily Barth Isler for the opportunity to review the advance copy in exchange for an honest review..

Also shelved under Best of 2021 on my personal bookshelf.

What an interesting perspective. I’d never thought about what it would have been like for a student to enroll in a school where students had experienced this kind of tragedy-one far too many have had to endure. We never really hear about the months and years after the media buzz subsides. For someone like Lucy, already dealing with the loss of her brother, to question whether her grief is equal to that of her classmates. Then to bring in Avery, the surviving sister of the mass murderer. How often does society blame the family when truly they had no part in it and are dealing with a different kind of unimaginable grief. Well written.

AfterMath is beautifully written middle grade book about grief and loss that's a wonderful choice for young readers. I was struck by Emily Barth Isler's grappling with the social hierarchies of different forms of grief--a complex topic for any age category, but particularly impressive in this book. It's a devastating reality that a book about school shootings will be so widely understood by today's young readers, but it's for that exact reason that this book deserves a spot in your classroom or home library.

Holy shish kebab. Do not read this book without tissues, like an entire box of them. Powerful, moving and poignant, Lucy's story will grip you from the first page and keep you firmly in it's grasp until the very end. Lucy's brother, Theo, has recently died of a heart condition. Being in the house was too painful for her parents, so they move to Queensland, where the town is still reeling and healing from a school shooting four years earlier. Lucy isn't thrilled that her new bedroom used to belong to a girl who died in the shooting. She hates that she is surrounded once more by death. But her own tragic loss is overshadowed by the massive loss of the student's she is going to school with who survived the shooting. I couldn't put this book down. It is heart wrenching and beautifully written from Lucy's perspective as she struggles to hold her family and herself together and trying to heal from her own grief. I have so many words but also not nearly enough to perfectly capture this story. I loved that Lucy was a math whiz, but also willing to explore new things such as a mime class. The way she moved through her stages of grief, connected with her new peers and tried to break through to her own grieving parents was a journey through some of my own grief. Every family should read this together. The content may be intense but it is an important read for children who are learning to deal with the darkness in the world.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler is a middle grade novel about a young girl named Lucy who moves to a different town after the death of her younger brother. She finds herself at a school that 4 years ago had a mass shooting leading to many casualties, and a large amount of trauma to the surviving students. We follow Lucy as she finds a way to overcome her many obstacles due to being at a new school and the intense history of the students, on top of her own trauma. The writing was refreshingly simple, making it a fast read despite the heavy topics brought up. Not only did I enjoy the story, I thought the overall message of this book was fantastic, and great for the classroom, kids need to know how important it is to talk about their loss, because although grief can be extremely powerful, love will always win in the end. Thank you Emily Barth Isler for a much needed story beaming with hope, love, and family!

The story of a girl who was not in a school shooting. That is what this book is about. Lucy has had a death in her family, but nothing like that her class has experienced.

But is death different, if it happens differently?

Lucy doesn't have the same trauma as everyone else, but that doesn't mean she is not in mourning as well.

This book is an interesting take on, not so much school shootings, which unfortunately are far too common in the US, but what happens to those who survive? What sort of PTSD do they have. And how to they navigate life?

A shared trauma is an amazing bonding, but also a terror. I can't say that I've ever been in any schools shooting, or any kind of shootings, but last summer, the area I live in was struck by one of the largest firestorms in the state, and a quarter of the people in our county had to evacuated. In all, 945 houses burned. Those who lost homes, and those who did not, are still on edge, still flinch when they smell smoke, or hear a fire engine. We all have a bit of PTSD. I can't imagine what school shooting survivors would go through, but I can imagine.

But that is not to say that it he whole point of this book. The point, I think, is how we use the sorrow of death to understand what life is about.

Good book. Grabbed me and pulled me in, and I totally related to Lucy, the narrator, the new kid, who wasn't part of the school shooting.

<em> Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

An incredible piece of work.

Twelve year old Lucy has recently moved to Queensland with her parents. With the grief of losing her baby brother still engulfing her, she is not really ready to attend a new school where the students have witnessed a shooting four years back. Lucy and the kids are constantly haunted by their unpleasant memories, yet they seem to be seas apart. Lucy is a math geek who tries to perceive the world in mathematical language, but she finds that not everything fits easily in a practical frame. Life eventually makes her realize that pain can be endless but love too can be so.

In the marvelously penned story, Emily takes us on an emotional journey in the shoes of a traumatized seventh grader. Sprinting through jumbled thoughts, complicated human interactions, and silent struggles, we finally reach a beautiful conclusion that inspires our heart to hold a place for hope.The book also tells us that death does not necessarily mean the end of someone. Loved ones live beyond time and space in our memories, in our thoughts, in our heart.

The character of Avery holds a special place in my mind. Although the story has been narrated from Lucy’s perspective, the author has done a brilliant job in portraying Avery’s desperation to escape her identity and reality.

I will admit that my attention was not immediately conquered by the book, but things began to work in no time as the story progressed.

A must read for people of all ages.

I have loved math since a really long time and the fact that Lucy also loved math and always sought to math for ‘answers’ was really one of the most beautiful thing for me and I love it thoroughly. This was my first middle grade book and it was honestly very my most favorite for the fact that it covered topics like grief and the loss of a closed one. I loved how the friendship of Lucy and Avery blooms throughout the book and how Lucy’s parents grow. The thing that won my heart was how Lucy’s character grows and how she herself learns to deal with grief.

Excellent book about loss and grief for a family dealing with the loss of their son and brother Theo, from a heart condition, and a town still coping after a school shooting Lucy’s parents decide to move after Theo died for a new start and move to the town where the shooting was. Lucy dreads starting at a new school where this happened. On her first day, everyone brings up the shooting because they’ve all gone through this tragedy together. Not knowing where to sit at lunch, she sees a girl by herself and sits at her table. People tell her later not to sit with that girl, Avery. As time passes, Lucy still sits with Lucy, but they don’t talk. Lucy’s family is having a tough time coping with the grief and as time passes her parents admit they haven’t handled the last year very well and have avoided talking about her brother. Lucy and Avery eventually talk and become friends especially when they find they are in an after school mime class. A secret is exposed about Avery, but Lucy doesn’t care because she still wants to be friends with her. At the end, Lucy finds that memories, friends, and love are like infinity which goes on and on.

A powerful tale of grief, friendship, and healing. Numbers make sense to Lucy, and equations are her way of keeping things predictable and stable. But soon she sees that there are so many variables ... different ways to grieve, to process it, and to heal. A timely story that will resonate with readers.