After her five-year-old brother Theo's death from a genetic heart defect, math-loving Lucy Rothman and her parents are looking for a new start. But the town they move into is definitely not an escape from tragedy-- in fact, it's the opposite. Four years ago, 27 people were killed in a shooting at the elementary school, and now Lucy has to go to a new school where every other student was present for that trauma. Even Lucy's new bedroom used to belong to a third-grade girl lost to the shooting. Everyone in Queensland, Virginia knew someone who died that day, but Lucy doesn't want to bring up her own loss to any of them.
Enter Mr. Jackson, Lucy's math teacher, who starts an after-school mime class, and Avery, a classmate who is largely ostracized because her half-brother had been the shooter. Mime encourages Lucy, Avery and the rest of the group to express their feelings without using words, but Lucy still wishes her parents would use their words around her and try to acknowledge Theo more.

Avery was definitely my favorite character. She reminded me a lot of the protagonist from the similarly titled "Aftermath" by Kelley Armstrong, but really into fashion and makeup and changing her signature look every so often. She wasn't close to her brother, but still gets treated like a reminder of the shooting, and I really liked seeing Lucy make friends with her and assure her that she didn't deserve any of it.

"Aftermath" is a beautiful middle grade story of trauma and grief, of friendship and love and of a family trying to reunite after a loss in a town that's struggling to live on after it's tragedies.

We follow Lucy as she and her family move into a new town to start fresh after the loss of her baby brother. A town that has endured and suffered through the traumatic events of the mass shootings in their elementary school about four years ago.

Lucy finds it difficult to fit in among her peers who are bonded by the grief and trauma of their shared pasts. Thinking that there was no way she could compare their pain to hers, she turns towards the only other girl who seems as alone as her--the school outcast.

This was a beautiful book filled with wholesome moments and heartwarming relationships of family and friends finding their way back to each other. Aftermath tackles such hard topics and captures it all in a way that makes it real and impactful. Easily the newest addition to my all time favourite middle grade books.

The audiobook narration was fantastic too, immersive in a way that didn't feel robotic. Would definitely recommend you to check it out!!

*Thank you to the Author and/or the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review*

Grief. One of the most difficult parts of life and relationships. Understanding it from the 'outside' it probably even more difficult, especially for young people.

Emily Barth Isler has written a beautiful book, so perfectly designed to delicately explore grief and how it can affect us. From the perfect title to the last line on the final page, this book is an inspired story of grief and survival. Isler's own story, which was part of the inspiration for this book, is moving on its own.

Lucy's story of loss, intertwines with that of her new school and the great losses of her classmates. The introduction of Avery and her own layered grief makes us really examine difficult topics from a new perspective.

Even though the target audience for this book is young readers- it has so much for all of us. I felt like it was never too heavy or dark, but instead shines a light on a subject that we all must face. I certainly hope this book is a success. I hope it reaches many people, helps, and touches the lives that need it most.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙄𝙀𝙒

⚠️ TW // death, mentions of a school shooting

AFTERMATH
Author: Emily Barth Isler
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#gifted audiobook (by @netgalley)

"𝓘 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓲𝓷𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮. 𝓖𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓯"

𝙎𝙔𝙉𝙊𝙋𝙎𝙄𝙎:
Still reeling from a terrible loss, twelve-year-old Lucy's parents decide to move the family to Queensland, Virginia, and enroll their daughter in the town's school, in a grade full of students who survived a school shooting four years ago.

𝙈𝙔 𝙊𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙊𝙉:
I don't usually read middle grade books, but the synopsis seemed interesting so this felt like a promising read. (It also contained advanced praise from people such as Amy Schumer, who said that "This book is a gift to the culture").

There are two main themes in this book, Lucy's loss and the school shooting that is mentioned all throughout the book. While everyone else is grieving and still recovering from what happened in their old school, Lucy is dealing with her own loss and with her fellings of it not being important enough in comparison to what her new colleagues have experienced.

I don't know... much, about school shootings so I can't give an opinion on whether Emily Barth Isler approached this topic in a respectful manner or not but in the author's notes she said (this audiobook was narrated by her) that she was inspired by a mass shooting that occurred in 2015 in San Bernardino, California and as a mother of two her own helplessness and fear, as well as the voices of victims of this and other shootings, were her driving force to push forward and write this book.

What really motivated me to read this book was Lucy's story. As someone who suffered a similar loss and struggled (as I still do now) to make sense of it and move on with my life I felt like I truly could relate to her story and to her struggles. In the book Lucy clings to her love of math (I believe there are problems at the beginning of every chapter, and equations are mentioned in the book as well) to help her make sense of the world.

#AfterMath #NetGalley
#books #bookstagram #bookreview #bookstagrammer #booklover #reading

I’m so excited to share my very first @netgalley ARC review! I can’t wait to review more this month!
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One of my favorite books my far in June was “Aftermath” by @emilybarthisler. 12 year old Lucy and her family have moved to a new city hoping to start fresh after a devastating lost. Unfortunately, they move to a city that has experienced loss via a school shooting. Through a love of math and mime, Lucy learns to feel and share her emotions and make new friends.
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This is a middle grade book I listened to via audiobook. As someone who has experienced a school shooting (I was a senior in high school) this story hit very close to home, although my city’s loss thankfully wasn’t as tragic as the one in the story. I truly loved seeing Lucy’s journey learning it’s okay and important to share your feelings. I appreciated seeing her parents growth as well and how tragedy brought the family closer together. I absolutely loved Avery and felt so deeply for her.
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This is Emily’s debut novel and I cannot give it enough praise! It is beautifully written and has such an important message. The characters, from the children to the parents to the teachers, are all so lovable, and genuine character growth is seen throughout the entire book.
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Aftermath comes out September 7, 2021 and I cannot wait to add it to my collection!

The whole time reading through this book, I couldn't help but think about the kids of Columbine, Parkland, and of countless other school shootings the U.S. has suffered through. I liked this book because it's raw and doesn't hold back on what the aftermath of a school shooting looks like. I also liked this book for its depiction of what a grieving family looks like and the necessity of mental health.

I can't honestly comment on the audio portion of this book because NetGalley so often has a robotic voice actor for ARCs that I can't remember if this was a real voice actor on this one or not.

In Aftermath, Lucy has recently lost her younger brother to a congenital heart disease. At the beginning of the book. Lucy and her parents moved to a new town, and the city is recovering from a school shooting. Everyone is going through different stages of grief. Lucy's friendship with Avery, her relationship with her parents, and the counsel from her teacher is sweet. While this is a sad book, it shows grief from the point of view of middle school students, and the sincerity feels realistic. I would recommend this book for middle school classrooms, but it could potentially be triggering for students going through something similar.

The narrator of the audiobook is also realistic, and students will enjoy listening.

I really enjoyed this audio book.

This is a story of Lucy, sister to a dead brother and new to a school that suffered the tragedy of a shooting. The story follows Lucy as she struggles to adapt to her new school, make friends with people who have lived through something so tragic but unifying and hard to relate, at the same time of dealing with her own grief of losing her brother in a different way to the losses experiences by her peers.
It's a hard hitting subject aimed at middle grade ages 9-12 and id say it hit that pretty perfectly for such a tough subject.

I found this a really easy listen, the narration (which also happens to be the author) is spot on and it flows really wonderfully. I find it really distracting when narrators change their voice for characters but Emily has a lovely tone and speed to her narration.

I really like Lucy's character. She empathises well with her peers but holds and expresses her own feelings without coming across as selfish or unkind, I would say she feels quite mature but I think that would reflect the events she has experienced in her young life.

I enjoyed the relationships and friendships in this book, exploring jealousy and how to deal with forgiveness as well as the importance of dealing with and facing grief and how grief effects everyone around us. I do feel some children will connect with how Lucy feels about her parents and the awkward sadness following their loss. It doesn't try to lull us into a false sense of characters, they are really real with their own flaws, its real. I love that.

I will say I only felt like I really knew the main character Lucy,, her parents and Avery quite well. The other characters didn't come to life for me or have any real depth or benefit to the story. It didn't bother me too much but with a school based book I'd have liked a little more from peer groups that wasn't too obvious. Things seemed to work out a little too easily with school friends, I'd have liked a little more drama from some spiky characters.

A really poiniant and important book for young readers. Thank you to NetGalley and Lerner Audiobooks for the chance to listen to this book in exchange for my honest review.

Whew! What a ride. This book will have you giggling at some funny math jokes and then crying as you sit in the grief of all the characters. Lucy's brother Theo recently died from a congenital heart condition and her parents have moved her to a town that is still recovering from a school shooting 4 years prior. Lucy's new bedroom belonged to a girl killed in the shooting and every member of her class has a story to tell her about their experience on that dreadful day. How does Lucy even start to fit in? How can she move on when she is harboring her own secret grief? This story explores grief, the awkwardness of middle school, and finding your voice in such a gentle and caring way. I was a little wary going in how these big topics of grief would be handled, but I thought it was so well done.

Content Warning: Grief, Mass/School Shooting, Bullying

This book follows a middle school girl whose family has moved to find a fresh start after the death of her little brother from a heart defect. She and her parents are having trouble processing their grief. When she starts school in a town where all of the kids have lived through a school shooting, she sees the many varied ways that people deal with loss and trauma. She also befriends the social pariah, not knowing the reason for her outcast status is that her step brother was the shooter. Will she withdraw her friendship after she finds out in hopes of fitting in or will she remain loyal and direct the other kids' attention to the many positive attributes that the outcast has?

This deals with death, shooting, grief, and middle school social hierarchy, but it not overwhelming and should be suitable for readers 12 and older.

It also contains a LOT of math analogies, jokes and references, which may appeal to some more than others.

The narrator did a great job.

[This review will be appearing on my blog and goodreads soon]

I would have delved into my usual 'liked' and 'didn't like' sections, but this book seems so deeper than that. My thoughts about this have been kind of vague, even though I did enjoy the story.
• 'AfterMath' is one of the first Middle Grade books I tried. I don't really have a concrete idea of how things should be in a MG book, but I found this one was a pretty straight, simple novel that dealt with serious topics.
• I like how obsessed with math Lucy was, and like the calculations that came up at the start of each chapter. The way Lucy connected in real life with math made up so much of the story, and it was interesting to see those snippets. However random they felt, they kind of fit in well with the story.
• Some of the characters were messy, realistic people that felt brutally honest and different from the way other people portray them in a story. For instance, Lucy's father isn't the protective big-dad type- he's grieving for his son and he's insecure about coming back to his family. He's going through the emotions, and I feel that; I like how it was shown.
• Lucy herself was a great narrator, with her own ups and down. I felt I knew her well when I completed the book, and the development was nice to see.
• Lucy and Avery's friendship was realistic and was my favourite part of the book. Their connection and kindness to each other was uplifting to read.
• The writing wasn't too impressive or mediocre, it was just simple and I think it lent to the overall flow of the story.
• That being said, most of Lucy's classmates fell flat as side characters. I felt frustrated at them for some reason; they didn't feel like normal seventh graders- they just felt immature and one-dimensional. I felt like I didn't even know their characteristics other than the trauma they went through.

**audiobook comments**
• The narrator did a really great job with the story narration 👍

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
I love the play on words of the title and the overall cleverness of the writing. It also captured a variety of grief journeys interwoven with normal issues a middle schooler faces at home and at school. The audiobook version was well done and engaging.

Heartbreaking and uplifting. I’d suggest reading this with kids because it needs a lot of discussion and unpacking. It deals with multiple trigger topics not limited to but including school shootings and death.

This was such a beautiful read! First of all, the narrator was amazing and the story was quite engaging.

We follow the life of Lucy, a twelve-year-old girl who has just lost his little brother and whose parents have decided to move to another city to "start fresh". She is now the new kid in a school full of survivors of a shooting that took place four years ago. Little by little, Lucy comes to terms with her reality, works on her complicated relationship with her parents and starts meeting new people.

I loved this book and I think it would be amazing for middle grade children. It definitely touches difficult topics (mainly grief), but I think it was respectful and it could be very helpful for people who may be going through something similar.

I read a lot of middle grade and this just wasn't up to par in my opinion. It tries to tackle a very serious topic (school shootings) which I appreciate, but the writing is just mediocre. Some of the events and dialogue were just too convenient and even contrived at times. Unfortunately this one just didn't work for me.

Audio: The narrator was great and kept me engaged the entire book.

A beautifully written story about trauma, heartache and loss. Even if the circumstances are different, loss changes people and can be hard to discuss. I loved the narrator and the emotion she brought to the performance

Trigger warning: school shooting survival, loss of child, trauma responses.

This book is definitely one that you will want to have tissues by when reading! During the course of this book we follow two characters who have both dealt with traumatic events in their lives. We watch these two characters open up throughout the course of the novel. I loved the friendship that the two girls created and this book definitely tugged at my heart strings. This book does cover school shootings though so if you are triggered by those I wouldn't recommend reading this book. This is definitely a book I recommend to anyone though. It warmed my heart and broke it all in between the pages!

I listed to AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler through audio. I throughly enjoyed this middle grade book.

After the loss of Lucy's little brother, her family decides to move to another house in a different town. In hopes of starting over and leaving behind sad memories, Lucy's parents make this decision without discussing any plans with Lucy. It just so happens that the new school for Lucy is recovering from a school shooting. A school shooting that Lucy was not a part of. As we walk with Lucy in this new environment, we see how she experiences loss, change, family issues, PTSD, friendships and expressing her own feelings.

We also see how hard this age can be to make new friends and to lose old friends. It is sad that a lot of these topics have to be discussed at this age, but sadly they do. Therapy and counseling for this age, and all ages, is also very common now. I am glad to see this topic also covered in this book.

I loved this book and would recommend it to all ages.

This was a free audio book from NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received an ARC audiobook of AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler from NetGalley.

This book follows Lucy who lost her brother to a heart defect and her family moves away to have a new start. At Lucy's new school, her classmates are still grieving from a school shooting that occurred before Lucy came. To help cope with all the grief that encompasses her, Lucy turns to the certainty that is math.

This is the first Emily Barth book I have read and every single chapter was stunning and I loved Emily's narration of the story as well! This story tackles so many dark and painful issues in a way that is digestible for younger audiences as well as adults which is an impressive feat. I loved this book so much!

I'm not usually a reader of heavy topics nor middle grade; but the love of math drew me in.

Although the topics were heavy, it was a beautiful read and explored grief and grieving in a heartfelt way. Loved it and pre-ordered it.