This was a pleasant read. I loved listening to this and really needed a nice middle grade to settle down and listen to. I recommend it for people who need a break from typical young and new adult novels.

I received an ARC audiobook of AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler from NetGalley on June 15, 2021.

After her brother's death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school—especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family's own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers.

Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.

I am a fan of books that deal with heavy topics. In her debut novel, Emily Barth Isler thoughtfully explores the tragedy of a mass shooting at an elementary school, loss, and friendship.

AfterMath is told from the point-of-view of twelve-year-old Lucy. She and her family move into a community that is still attempting to heal after the tragic shooting four years prior. Her family are also trying to heal from the loss of her little brother. The way Lucy is written, she actually sounds like an authentic pre-teen. The story is well-developed and incredibly moving.

I look forward to owning a physical copy of this book and whatever else Emily writes.

This book follows a 12 year old girl who has dealt with the loss of her brother and has to face a big change of moving to a new town and school. Throughout this book, there is a lot of mention of tragic loss between the main character and her classmates and dealing with said losses. This was heartbreaking as no one should have to deal with these feelings, especially as such a young age. But the author has captured the feelings of a normal teenage girl just going through her trauma and her love of maths. I really enjoyed listening to this audible and very excited to listen/ more of Emily Barth’s books in the future.

I listened to this book in one day and loved it. It will stay with me for a while. Beautifully written. Deep and poetic.

AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler was a really thought-provoking look into family and community after a loss. Lucy, a twelve-year-old, is starting off the school year in a new house and going to a new school after the loss of her brother. Oh, and the school that she starts attending is still recovering from a school shooting. Unbeknownst to her, she starts the school year off by sitting at lunch with Avery, who happens to be the school shooter's sister. There's a whole lot of oomph and all of the feels in this book. For me, the most gut-wrenching moment was when Lucy finally goes off on her mom and tells her exactly how she's feeling towards the end of the book. It was heartbreaking but beautifully written. I think this book is good for anyone to read/listen to, but I feel that those that have suffered a loss at a young age will appreciate this story and will hopefully get something a bit more out of it than your average reader.

The author narrated the book as well and I thought she did a great job sounding like an adolescent girl and didn't mind the narration at all. I did notice that three chapters, 9, 11 and 15 were very quiet and it sounded like there were audio problems. I had to skip over those chapters because even with the volume all the way up in my car and on my phone, I could barely hear the audio. Thankfully I still was able to follow along with the rest of the story.

I simply don't have the words for how brilliant this book is.

Lucy loses her brother to a congenital heart defect, and her parents are looking for a new start. What better place than a community that understands loss? Moving to a community that is familiar with death, her parents think the transition will make their loss feel easier, but Lucy finds it to be anything but. How does she fit in with everyone who experience a school shooting? How can she share her loss, when theirs seems so much greater? Will she every escape the shadow of the shooting or the shadow of losing her brother?

The tragedy of loss, the darkness of trauma, the breadth of one person's decisions, the fragility yet resiliency of children, the power of friendship - this book has it all. What a stunning read, with so many nuggets of brilliant writing, yet perfect for a middle grade audience. Emily Barth Isler did an outstanding job of tackling very difficult and delicate subjects with both truth and tact. I'd recommend it to any of my friend's children. The audio book (read by the author) was also done very well.

I received an audio copy of this book via NetGalley. I read and reviewed this book voluntarily, and all opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This was my first time listening to an audio book and I must say I was pretty impressed, I loved the narration!!
This book deals with many important issues, mainly mental health, again I loved the narration!!

I listened to the audiobook of AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler and was utterly surprised to find out later that the book's narrated by her too!! It's a beautiful, yet heart-breaking that the same time. We have all heard about the countless school shootings in USA and that's something so appalling that I could never understand why no gun control measures were ever passed. And I was looking for a read that could give me more than the CNN news stories do. And AfterMath, a middle grade book, being based on a school shooting was just perfect for me. This MG literally amazed me, the narration, storyline, character development was flawless.

***Right from the beginning I would like to give you trigger warnings for this book, the story deals with a lot of traumatic issues like school shooting, violence, suicide etc. So please know that before diving into this book!!

Lucy, a twelve year old, has recently lost her brother to a heart defect which he was born with. After Theo's death, Lucy and her parents move to another place for a fresh start. But when Lucy join her new school she finds out on the first day itself that everyone there was a survivor of a school shooting four years ago. I cried while listening to the kids talk about the shooting in the book, it was shattering to know that there are kids who are dealing with this as I read this book. It's a burden they'll bear for the rest of their lives, the loss of a friend, a brother, a sister, a child.

Every chapter was beautifully written and I was lost in the book till the last word. In the book, Lucy's character is one which I'll cherish knowing for the rest of my life. And it's not only Lucy, Avery"s character was another aspect of the story which wouldn't ever let me go. After reading this book, I've simply fallen in love with the author!

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook! I am so thankful for it.

This is a compact book with some very difficult topics. Mental health is one of them and mass shootings too. It sometimes got hard to read Lucy's story but she demands to be heard. And I loved her healing process and how friendships evolved and how observing Lucy is. And in the same time I have to keep reminding myself that She is just a kid.
So yeah, it was a very good book. I lived it in audio. #NetGalley #AfterMath

Such a wonderful book! The story follows Lucy, a twelve year old girl, that just lost her brother to a rare heart defect and her family decides to move out of state to a town where the school was the site of a school shooting and the kids there are still going through the pain and trauma. Lucy's love of math helps her deal with her grief so when her new math teacher asks her to join his new Mime class, she does. No spoilers and I highly recommend it. Thanks to #netgalley for the advanced reader copy. I loved it.

It's really hard to place your self in someone else's shoes, especially if this someone is your child and is also going through the same situation that you are. Sometimes we as adults forget how perceptive kids can be.

Note: This audiobook is great, I believe it should be rated 5/5, but I disagree with the writer when she focus on the "effect" and not the "cause", being the main issue such an important matter. You might have another point of view but you will have to read/listen it first. Hope you do! 😉

Such a hard subject, handled so beautifully by this author. What could have been a maudlin or sappy story instead became a wonderful narrative about growth, strength, family, and friendship.
The title is a play on the words - which I love. Not only is the Lucy surviving the "aftermath" of her brother's death, but she is a "math nerd" who sees the world through "math-tinted lenses." The unique math perspective was wonderfully done and really added a unique character to Lucy.
As a teacher this book really hit home - I've lost many students to gun violence and was a bit fearful that I wouldn't be able to get through this story. My worry grew at the beginning of the novel when death was spoken about with such cold matter-of-factness. But... that was the point. I was SUPPOSED to feel uncomfortable. I was SUPPOSED to understand the struggle of this little girl who was not only going through one of the worst imaginable traumas, but was then put in the position where her grief and suffering was being compared and contrasted with another great tragedy. Is one loss greater than another?
I don't want to spoil the plot or resolution, but there's no doubt that this brought all the "feels" without every making me depressed - I felt empathy, sympathy, grief, and.. hope.
And, on top of all that - I LOVE Lucy's math brain. The fact that she is smart and strong and looked at the world through math-tinted lenses is remarkable. I chuckled at the math jokes, cheered at the mime storyline, and crossed my fingers that she would get the hand-holding that she so craved.
Isler created a PERFECTLY age-appropriate voice for her heroine, and anyone who has gone through middle school will be able to relate.
Lucy's incredible efforts of friendship for the horribly treated Avery was a stroke of genius. Knowing that Lucy's heart was so big -despite her own losses - makes her even more heroic.
I will definitely get a copy of this for my class library, and will encourage students to read it.
One suggestion - although I understand the author wanting to be the voice for this book herself, perhaps a professional could offer a more nuanced and less obvious reading. Some of the voice work was distracting and my experience as a listener was diminished.