I received this from Netgalley.com.

This story was not for me. I couldn't share the grief in their lives side by side with my own. I kept urging the characters to feel better and just move on.

An okay read based on its writing alone.

2.75☆

Oh wow. What a heartbreaking story told from a young family's eyes as their mother just...drops dead one day.

As a young woman that lost her mother, this book resonated with me - there were pages that hurt to read, as grief-laden and heavy as they were. Yet...it wasn't sad. It was a novel so real and so raw about the growth a family goes through when their matriarch dies that it just felt so dang real.

Its beautiful. Its heartbreaking. Its such real and raw story that will give so many people the chance they deserve to find closure and growth in their own journeys. This is one I will forever want to read again for the first time.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. This book taught us lessons on grief and how to live. I enjoyed this book and can't wait to read her next one.

A book about the sudden death of a young mother of four kids and the devastating effect it had on the family. While the author did a good job of letting us in on the after-effects of such a tragedy, it was a slow process. I was a quarter of the way in and wondering when the funeral would be over and we could get on with the story. While it got a bit better after that, the plot seemed to meander about without much progress.

Some of the reading was confusing because different timelines were thrown in, sometimes within the same paragraph. And, I question why the trauma experienced by Ali’s friend was part of the plot, since it abruptly ended, and didn’t add much to the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I like Anna Quindlan’s writing. She puts real life into words. The Brown family has suffered a heartbreaking loss. They grieve and stumble trying to deal with Annie’s death. “There was no way to know how to move on, though everyone insisted you should do, without leaving the person behind, so that the further you got into this new, strange, different, impossible existence, the fainter they got.” Annie is here in this story. Bill Brown, Ali, Ant and Annamarie are people to care about.
Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. #AfterAnnie #AnnaQuindlan # Netgalley

After Annie by Anna Quindlan is an absolute stunner of a book. Seriously, all the stars! Quindlen is just a master at creating characters and worlds that feel so real, you have a bit of vertigo every time you have to put the book down to deal with actual real life. Highly recommend!!!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC of this incredible read.

I found Anna Quindlen a couple of years ago. I have slowly been moving through her backlist and was excited to see she has a new release coming out.

This is a story about grief, love and marriage. It hit incredibly close to home and I cried a few times thinking of dear friends who have left this world too soon. The devastation of losing a loved one can last and grip you for a lifetime.

Annie's four children had my heart from the beginning. I can't even imagine losing a parent that young. They were in shock, their Dad was an absent parent and yet they still all stayed together looking out for each other.

I loved the friendship between Annie and Annemarie. We all need a friend or two who always have our back.

Pick this one up, read it, then share it with a friend and tell the people around you how much they mean to you.

After Annie is heartbreaking and hopeful and completely engaging. I read it in one afternoon. If you love family dramas that offer hope but aren't sugar-coated, this is a book that you'll enjoy.

Annie, the central figure in the latest Anna Quindlen novel dies in the first sentence, and the rest of the book, which covers a year, addresses her family's trying to cope without her steadying presence. If I have one complaint, it is that Annie was verging on sainthood, never making a wrong step in her choices or decisions, and the effect she had on those closest to her, including her lifelong best friend, find themselves cruelly set adrift. Quindlen has done deep dives into grief before, yet manages to mine fresh material out of the subject. Her journalistic background makes for prose that is clean and dialogue that is crisp, and while we've been here before, we are glad to come back again.

I've been a lover of Anna Quindlen's fiction and nonfiction for years. I think this is one of her better novels, with fine writing and emotional depth. After Annie tells the story of a family shattered by the very sudden death of the mother. Annie leaves a husband, four children ranging from toddler to middle school, and a best friend who is more sister than friend. The novel takes us through the year after Annie's death, in alternating points of view (husband, eldest daughter, best friend). It shows us the nuances of the grieving process playing out in very different ways, the ways relational and communication dynamics shift, and how the loss of the center can send a family system careening, only to come together in a different (but ultimately hopeful) way. This is a quiet and effecting read that I will definitely recommend.

Annie is a devoted married women in her 30’s with four children.
While at the stove with serving spoon in hand, with the children seated around the dinner table …she asks her husband Bill to grab her an Advil for a headache and seconds later falls to the floor.. she died.
This story is about how her husband, children, and best friend from childhood navigate life without her.
I was very touched by the story though it moved a bit slow for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

When Annie a mother of four children dies from a brain aneurysm, her death has a profound effect on her husband, best friend and children. The story is told mostly through the experiences of her wise, teen daughter who suddenly becomes the caretaker of her siblings, and in charge of the household tasks of her mother. Anna Quindlen does an excellent job of describing the emotions and difficulties one experiences losing a mother,wife, friend and caretaker. The characters are believable as they travel the journey that losing a loved one entails.

I have been reading Anna Quindlen for many years. Whatever she writes about, you feel as though you are there, experiencing it with her. Her insight is magical and her skill in conveying it is a gift. This book deals in loss and if you’ve experienced it you can certainly relate to this story. My takeaway is that grief manifests itself differently for everyone. Some people seem to “move on” quickly, others more slowly and some never get over a loss. This book moves very slowly, but it mimics the process of grieving, everyday seeming like an eternity with nothing but sorrow and despair. But over the course of a year, you slowly see signs of healing and finally you see hope in the future. Although life is about living, you can still celebrate a loss of someone and all the joy they brought to you. When you encounter someone who is grieving, give them the time and space they need to heal.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of “After Annie” in exchange for an honest review. This book was unrelentingly depressing. For 200 pages it was just full of sadness with one page at the end that implies life will go on. Annemarie and Jenny’s storylines seemed like overkill and were not handled with very much care or nuance—they were also awkwardly/quickly wrapped up at the end. I can’t put my finger on it. The book seemed dated somehow. I’m not sure what it was about it. I know that it’s supposed to demonstrate that people are human and fallible and grieve in their own ways, but I just couldn’t connect with any of them. None of them were very likable. It felt brutal to read and I just felt so sad for the children the whole time. Maybe I’ll pick it up down the road and have a different experience.

Anna Quindlen’s novel After Annie doesn’t come out until March 2024 but the hype for it is already building… it should be noted that I’m writing this review in November 2023 because I got hooked by the hype and had received an advance copy of Quindlen’s latest novel so I just finished it. I should also state, perhaps, that I’ve never read anything by Anna Quindlen that I’m aware of, so my interest in this novel was maybe a bit different than it might be for others.

Angsty novels are my addiction, and the NetGalley blurb promised angst.

That about sums it up.

And After Annie delivers on that count, absolutely.

It is, as the title so succinctly says, the story of a family after the death of Annie… wife, mother, sister, friend.

Annie’s children are young when she dies suddenly, before the age of 40, and that makes the story all the more heartbreaking. Her childhood best friend struggles to stay afloat now that she’s lost the anchor who kept her from spiraling into addiction again. Her only daughter becomes a surrogate mother of sorts to three younger brothers before she’s fully a teenager. Her husband is forced to find a balance where he can grieve for his wife and do more than simply exist for his children.

The detail Quindlen put into all of this, the world without Annie, even creating vibrant characters in the residents at the nursing home where Annie worked as a CNA who adored her and mourn for her death when they know they should have passed first, is stunning and powerful.

I can’t give After Annie five stars, though, because I think things get almost carried away in the end and go too far. This is especially true with her daughter Ali’s friend Jenny who tries very hard to convince Ali not to talk to the school therapist after Annie’s death because, it later turns out, she is the victim of sexual abuse by a family member and is afraid. While that particular aspect of a story is one that’s all too common in society, I don’t think it was handled with the care and respect it should have been handled because it didn’t seem to be much more than a way to give Ali a reason not to trust someone who could help her.

It would be worth it to read Jenny’s story and Ali’s story would have stood just as powerful without the abuse subplot.

In the end, After Annie is a very good story of family and heartbreak and healing. So if that’s the sort of thing you like to read, I definitely recommend this one.

********

What are some angsty, heartbreaking books you love? I’m always looking for angsty, heartbreaking stories!

This was my first time reading Anna Quindlen’s work, so I went into it not quite knowing what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is a beautiful story about motherhood, friendship, loss, and grief. What I believe is the moral of this story is you never truly understand just how much of an impact someone has on your life until they’re gone. This is very evident in the lives of Annie’s husband and children. I’ve never lost a spouse or parent, so I can only imagine what that must feel like, but Anna Quindlen did a wonderful job portraying this traumatic loss through these characters. After Annie will send you on a spiraling whirlwind of emotions, but it’s so worth the ride. I would recommend it to everyone.

I've always loved Anna Quindlen's writing, both fiction and nonfiction. This did not disappoint. I loved this story of friendship and motherhood. My only complaint is that all the loose ends got tied up a bit too neatly. But, really, that's a small complaint.

A beautiful look at grief, how we handle it and how we live with our loved ones who are also grieving.

After Annie
Anna Quindlen

Annie Brown dropped dead suddenly in the middle of making dinner. She left behind a devoted husband, 4 young children, a sister and her very best friend. Without Annie to help each of them keep their lives together, and without her to hold them all together, their lives are spinning out of control. Annie was the connection to all of them, and for all of them.

The novel follows the lives of each of the remaining characters after Annie’s death. From her husband, Bill, who until now had no idea how much work it takes to run a household and has no idea how to move forward following the death of his true love, to her eldest, 12 year old Ali who is being left to run the household and care for her 3 brothers even though she too is grieving and needs a mother to guide her through the challenges of being a young teen, to her 3 brothers who are in turn, angry and confused, to her sister and to her best friend who credits Annie with having saved her life and isn’t certain whether life is worth living without her bff. Each must call upon the lessons they have learned through their relationships with Annie in order to remember how to live without her.

Through Anna Quindlen’s compassionate and beautiful writing we examine the power of love and the “ties that bind”. A touching novel addressing the connections of friends, family and community. Of those who are forced to cope, individually and together, following the death of the one person who held them all together and kept them all afloat. A beautiful story of loss and grief and healing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A special thank you to NetGally, Random House Publishing Group, Random House and Anna Qunidlen for allowing me to read the advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Publication Date: March 20, 2024.

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