Annie Brown isn’t even forty when she dies suddenly, leaving a husband and four young children. Annie seems to be the glue that held everything and everyone together, and without her, they seem lost.

Bill Brown is overwhelmed with grief, his own and his children’s. The daughter, Ali, tries to care for her siblings and her father, managing to limp by.

Even her best friend is lost without her.

The story takes us over the next year with them. Even as Annie’s presence is still all around them, they move forward, becoming stronger. It seems the love that Annie gave to everyone has helped them to move on.

What an emotional story this is. A look at loss, love, the ways it can and will change you.

Always a beautiful read!

Netgally/ RHPG-Random March 12, 2024



Pirate Patty Reviews

October 18, 2023

This novel grabs you from the very first line when Annie Brown dies "right before dinner". Annie's death isn't expected. She is a mom to four children and is in the midst of preparing dinner when she suddenly passes out. The book focuses on the year after Annie's death as her husband Bill, best friend Annemarie and her children try to grapple with how to move on. Bill realizes quickly how much he took for granted as he learns how to father his children as an only parent as well as navigate the possibility of moving on. Annemarie is a recovering addict who is struggling not to relapse as she tries to step up for Annie's family. The book delves into the life of Annie's oldest daughter Ali who shoulders more responsibility than any middle school girl should. I liked how Anna Quindlen developed each character so that you felt such empathy for each one. The novel left me wanting to follow the Brown family and their friends into the future.

Gosh, I loved After Annie - in the way you love deeply sad books that make me feel and pull at my heart. Annie Brown dies young. This book tells the story of her most beloved: her tweenage daughter, husband, and lifelong best friend. How does grief impact each of them? And how does it impact their relationships with one another? After Annie dives deep into their feelings, thoughts, and experiences.

Each character is easy to connect to, and by this I mean, to have your heart break for. Bill, the husband, is bereft. He fumbles through, immediately putting too much responsibility on his eldest daughter Ali to care for herself and her younger brothers. Ali ages emotional decades as she grapples with her new life: cooking breakfast, getting her brothers to school in the morning with enough time to get herself to her own, navigating her father's physical and emotional absence. And Annemarie, best friends with Annie since elementary school. Connected in a way that only girlfriends with decades of love and history can be. Annemarie was sober and alive because Annie saved her and after Annie's death, she's not sure how she'll be able to keep functioning.

There are peripheral characters that were strong presences in the story. Anna Quindlen's writing is beautiful and made me feel so deeply (enough that I'm saying it twice in one review!). The school therapist/counselor, Ali's best friend from school, Bill's first girlfriend post Annie's passing. Each character comes alive and is an important part of the story. I couldn't put this book down. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite quotes:
"'God's waiting room,' Annie had repeated [about her nursing home employer]. 'That's where I work. It's like some weird middle ground between life and death. Like every waiting room I've ever been in, the furniture is cheap and uncomfortable, and everyone is looking around, waiting for their number to be called.'"

"'That's so insightful.' Which sounded good except that he had zero insight. If insight was an eye exam, he wouldn't get any further than that big E at the very top."

This was an excellent book but one that was very hard for me personally to read. My mother died last year (November) and much of this brought up lots of emotion for me. I know firsthand that death causes so much loss and pain for the people left behind, the people who so desperately miss the person who died.

This is full of love, loss, pain, sadness, and finally, finding a way through it all. The pain of loss never fully goes away. Time doesn’t make it better (like it says in the book) but we do our best because it is the right thing to do.

Thematically this book is very good, although there were times that it felt a bit confusing - I had to figure out if it was a past or current memory or even POV uncertainty.

Such a poignant story about an early death of a mother, wife and friend and how her life has such an impact in the following year. This is perhaps my favorite of the author's take on life. It is sad, but so is life. It tells me that we all do make a difference in other's lives, even after death.

3.75⭐️ A quiet authentic-feeling book about a family and best friend and their grief in the year following a mother’s unexpected death at age 37. For me this one was a bit too sad, but that’s on me and not a criticism of the book.

Anna Quindlen doesn't disappoint!

After Annie is a masterfully written story of how a family copes with the untimely death of a young wife and mother.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy of this title. I would read anything written by Anna Quindlen! Her new book is a slight departure in that it is told from the point of view of a young girl who's mother dies suddenly. This forces the family into the chaos of grief, and she must step into her mother's shoes. The characters are realistic, and completely drawn. Their emotions bubble at the surface of the prose, without becoming distracting. Yet, the story is not a depressing slog. The ending is satisfying without being trite, and we can believe that this family will be okay.

Nothing happens in this book; everything happens in this book. After Annie is a novel about deep grief and the ways those closest to the loss cope. It is the story about what comes after a husband, daughter, son, and best friend lose their "person." If you have to have non-stop drama and action, this is not the book for you. This book moves slow and purposefully.

Annie is a mom of four, wife, best friend, and beloved nursing aide. She unexpectedly and suddenly dies in her home while cooking dinner. She is only in her thirties. This is the story of what comes after. The novel is divided into parts by the seasons of the year, starting in the winter that Annie died and proceeding through the following winter. The author explores how each of the characters cope with the loss, but I thought more importantly, she included what's going on in each of the characters' lives that does not pertain directly to the loss. After a funeral, people move on, especially those not in the deceased's immediate circle, and I found it poignant that the author shows all of the "stuff" that the grieving have to deal with while trying to process their grief. For example, Bill, the husband still has to work to support his four kids. Ali, the daughter, has a close friend going through a horrific family matter of her own and without her mom she has no one to talk to about her concerns.

This book is a slow book. I could pick it up and put it down easily. I didn't race through it, but the characters take center stage and they will stay with me. I have not read any other book by Anna Quindlen previously, but will certainly consider reading any that I come across in the future. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for this ARC.

Leave it to Anna Quindlen to get me out of a 3 year, postpartum, can’t-finish-a-single-book slump with this heartbreaker/gutwrencher. Who else can show you a character so crystal clear when they are only alive for a single page? Who else can leave you sobbing in your seat while everyone around you is living their lives watching the fourth season of Succession on their in-flight entertainment package? Stunning.

3 1/2 stars. This is a slow-moving, character-driven story about Annie's family, after she dies unexpectedly on their kitchen floor. She leaves behind a husband and four young children as well as her best friend. The characters are drawn really well, and through them we learn more about the family's life up until that point. The first half of the book was so slow, but I enjoyed the second part, where more things happened. This would probably be too sad for someone who had just experienced a loss. Many thanks for NetGalley, Ms. Quindlen, and Random House for the ARC of this title.

I have long been a fan of the author's books and writing.
That said, tho I was greatly looking forward to her latest, I was unfortunately disappointed.
I did not enjoy the story nor most of the characters.

With thanks to NetGalley & Random House for this e-ARC.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

After Annie is the story of a woman who dies unexpectedly leaving behind a husband, children, and a best friend who all have to figure out how to go on without her. It is sad. It's tragic, not only her death, but the affect it had on those who loved her. There is growth and overcoming, but it is a hard, long road. A well written story, but deep and hard to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. We only meet Annie briefly. She and her plumber husband Bill and their two girls and two boys live in a small town. Annie works as an aide at a nursing home. Annie’s best friend Annemarie has struggled with prescription drug abuse and Annie has done her best to help her. Early in the book Annie asks Bill for an Advil because she’s got a headache and within hours she has died. The way all the characters deal with Annie’s death shows her impact of each of them and on the family unit. This is a lovely book.

Wonderful! Great characters. Lots of different themes throughout the book. Easy read and great story. Highly recommend!

A dear friend died two weeks before this book crossed my path, and I didn’t know if this would be too brutal to read. It wasn’t.
The story looks at the raw emotions and the erratic launches on paths toward healing. The way grief belongs to everyone in Annie’s world, not just her husband or her kids or her best friend, shows the reach that a person's death has on so many beyond her immediate circle. Anna Quindlen puts grief center stage in this story and it brought up sympathetic emotions as opposed to crushing sadness. I mourned for Annie’s family and best friend, but felt a degree of comfort knowing she lives on forever in their hearts and memories. Once again, Anna Quindlen has written a story that moved me and will stay with me.

Thank you for an advance copy of this fiction family drama. It tells the story of a family devastated by the sudden death of the matriarch of their family, Annie and how the husband and children and best friend all cope. It is a character driven story of loss, love, hope and really captures the process of dealing with a shocking loss of a loved one. There is no happy ending, as in life, but there is happiness again after loss. I enjoyed this family story. It was very moving.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of After Annie.

The author writes well and her talent shines in this story of Annie, mother of four, who dies unexpectedly, and how her children, family, and friends cope with the devastating loss.

I love the writing but not the story; it's about sorrow, grief, and how we each deal with it differently.

I generally read thrillers and mysteries so this was a very slow read; it's character driven, but also sad and not for everyone.

If you're a fan of the author and accustomed to her writing style and themes, this is the book for you.

Buckle up, this is a sad one.

Overall, After Annie is a well written story. But whew— A grief driven book. This is a hard one to review because it’s very well written, so well that you feel every moment of every character. It’s very real. It is based on the loss of a wife, a mother and a best friend. And literally told from the perspective of the husband, daughter and best friend. It is a slower pace and almost too slow for this subject to get through.
Great writing, but buckle up!

The sad truth of death is while pain and suffering have ended for the person who died, it has just begun for those left behind. At only 37 years old, Annie's death leaves her husband and children navigating the world of grief without the one person best equipped to help them. After Annie is a nearly flawless work-beautifully written, carefully executed, and intensely personal. Bill and Annie Brown stumble into marriage when Annie becomes pregnant early in their relationship, but four children later they are solid, and sure of their decision to marry so quickly. All that ends in the most mundane way-Annie collapsing on the kitchen floor while making dinner. To fill the void left by her mother, Annie's eldest child assumes the role of caretaker to her younger siblings, but at twelve Ali should be making friends, not cleaning house and packing school lunches. The experience of death is universal, and while everyone grieves differently, many of the benchmarks-shock, despair, and ultimately healing, are as well. All of these are explored here. After Annie will break your heart in a poignantly perfect way. If only Annie was there to mend her shattered family.