Life,After

Life,After
Author:Sarah Darer Littman
Pages: 278
publication date: July 1 2011






Summary:
After a terrorist attack kills Dani’s aunt and unborn cousin, life in Argentina—private school, a boyfriend, a loving family—crumbles quickly. In order to escape a country that is sinking under their feet, Dani and her family move to the United States. It’s supposed to be a fresh start, but when you’re living in a cramped apartment and going to high school where all the classes are in another language—and not everyone is friendly—life in America is not all it’s cracked up to be. Dani misses her old friends, her life, Before.

But then Dani meets a boy named Jon, who isn’t like all the other students. Through him, she becomes friends with Jessica, one of the popular girls, who is harboring a secret of her own. And then there’s Brian, the boy who makes Dani’s pulse race. In her new life, the one After, Dani learns how to heal and forgive. She finds the courage to say goodbye and allows herself to love and be loved again.




Review:

This book was such and emotional read and I felt like it should get a lot more hype than it has, I really didn’t think I was going to like this, the synopsis sounded good but not a 5 star book, by the end I was crying and laughing at the same time and loving every minute of it. Life, After deserves more than 5 stars.

On page 92 Dani was in the airport bathroom and she’s only ever lived in a culture where all they spoke was Spanish so when she was in the bathroom she heard some English speaking girls come in and talk to each other and she said how fast she thought they talked, and I thought that was funny because whenever I’m somewhere and there are people speaking in Spanish I think they talk to fast to.

The first 100 pages were kind of slow, but without it the book wouldn’t be what it was. I expected her family to move to the US near the beginning but the first 100 pages were of her and her family in Argentina, explaining how bad it was over there and why they moved.

I didn’t like the father figure at all, well until the end. But for almost the whole book her dad was lazy, ill tempered and didn’t deserve the family that he had. The whole family was pulling together trying to make the hard times better but there dad was being a huge jerk about it. He could have helped or did something but instead he stayed in his depressed state sleeping or watching TV all day.

My favorite characters in the book were Jess and Jon. Jess acted like the spoiled rich brat that ruled the school in the beginning but Dani stuck up for Jess’s brother and from then on there they became friends. I think when it comes to bullies or snuck up snobs it’s really hard for people not to judge them or hate them. Reading this book actually gave me another outlook on bullies and people in different cultures.

At first it was hard to tell that anything was wrong with Jon, he was just incredibly smart and no social at all. Made me feel bad for him because I thought that he just didn’t have any friends but he actually had a disease.

The only thing I didn’t like was all the Spanish words in the book, I realize that it was part of the culture of the book, and that the girl spoke Spanish but I hardly know any Spanish and it was kind of annoying because I wanted to know what each word was.

Sarah created a book between the difference between cultures and people. After reading this I don’t think there’s going to be one dry eye. I don’t really know how to express my love for this book, just know that it’s well worth it to read!

5/5 stars