Customer Reviews

After the Moment

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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Garret Freymann-Weyr's novels for young adults are inevitably distinct. Her teenagers seem serious beyond their years, deeply invested not only in their own lives but also in the often complicated lives of their adult family members. AFTER THE MOMENT is no exception, and its male protagonist further cements Freymann-Weyr's reputation as a risk-taking author unafraid of tackling topics, and taking perspectives, unusual in young adult literature.

Leigh Hunter is a recent college graduate, ready to embark on a career as an international journalist, when a chance meeting at a dinner party casts his mind violently back to his senior year in high school, when he first knew both love and heartbreak intimately. The summer before his senior year is filled with a different kind of heartache: the news that his younger stepsister Maggie's father has been killed in a car crash. Leigh travels from his mom's home in New York City to Maryland to comfort her, and when she asks him to stay, he agrees to spend his senior year at her school.

Leigh is adaptable and bright, and he treats the move as an adventure (especially when his school guidance counselor assures him that the transition might actually improve his college prospects). His only trepidation is being far away from Astra, his practically perfect, drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend. Astra is smart, confident, beautiful and self-assured. She assures Leigh that their relationship will survive even at a distance, but Leigh (who admits to himself, if not to her, that he doesn't really love her) isn't so sure, especially when he meets Maia Morland.

Maia is, Leigh reflects, "Astra's opposite in almost every way. Astra did not walk --- she strode, allowing her height, her strength, and her thoughts to take up as much room as possible. Maia, it seemed to him, let her thoughts swarm thickly around her, creating a shield of protection." Maia battles eating disorders, germ phobia, the compulsion to harm herself --- but she also has a thirst for beauty, a love of knowledge, and a vulnerable way of looking at the world that draws Leigh to her.

Leigh's mother is a romance novelist, a writer who crafts her stories to culminate with that magic moment when the male and female romantic leads finally connect. But what happens when that moment is only the beginning, when a love connection results in only more complications, violence, misunderstanding and heartbreak? In many ways, AFTER THE MOMENT is an anti-romantic novel, one that treats the mysteries of love and the agonies of loss as two sides of the same coin, one that recognizes that romance seldom ends with "happily ever after."

As in her other books, Freymann-Weyr here explores families that have formed, re-formed, broken and blended, all without losing their essential identity or their capacity for love. Her characters --- especially Leigh --- come off as remarkably mature and resilient, perhaps because they are so closely tied to the adults in their lives, perhaps because they have already become accustomed to change thanks to their shifting family lives. It's always refreshing, however, to read about teenaged characters who think deeply about real-life concerns, who have genuine relationships with the adults in their lives, who care deeply not only about their friends but also about the kind of world they live in.

AFTER THE MOMENT is a serious, at times sorrowful book, but it speaks volumes about the capacity of the human heart, no matter how young, to love and love deeply.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

AFTER THE MOMENT is a subtle exploration of the power of different kinds of relationships in one young man's adolescence, a dramatically poignant love story that will perhaps appeal best to adult fans of doomed romance novelists like Nicholas Sparks. Personally, however, I had trouble connecting with the characters as well as believing the story arc.

A love story told from the guy's point of view is rare and certainly no easy feat, but Leigh Hunter is a genially complex protagonist. It's obvious that he cares very much for his family members (particularly his stepsister, the ineffable and incredibly mature middle schooler Millie), although he may not agree with them most of the time and hardly aspires to be like his emotionally autistic father. Leigh is forced to make incredibly difficult decisions; it is easy to see why the events of his senior year have had an impact on the rest of his life.

However, I found it hard to become emotionally invested in the characters and their stories. The story is told from the point of view of an older Leigh, which I think contributes to the distance I felt from the characters. They were living out their tragedies and dramas in a snowglobe, to which I was only a polite audience. The supporting characters, while well-meaning, never felt quite fully developed for me: the adults were either dispensers of inexplicable wisdom or else emotionally unavailable, and the preteens and teens often did not act their age.

Perhaps all of this would have been fine for me had the main storyline--Leigh and Maia's romance--been believable and likable. As it is, however, it's hard to see why Maia is the source of so many guys' interests. I felt like there was a disconnect between her tragic side--a truly heartwrenching and relatable mix of maternal neglect, self-destruction, anxiety, and self-blame--and the part of her that attracts nearly everyone around her to her. As an interesting and complex character, Maia was fascinating; as the love interest, not so much.

I found the plot and pacing to be quite slow and often unengaging. Since the narrator is an older-and-wiser Leigh, the story often reads like a clinical examination of Leigh's first love, with plenty of time devoted to Leigh's characterization and his interactions with other people, and not enough to the readers' engagement in the story. The ending--the horrifying event that befalls Maia, Leigh's reaction and the consequences that result--felt like it was so rushed and unexpected, which I suspect had more to do with my emotionally detachment from the story and less with the actual proceedings, a detachment that unfortunately contributed to my disbelief of the events in the last part of the book.

It is obvious to me, though, that Freymann-Weyr cares very much about the psychological workings of adolescents, and I think that AFTER THE MOMENT is not a flop of a story, but rather a poignant tale that was marketed to the wrong audience. Certainly Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts fans will appreciate the gentle and affecting romance between Leigh and Maia. If you're an adult reader looking for a slow but sweet read, or a teen with lots of patience and a penchant for intense romances and enigmatic heroines, consider AFTER THE MOMENT for a stirring and relaxing weekend read.

Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She's smart. She's brave. She's also a self-proclaimed train wreck. Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He's also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland. Their young love starts off like a romance novel--full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love. Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love.

The first chapter of this book opens with Leigh (the books narrator) seeing Maia at a dinner party a few years after they had initially met. His reaction upon seeing her tells us that he obviously still has feelings for her and that things were probably left unresolved. From there we go on to find out how Leigh and Maia met and about their heart wrenching love story.

After a death in the family, Leigh leaves his single mother to spend his senior year in high school with his father, step-mother and step-sister, Millie. Amidst a tragedy, Leigh knows that his emotionally stunted father is usually not the best shoulder to lean on.

Almost immediately upon arrival, Leigh is introduced to Maia, who he soon finds out is anorexic, has OCD and to top it off, depression issues (yes, wow). Despite these issues, Leigh feels an immediate connection to Maia which baffles him...after all, he's dating the perfect and popular, Astra Grein. But the more time Leigh and Maia spend together the more he finds himself falling in love with her. After Maia experiences a horrible tragedy, she feels betrayed by Leigh when he mistakenly betrays her trust out of his own anger and rage. They eventually part ways and don't meet again until the dinner party.

I really enjoyed this book but it is a really difficult book to review because of its depth. Leigh is a complex and thoughtful main character. Unlike most teens he is almost hyper-aware of the world and people around him, whether it's his mother, his relationship with his father, his life after high school or the war going on Iraq, Leigh always seems engaged in critical thinking.

Overall, a wonderful story about the complexity of family relationships today and the splendor and the heartache of first love. With the sexual situations and alcohol references, I think this book is best suited for 8th grade and above.

After the Moment is one of those books it's nearly impossible to write a review for. I've rewritten this countless times and I still don't think I can get it right.

After Moment is a book I think everyone should read. It's heartbreaking and merry, unobtainable and realistic. It made me cry but also laugh out loud. The characters are so well-developed and original and perfect (in the sense that they're unperfect). The plot was original and unexpected. I never guessed what was coming and after that, nothing happened as I was expecting. The ending, like the rest of the book, was so unexpected and it left me wanting more.

I realize this is a short review but I'm not sure what else to say. The book was amazing. You should buy it. End of story.

After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr is the sort of young adult novel that will stick with me for a while. Freymann-Weyr is able to tell a love story and include some profound advice without sounding preachy, and as a way of remembering a high school romance.

Leigh is a junior when his step-sister Millie's father dies. He decides to move in with Millie, her mother and his father as a way of helping Millie through her father's death. While in Maine for his senior year of high school he meets Maia, a troubled teenager, who for whatever reason, Leigh falls for. This is not a typical love story at all. Leigh is narrating this story, looking back at his high school days after seeing Maia at a party a few years after the two parted. He is able to look back at their relationship and remember his feelings for her while at the same time seeing things differently because of the passage of time. To explain why Maia and Leigh break up would be too much of a spoiler, and my advice is only that this is a book to be savored.

One of my favorite passages:
"If he was lucky, he'd come to see it clearly. And that ache would no longer be for a first love or a lost one, but for a memory, full of pleasure and regret (328)."
What a perfect passage to describe a high school romance of the past.

Leigh is a teen-age boy unlike many others. Caring to the point of moving for his senior year of high school because he wants to be there for his step-sister. Able to realize that his relationship with Maia is different than the one he has with his girlfriend, Astra, because with Astra he is more interested in the physical aspect of things, and with Maia that isn't the focus- he just wants to be with Maia. Articulate enough that he is able to convey all of this to the reader.

I really loved this one. A lot.

After the Moment was an okay read. From the beginning, I was confused and it didn't really get any better. It starts off with Maia and Leigh meeting at a party when they are 21. Then Leigh tells the story, or maybe just remembers it, of what happen to the two of them when they were 17. Every now and again, it would flash back to the present without any breaks. That is where I got the most confused because it was hard to follow where the story went.

For me, this was a slow read. There was so much going on and not any details to explain certain things, so I still have a ton of unanswered questions. There were plenty of details for parts that didn't pertain to the story at all though. Once the story started to get interesting, which wasn't until page 200, I was kept wanting to know what happened.

I did enjoy the characters. They were realistic and were trying to deal with issues that people in the real world deal with everyday - divorced parents, friendship, love, school, death etc. This is a different take on love, one that shows first love doesn't always work out. With all the extra stuff going on, I think it would have been better if the book was a bit longer.

Leigh Hunter is getting ready for the summer before his senior year in high school, he's going out with an amazing girl, is already worrying about college applications, and the like - he's a typical 17 year old boy. But when his step-sister Millie requests that he come live with her at her time of loss, he has no qualms about picking up and moving to a different state to live with his father, stepmother and stepsister.

Although his main goal is to help Millie overcome her loss - he soon begins to fall for Millie's friend Maia. Maia Morland is a veritable train wreck. She has issues with her mother, her beloved step-father is in jail, she's suffering from anorexia, cuts and has even burned herself at times. Leigh can't help but want to help Maia, but sometimes best intentions don't always work out as planned.

I absolutely love how this story starts. Leigh is at a party at a posh apartment in New York City and in walks Maia... it's been years since they've seen or heard from each other. And although you are reading in the third person, you know Leigh still has some feelings for Maia. What happened? How did they get here? Why? I love that!

Thus my interest was piqued and I read the whole thing in a few hours flat. I loved Leigh. He was such a good boy. He was helpful, selfless and just the all-around perfect boyfriend that all girls dream of. Maia, although flawed, was also likeable. Although she had issues with self-mutilation, you just couldn't help wanting to take her under your wing and protect her from everyone, including herself.

I am surprised that this is considered a YA novel - since it did touch on some heavy issues, yet I can understand why since most of the main characters are all teens. I can honestly say that I enjoyed this.

It is a story about love, loss, heartbreak, trust and betrayal. It is about coming-of-age and first loves. Ms. Freymann-Weyr's writing is simple, her characters are relatable, and her story is immensely engrossing. This is one that shouldn't be missed.

The book opens at a dinner party in New York City, when Leigh sees Maia Moreland for the first time since high school. We're immediately aware of her impact on him and that he's never gotten over some event in their past where he did something dreadful. We don't know their history, only that there was something beautiful and fragile that was destroyed somehow and that Leigh has carried this with him for years.

After reading the opening pages of their chance encounter at the NY dinner party, I was pushed so off-center that I put the book down for weeks. I didn't want to read about the violence or how Leigh hurt Maia so badly and was still so affected by their past. I won't go into details - you deserve to read the book without any spoilers - and to enjoy it as the story slowly unfolds.

Here is just a quick peek into the plot and characters:
After the brief scene where Leigh and Maia meet in the present, the main story opens in flashbacks to Leigh's last years in high school. Towards the end of his junior year, seventeen-year-old Leigh has everything going for him - excellent grades, a spot on the soccer team, and Astra, his dropdead beautiful, popular and smart girlfriend that most everyone else wants to date. He's not unappreciative of his life even though "the good fortune that Leigh knew as his wasn't something that he could feel or point to...It was more like oxygen or blood; it was that intrinsic." Leigh knows that he doesn't yet know what future he wants but he's steady and dependable and he does his level best, knowing it's "a matter of continuing to do the right things: study and apply to colleges, as well as keep old friends and make new ones." Though Leigh isn't driven by clear plans for his future, he will do almost anything for his younger step sister Millie. So when Millie's father dies and she asks Leigh to move to Maryland for a year, Leigh uproots his life. He leaves New York, his mother and Astra for Maryland, Millie, and her troubled friend Maia. Maia is the polar opposite of Astra - nervous, eating disordered, and troubled - but somehow Leigh finds himself drawn to her.

Once I got over my initial hesitation and returned to the book, got to know Leigh and how he cared for the people around him, I was hooked. In After the Moment, Garret Freymann-Weyr created unforgettable characters dealing with complex and real life concerns. It's a beautiful and moving book.

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; 1 edition (May 18, 2009), 336 pages.
Review copy provided by the author and TLC Book Tours.

A masterpiece. Like most good books, this one explained parts of my own life to me, as much as it explained itself. It's a book to re-read, and will certainly become a classic for anyone at any age.

After the Moment is really hard to describe. In some ways I really really liked it and it shocked me and intrigued me but in a few other ways I'm not sure if I understood everything the author wanted me to.

Right off the bat we know that something has happened, happened between main character Leight (a male, as others have said sometimes his name made me have to remind myself he was a guy) and Maia his sister's friend that he has fallen for, extremely hard. That mystery definitely intrigued me and really drew me into the book.

I loved Leigh's character, an overall nice guy that looks out for his family and friends. I LOVED his relationship with his half-sister Millie (actually having two main female characters with M names sort of disrupted the flow of my reading from time to time to). He really looks out for Millie and she adores him. Through this relationship Leigh meets all of her other friends, including the sweet Franklin, the easy going Preston and Maia who has so many issues I couldn't remember them all.

My main issue with the book was Maia. While she openly admits to all of her problems, I just really didn't connect with her. Usually odd is awesome for me, but I just didn't understand her. Some things I did like, like her connection with her step-father from a marriage or two back but that was it really. I understand the idea of someone wanting to help her as Leigh does but I just didn't fully see why he would care for her so deeply in a romantic way. And also the way that the mystery unfolds was kind of odd.

What I did like, was what happens after the truth is out there in the open. At one point I had my hand to my mouth just shocked and wrapped up in what I was reading (page 267 if you are interested). So it's hard to really put my feelings into words for this book, some things I really really liked others I didn't really understand. Overall, I'd definitely be interested in reading another of the author's books and maybe that one would hit it exactly on the mark for me!