Aftershock [Hardcover]

Kelly Easton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2006

Seventeen-year-old Adam and his parents are driving home to Rhode Island from a peace rally in Seattle when the accident happens. In a single, horrible moment, his parents are gone. And Adam is alone.

In a speechless state of shock, Adam begins walking across the country, toward home. But he can't think in a straight line: The past and present merge in his thoughts, and the future's a blank. As flashes of memory come to him -- some wonderful, some violent -- he begins to wonder if he has truly lost everything.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–In a state of shock, 17-year-old Adam walks away from the scene of the car accident that has killed his parents. Stranded on a lonely road in rural Idaho, he heads east, on foot, as random snippets of memory wander in and out of his mind. Too traumatized to speak, his silence is misinterpreted by the succession of characters he meets on the odyssey home to Rhode Island. Stumbling upon a Wiccan meeting in a forest, he is taken in by one of the chatty young women and takes a job as a dishwasher in a local diner, where he is treated as deaf. Weeks later, he hitchhikes with a trucker and finds backbreaking work in Colorado fields with Mexican migrant farmers. He struggles to survive as he devours a frozen pizza found in a taxidermist's cabin, sleeps in a Dumpster, crashes a picnic, and steals a car. The adventures intertwine with thoughts about his girlfriend, locker-room antics, his parents, their bookstore, and his autistic cousin–spontaneously, as if his mind has short-circuited from the crash. Adam, though still mute, arrives home emotionally ready to accept his parents' death. While some situations seem far-fetched and there is some raw language, readers will be caught up in the teen's predicament.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

What is it like to be suddenly homeless, orphaned, and speechless? Adam, 17, survives the car crash that kills his parents in Idaho, but though he is physically unhurt, he is traumatized and cannot talk. In shock, he tries to get back to the family's bookstore in Rhode Island, hitching rides with families, truck drivers, even illegal farmworkers. He steals a car; he sleeps in dumpsters; other teens beat him up. His mind is clear, and memories of his idyllic family are woven into the survival journey, along with recollections of his pals and his gorgeous perfect girlfriend, Myra, including how they got together and their decision to have sex. Although it seems unrealistic that an accident victim's memories would be as clear as Adam's are, the contemporary road adventure is told with terse drama, and occasional rough language that fits the raw emotion of the story. During his travels, Adam thinks of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1987), and readers will want to pair that story with this one, as well as with other books about the journey home. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416900527
• ISBN-13: 978-1416900528
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kelly Easton grew up in Los Angeles, California. From the time she can first remember, she was obsessed with the destruction of the beauty of the area, orange groves and strawberry fields and charming downtowns, by the suburban sprawl of the seventies. Her search for the perfect place has sent her all over the place, most recently North Carolina and now New England.

Kelly has an MFA in playwriting from UC San Diego. She teaches in a low residency MFA program in writing for children and young adults at Hamline University, and lives on islands in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She also teaches creative writing to kids in summer workshops, and helps other writers edit their books. Kelly lives with her husband, Michael Ruben, and their children: Isaac, Isabelle, Mollie and Rebecca (plus their dog Garfield). She has just finished her first adult novel, Dreams in the Land of Photographs. You can reach her through her website: www.kellyeaston.com

Kelly's novels have won many awards, among them, the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award, the ASTAL Middle School Book of the Year Award, NYPL Book For the Teen Age, Kentucky Bluegrass Masterlist (Hiroshima Dreams); an ALA Quick Pick listing, and nomination for the ABE award, 2010 (Aftershock); Atlanta parents Best Book, and NYPL Book for the Teen Age (White Magic); a Boston Author's Club Award, Westcherster's Choice Best Book, CCBC Best Books selection (Walking on Air); and a Golden Kite Honor, Booksense Top Ten (The Life History of a Star). Her newest book, The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes, is a Jr. Library Guild selection.

She loves to hear from readers!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, November 20, 2006

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aftershock (Hardcover)

Life can completely change in a moment. Seventeen-year-old Adam's life changes the moment his family's car hits a deer on a back road in Idaho. He and his bookstore-owning, pacifist parents have traveled from Rhode Island for a peace vigil, but only Adam will be heading home. His parents die instantly leaving Adam helpless on the side of the road.

In shock, Adam begins walking. His mind is spinning with past memories and present pain. His only constant, steady thought? To get home. This journey without any emotional and financial support would be challenging enough, but to complicate matters Adam finds he can't speak.

Adam's journey is filled with dangerous situations, a few truly kind and generous people, and others out to make his life miserable. Through his exhaustion and hunger he continues to focus on the life he had in Rhode Island. Dreams of the family's bookstore, his girlfriend Mira, and even his irritating Aunt Margarite and her son, Joey, keep Adam heading toward hope and home.

AFTERSHOCK is a tale of survival and the compelling human need to carry on even after heartbreaking tragedy. Adam's strength and courage will touch all who read his story.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy this for your teenage boy, December 7, 2006

By 

D. "booklover" (Long Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aftershock (Hardcover)

This will get your heart pounding. I always read everything before my kids do. Even though this book is about a boy dealing with grief, it's more about his life and the life of many boys in this country have to deal with the pressures of being macho. I thought that the sex in the book was handled with a lot responsibility. There's a lot of crass reading out there for this age group. This book was a class act. I am a therapist and am recommending it to my teen readers, male and female.
It's a can't put it down read that will haunt you long after you're finished.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating journey of a teenage boy ... trying to make his way home, November 18, 2006

By 

Randall Wickham - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aftershock (Hardcover)

This is a great book, and I couldn't put it down. I became immersed in the harrowing journey of 17 year old Adam. Aftershock is incredibly suspenseful, and I couldn't decipher what would happen next.

While reading the book, I felt that the main character, Adam was multi-dimensional, and that I really got to know him, and I empathised with the situation he was in, and his feelings. Aftershock is a very good title for this book. Aftershock is a book about what it is like to be a teenage boy and to experience confusion, loss, and diffficulties, and to continue in spite of everything. There were humorous bits woven throughout, which I think helped to lessen the intensity.

Aftershock is extremely well-written and readable. I felt the book stayed with me long after reading it, and I was sad to finish it.

I would recommend this book to all teenage readers. It is a very stimulating book and one of the best books I've read for a very long time!