Customer Reviews

Aftershock

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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"

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.

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!

This book was about a boy named Adam, who got onto a car crash and traveled cross-country.The main character of this book was the boy Adam, but also some people who helped him got to his destination. Adam had many problems in th book such as: he couldn't talk and he couldnt really hear to well. I would recommend this book to anyone.

History comes to life in a survey of their family's changes. Kelly Easton's AFTERSHOCK holds explicit violence and underlying sexuality along with the story of a 17-year-old who is the sole survivor of a fatal car crash. How Adam puts together the pieces of a changed world makes for riveting reading.

i actually didnt want to talk until he started talking again.
Really good book.
Serious and sad, but thats how i like it.

This book was about a boy named Adam, who got onto a car crash and traveled cross-country.The main character of this book was the boy Adam, but also some people who helped him got to his destination. Adam had many problems in th book such as: he couldn't talk and he couldnt really hear to well. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Plot/Storyline: 5 Stars

While this novel didn't have a traditional plot, the storyline was engrossing. I could hardly put it down because I wanted to find out what heppened to Adam. While the story did not dwell on the tragedy, just keeping it in the background, I was still on the verge of tears throughout the reading.

Much of the book consisted of flashbacks to show Adam's life before the crash. This was a wonderful device for learning about his life and more about his parents, too. However, the switches from past to present were abrupt quite often, causing some confusion. The saving grace for this is that Adam himself was obviously confused, so it gave the reader some of what he was feeling.

I was concerned before beginning this novel that the premise of a teen losing his voice then crossing the country to go home would be "out there" and hard to believe. However, the author did a great job through Adam's voice of making the reader live the events along with Adam, lending complete credibility to the story all the way to the end.

Character Development: 5 Stars

Adam was not only a believable character as a modern day teenager, he was also extremely sympathetic. As I stated above, I was on the verge of tears most of the time while reading this book. This was because I was so easily able to empathize with Adam due to the terrific character development. One major thing in Adam's favor was that he was just an extremely likable kid. He is the boy you'd want your daughter to date, but he does not cross over into perfection, which would just be nauseating.

Although Adam could not speak, or maybe because of that, he did a great job of giving insights into the other supporting characters. He depicted personalities from the past and present to give a better understanding of both his character and others.

Writing Style: 5 Stars

Although this is a YA novel, the writing style did not speak down to the reader, making it an excellent crossover into the adult realm. The sentence structure is complex enough to appeal to adults, yet simplistic enough to make for easy, smooth reading.

The descriptions were vivid, without being too gorey. The dialogue was realistic, albeit one-sided by necessity.

Editing/Formatting: 5 Stars

Both were of professional quality.

Rating: PG-14 for Language and Violence

this book was so emotional and i really liked adam and his girlfriend mira. i know people like that. i totally believed the pissing contest happened, because it happened at my school. mira was so complicated and deep. i have a friend who cuts herself and has rich parents like her. i read this in one sitting. you will not be able to put it down.