Customer Reviews

Before, After, and Somebody In Between

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Fourteen-year-old Martha is dragged along to a new town by her mother and Wayne, her mother's newest loser boyfriend. Over the next few months, her life will become worse than she ever dreamed it could be - and then better - and then a bit of both.

Having skipped a grade, Martha is smarter and younger than her classmates. She is also Caucasian, while the majority of the school and the neighborhood is African-American. Though she makes two friends early on, they can't stop the threats made on her life by very imposing female bully.

When a drive-by in her neighborhood turns her world upside down - or perhaps right-side-up - she is taken in by a well-meaning and well-off family, given a makeover, and accepted into a prestigious school. At the recommendation of her new family's beautiful daughter, she starts going by Gina, a variation on her middle name. As she makes new friends and starts dating an intriguing boy, she tries to put the past behind her, but it's never far behind. When her lies catch up with her, Gina's new life is shattered, and she is forced to become Martha again.

Whether things are good, bad, or in between, she escapes by playing the cello. Ultimately, it is her music that will build her spirit, even when it seems the world is conspiring to break it.

Martha is a complicated protagonist. At first, she is somewhat quiet. Thus, the novel greatly benefits from the first-person narrative, letting readers hear the thoughts and things Martha wishes she had the guts to say and do.

Jeannine Garsee's debut novel, BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN, addresses abuse in various forms - alcohol, pills, verbal, physical - as well as recovery and redemption. Though no one is ever fully healed nor redeemed, that makes it all the more realistic. Martha has potential, and so does Garsee.

When Martha's mom gets out of rehab and drags Martha to live with her latest boyfriend it's nothing new. Ever since her father's death, Martha's life has been a string of moving from place to place, constantly watching out for her mom. But this time the new boyfriend lives in a part of town where 'white girls don't belong,' as her classmates at school have no problem telling her. Martha is plunged into a world of gang violence and drugs, metal detectors at school, threats from other students, and violence at home. But she still manages to make a few friends at school and with the family that lives upstairs. And when she signs up for orchestra and discovers the joy of playing the cello, she thinks things might have finally turned around.

Until an act of violence sends everything spiraling out of control.

BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN is a gritty and realistic tale of a girl trying to escape her parent's poor choices and make a life for herself. Told unflinchingly in the first person, Garsee doesn't hesitate from portraying teen violence, sex, and drug and alcohol use as the traps that they can be, but she does so with gentle humor and a compassionate eye. Martha is a flawed heroine, coming to terms with her own faults and the addictive tendencies she may have inherited from her mother, but readers will root for her to succeed. This book is not a light-hearted tale, and at times the string of bad events can feel unrelenting, but Garsee shows the bright spots to be found in even the deepest tragedies.

Recommended for older readers only. Contains drug and alcohol use, sex, and profanity.

Reviewed by: Dena Landon

before, after,and Somebody in between is a gritty novel about
growing up in an impossible situation and coming out a Winner. Fourteen year old Martha Kowalski dreams of one day being a Celloist Only one thing would stop her and Alcoholic mother who thinks its nonsense.

Martha is the only white girl in a ghetto school. And . . . not entirely acepted by all her classmates. Especially Chardonnay. Chardonny pulls her into a confrontation and Martha gets caught with a knife. She ends up in jail.

Every cloud has a silver lining and for Martha her sliver lining was Richard and Claudia Brinkman.

This book is a heart-lurching, breath-stealing look into the gritty life of Martha Kowalski, whose recently rehabbed mother has dragged her to live with Mama's latest boyfriend in a new urban neighborhood. By the end of Martha's first day at the tough Cleveland school, she has already made one blood enemy and one good friend.

Before long tragedy strikes, and Martha is thrown into the foster care system. By a combination of luck and determination, she lands on her feet, finding a home with the well-to-do Brinkman family. Suddenly her life is nearly perfect; she has all the material possessions she could want, attends an upscale school, and she is encouraged to pursue her dream of becoming a concert cellist. She leaves everything, her friends, even her name, behind.

Everything but her guilt, that is.

Will her new life last? Should it last? Martha is smart, cynical, funny, talented, and sometimes a go-getter, but can she stay afloat, never mind succeed, in spite of the many strikes against her? If you give Martha a chance, she ll take you by the neck and drag you in. I finished all 352 pages of her story in one night. And maybe, like me, you'll find your thoughts returning to Martha again and again. She's just that kind of haunting character.

This tale is rich in detail, surprisingly so, considering its breakneck pace. By story's end, Jeannine Garsee brings all the myriad threads together in fresh and surprising ways. Garsee wastes nothing and spares the reader even less. I expect to read many more marvelous stories from this author in the future. In fact, I can hardly wait.

This book will resonate with anyone, young or old, who has ever dreamed of growing beyond a difficult childhood into one's passions and gifts. Garsee captures exquisitely the ambivalence of the parentified child-- loving a deeply flawed parent and hating the parent in equal measure for continually disappointing, worrying for the parent's safety while resenting that there is no one to keep the child safe, in Martha's case from being bullied, from unintended tragedy, from the rollercoaster highs and lows of adolescent life. Beautifully written, with indelible characters and a page-turning plot that grips the reader from start to finish, Before, After, and Somebody in Between, ends in hope while never lapsing into 'happily ever after'. I am a grandmother and I could not put this book down!!

YOUNG ADULT-A book on "Writing for Young Adults" urged me to read books from the genre that I plan to write for-so here I am.

I was completely intrigued by this book. It was so good that I couldn't put it down. This story is presented in a straight-forward manner. It was so refreshing to see such a realistic story.

This is the story of Martha. She has to deal with her mother's alcohol/drug use, physical abuse, verbal abuse, as well as her own personal issues. In her struggle to become an adult, she has to interact with three major antagonists: Chardonay, Nikki, and her own "Momma".

In Cleveland, Ohio the major anttagonist is Chardonay. Chardonay picks on Martha just because she is different. (The abuse is pushing, kicking, verbal abuse, and with a knife.) Martha tries to reason with Chardonay, but after an almost deadly altercation, the two are separated. The resolution (the parting) is permanent, but the anger and venom was still there.

When Martha goes to live with the Brinkmans, Nikki becomes the antagonist. At first, Martha and Nikki are friends: Nikki gives Martha the nickname "Gina". Nikki becomes jealous and conniving which leads to bad interactions. Martha becomes secretive and defensive. Both delve into drugs to temporarily relieve their pain, but the verbal abuse escalates. Finally, Nikki says that Martha has to leave and Martha''s "Momma" demands her return.

Martha's mother is a constant negative influence on her child's life and future. Her mother is self-absorbed and lives in the past. The mother can not reconcile herself with the bad relationship that she had with Martha's father. The mother takes up with Wayne and turns her back on his physical abuse of Martha. The mother also tries to end Martha's opportunity to be a successful cello player. To be like her mother; Martha temporariily falls into alcohol, drug, and sexual promiscuity, but Nikki, who is a recovering alcoholic by now, reminds Martha that she can be better.

Luckily, Martha does persevere and make her life better. She overcomes antagonists and peronal demons on her voyage to becoming an adult.

My book is Dreams in August: Life, Love, and Cerebellar Ataxia

An hour into her first day of tenth grade, Martha knows she's in trouble: the school bully has threatened her life and her home life is in shambles. She wants to play cello - but even music is dangerous, until a wealthy lawyer provides a possible key to moving away from her dangerous life. A poignant story of a girl's struggles to be someday and escape dangers evolves in a complex plot highly recommended for older teens.

Bad Girls Club

Poor Martha. I don't think I've ready about many girls who have as many battles to fight as this poor girl, but fight she does! Even when all the odds are against her, she keeps trying to move forward, which is no easy thing. A girl at school wants to kill her, her mother is drunk or stoned or gone for days at a time, her neighborhood is about as scuzzy as it gets, and yet Martha survives. With the help of a friend of a friend, Martha gets a second chance and even when that falls apart, she manages to keep going. I recommend this book to all teens who are struggling with abuse, family alcoholism, poverty, bullying, problems at school, or just surviving in a modern world where so many fall through the cracks.

I loved this book, mainly for the character's rich voice, but also because the plot kept moving me along so that I could not wait to find out what happened next. It did tackle a lot of hard subjects right away, and unflinchingly--racism, abandonment, abuse, neglect, alcohol and drug use, drug dealing, poverty, a near-lethal bully, friendships, drifting, a tragic death, guilt, seeking a "normal" life that maybe isn't so normal, and perhaps most frighteningly of all, being pushed to the edge where at last you become violent yourself in order to react to the madness around you. But it's all done with such charm, so intriguingly, and with an odd spark of humor, that you get Martha's voice stuck in your head and you just want to keep reading till you find out what happens next. Despite being not fully satisfied by the ending, I haven't read anything this avidly in a long time.

This book was fantastic. It's a shame young adults get put into situations because of parental flaws. Martha is a perfect example of this and I would recommend this book to young adults as well as adults.