Title: Every Moment After
Series: Standalone
Author’s Name: Joseph Moldover
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Coming of Age
Page Count: 368 Pages
ISBN: 1328547272 (ISBN13: 9781328547279)
Author or Book Website: https://www.josephmoldover.com/
Link to Amazon purchase page: Every Moment After
Link to Goodreads: Every Moment After
Release Date: N/A
How I Got the Book: Review Copy
Summary of the Book:
Best friends Matt and Cole grapple with their changing relationships during the summer after high school in this impactful, evocative story about growing up and moving on from a traumatic past.
Surviving was just the beginning.
Eleven years after a shooting rocked the small town of East Ridge, New Jersey and left eighteen first graders in their classroom dead, survivors and recent high school graduates Matt Simpson and Cole Hewitt are still navigating their guilt and trying to move beyond the shadow of their town’s grief. Will Cole and Matt ever be able to truly leave the ghosts of East Ridge behind? Do they even want to?
As they grapple with changing relationships, falling in love, and growing apart, these two friends must face the question of how to move on—and truly begin living.
My Personal Review: I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I read a few books with a similar idea, but this one seems to dig a little deeper into the aftermath of it all and how to truly see how the heart and soul take and deal with the trauma that characters had to deal with from a young age. The town never really seemed to let go of the tradegy so it was like living with it coming up over and over again and have to relive it. That is a lot weight to carry and the struggle with survivors’ guilt even if it is not one’s fault. The changing and developing relationship between Matt and Cole was well done and detailed. It was so real and heartbreaking at times. I did not discover until I was done with the book that this was a debut book for this author. I have to say I am impressed.
My Rating of the Book: 4 Stars
From the Book Reviewer's Desk 