After

Rating:
Summary: Okay
Review: "After" is the novel about Tom Bishop, a fifteen-year-old who attends Central High School, who's world is flipped upside down when there's a school shooting at Pleasant Valley High School. A crisis counselor is brought in to "help" the teachers and students, but only causes more problems, and when teachers and students begin disappearing, Tom and his friends know that it's up to them to find out what's really going on.

I really had many mixed emotions about this novel. I found it extremely interesting at the beginning, but suddenly it just dropped to an almost boring level. The concept is interesting, but it's a bit cliched (a la "The Faculty" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"). Not to mention that Tom's friends, Silas, Avery, and Brian, are big stoners (especially Silas), and are WAY too concerned about getting caught smoking pot, then they are about school shootings.

Overall, this was an interesting novel, yet a bit on the boring side. I wouldn't recommend this book if you're looking for something that's humorous, unless you want to read about how paranoid Silas is, thanks to all of the pot that he smokes.

Erika Sorocco

Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: "After" received many favorable reviews, including being voted a Teens Top Ten on the ALA-YALSA site. I must say, I was sadly disappointed after reading these recommendations. Reviews mentioned a surprise ending but I found none. What I found was a book with a very promising premise which did not live up to its promise.
The "After" mentioned in the title is "after a school shooting in a neighboring town". After the shooting, the school board hires a grief and crisis counselor, but he gradually begins to take over the school, adding more and more restrictions. When students go against him, they are sent to "teen re-education camps" and are never heard from again. Parents don't stand up to him because they have been brainwashed by the nightly e-mails from the school.
The "surprise ending" was no surprise at all. There were hints of this from the very beginning. The only surprise was that it took so long for anyone to do anything. One of the students compared the situation to "The Night of the Living Dead" and that's where the author seemed to get her idea. The plot is full of holes. The parents are far too powerless. The kids go along with the restrictions far too easily. There is no real motivation for events to be so extreme.
This book requires a "willing suspension of disbelief." Readers must believe, without explanation, that the school's nightly e-mail can brainwash any parent who reads them. They must also believe that none of the students has a trusted adult they can go to for help, not even a college-age sibling.
The most disappointing thing about this book, however, is that it took a worthy topic and then dropped it in favor of a cheap thrill. Schools have changed since the events at Columbine; metal detectors have become a part of life; drug testing is not unheard of. However, Prose didn't build a novel around this. Instead, she chose to write a thriller, carrying events to the extreme, and build to a climax which, in my opinion, fell flat.
I give this book two stars, because the writing was good and I enjoyed the characters even though I felt the plot was weak.

Rating:
Summary: Good book for a Great Reader
Review: A boy named Tom lives with his dad. A near by school has a shooting, kind of like Columbine. Everyone is very worried about it because it happened only 50 miles away. Could it happen at Central (toms school)? This is exactly what his school doesn't want to happen, so they hire a guidance counselor named Mr. Wilner. This seems like no big deal until he starts making strict rules all the students need to follow. There are now metal detectors and safety guards. Things, in the students eyes, seem to be getting out of hand. And the parents? They are getting e-mails from the school which are somehow brainwashing them. Worst of all, anyone who disobeys these ridiculous rules will be sent to a camp. 3 kids have already been sent, 2 of them are Tom's friends. Will he be next?
I think the book had a great theme. Although the beginning was very slow. It's a long read for when you can't think of something to do.


Rating:
Summary: "AFTER"
Review: After by Francine Prose is a great page turner. I didn't want to put it down as every page just brought you deeper into the story. This is a very spooky story that is very believable which makes it even scarier. It is about a 15 year old boy who goes to a high school and after a school about 50 miles has a shooting his school brings in a guidance counselor who makes all sorts of rules and sends people away to "camps" for not following all of his absurd rules which for example are you can't wear red. Not to give the ending away but this book really makes you be scared because it seems so real! But it is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Deeper than the surface
Review: After was far from a great piece of literature. It in no way captivates you, or leaves you thinking "what great use of words", or "that was eloquently said". The writing style reminded me more of my 5th grade assigned reading, than a mature novel that would appeal to the age group it concerns. But that set aside, it brings up many topics that for over 5 years, we've dismissed. It's not hard to see its ties to the Columbine High School incident in the late 90's. The main topic deals with the abuse of power that many school administrators assumed. Dealing with things like unreasonable dress-codes, alienation of students, and simply stupid rules, the book clearly shows that schools have gone to far. Perhaps the biggest thing that bothered me was the use of completely fantastical ways to "punish" students who oposed the rule. The story talks about "camps" where kids who opose the new rules are sent. There they are supossedly made to do hard labor, and are often killed. It would have been a much better story without the fantasy. Overall, I recomend it, simply because it has a great message.

Rating:
Summary: school will never be the same again
Review: After, a book that will touch the hearts of all who read it. This book really makes you think, I presonally thought about it for days.
It's about a school, just like anyother school, until Pleasentvalley; where a shooting took place. Soon after the school becomes more and more strict and kids start disappearing.
This book is very exciting and will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Rating:
Summary: Very well written, interesting plot, but it does have holes.
Review: After, the twelth book written by Francine Prose, is basically an intelligent horror story. The book revolves around Tom, a high school student at Central High School. When several kids are shot at neighboring Pleasent Valley HS, Central turns into an almost fascist regime.

The brilliant writing and creepy plot combine to make this a real page turner- but, unfortunatly, some elements of the plot border on being laughable. Parents being brainwashed from reading e-mails. A national, media-involved, apparently unmotivated conspiracy to send teenagers to death camps. The only thing that keeps this novel together is the quality of writing. Not only does it force you to keep a straight face when a girl is murdered for wearing a red ribbon- it makes it creepy.

It's a perfect book up until halfway through. Until then, it almost seems like an allegory to Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany. When the sense of reality is lost... so is the book.

Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible book!!
Review: All I can say about this book is WOW. It is so good and bone chilling that I almost didn't finish my midterm because I wanted to read it. I had nightmares that something like that would happen at my school and that I would face that horrible fate.

I will definetly read this book again really soon. Just not during midterms or finals.

Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: Although the writing style of this book is a bit mundane and blunt, the story itself sent chills up my spine - and that doesn't happen often to me.

The basic premise of the book is that, in the wake of Columbine and similar school disasters, school security is beefed up and students are subjected to new rules and regulations. Some of these regulations seem reasonable, but some, from the outset, seem odd. People are so nervous about violence in schools, though, that they seem to be willing to give up little things for the larger goal, supposedly better security at the school. Even though the kids are wary and nervous about what is happening, the changes are relentless and escalate.

Some classic methods of manipulation and intimidation are used and, in spite of the students' sense that this is wrong, everyone seems reluctant to challenge them and their parents seem to be all too willing to go along.

This is a compelling book - chilling and creepy. It is also a relevant book, especially in the wake of all the new regulations for flying and airport security.

But the book is also flawed. The writing style, as mentioned in the official review is prosaic and simplistic. And the motive behind the new regulations is puzzling. It is reasonable to expect that in the course of implementing new security safeguards that some people will get carried away with them and become too rigid and too enamored of the power to determine other people's lives. But, in this case, the primary mover behind the regulations is evil from the start. And, other than blind hate, we never know why.

The ending of the book, is, as mentioned by others, not completely satisfying. There is some resolution to various of the subplots - confidence in Dad, relationship to Dad's girl friend, relationship to friends. But too much is left hanging. Is the author holding out for a sequel?

Still, it is a good read. I read the whole thing in one day, practically in one sitting. It is unusual to find a page-turner like that.

P.S. The book is similar in tone to The Children's Story by James Clavell. This one is a bit more current, but Clavell's story is certainly a classic of this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Frightening
Review: Beware of the review from the SF Bay reader -- he gives away the ending of the book.

This book is incredibly creepy. So much of what happens in the book is already happening in schools in real life, so that when things escalate to a point that goes beyond our current reality, it doesn't seem far-fetched at all. And that's really scary. I stayed up until 4 in the morning to finish this book, because I knew I couldn't sleep until I found out what happened. Definitely read this book. It will definitely make you think twice about the things being done in the name of security.