Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Review: Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton

Before..........she was a mother attending the school sports day. Then black smoke begins to stain the blue summer sky. Grace sees the smoke and begins to run. She knows the school is on fire and her teenage daughter, Jenny, is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.

Afterwards .............." I couldn't move, not even a little finger or a flicker of an eye. I couldn't open my mouth to scream.
I struggled, as hard as I could, to move the huge heavy hulk that my body had become but I was trapped under the hull of a vast ship wrecked on the ocean floor and moving was impossible.
My eyelids were welded shut. My eardrums broken. My vocal cords snapped off."
Afterwards............. Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who's still intent on destroying them. Afterwards she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.

It isn't easy these days with so many books being published to come up with something different but Rosamund Lupton has done it superbly in this gripping story. Even though the concept may challenge some people's beliefs I found it completely believable and give the author top marks for originality.

Grace is a wonderful character whose very typical life as a loving wife and mother makes her very easy to relate to and to share her fear and desperation. Throughout the book she speaks to her husband in the second person which has the effect of drawing the reader into the heart of a deep personal relationship. Emotional reading as other relationships come under the microscope, not only family but friends, the children's friends and teachers all find their lives and secrets exposed to scrutiny.

Rosamund Lupton's trail of red herrings will lead you up the wrong path time after time and I doubt anyone will guess the who the arsonist is. I thought I had it nailed but I was wrong.
Full of suspense , emotionally moving and very hard to put down.
Great reading - highly recommended to all suspense thriller fans!

Genre: Suspense Thriller
Publisher:Piatkus, 2011
472p

For more Thrill Week reviews, discussions and giveaways check out the following participating blogs.

4 comments:

  1. I love that the author was able to pull the wool over your eyes and surprise you with the identity of the real culprit! That is a must for me in a mystery book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must read Sister soon, this sounds fascinating Cheryl. If it was on Kindle it would be my next read.

    BTW you missed Rae from the list.

    ReplyDelete
  3. oops - so I did, Marce.....have rectified that.
    I haven't read Sister yet but hope its as good as this one.

    Lola - it does make a difference if you can be kept guessing until the end.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love a suspense that I cannot figure out for sure who the culprit is...so many bad guys out there are too cut and paste versions of the previous book....My tbr list is growing by leaps and bounds this week!

    ReplyDelete