The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle, realistic fiction

Laurel is a sixteen year old girl who has spent all of her life pleasing others by being a good daughter, a good person, and a straight A student. She had a good life and a happy family, until her parents and younger brother die in a car accident along with her neighbor Mrs. Kaufman, who leaves behind a son named David who's a year older than Laurel and a husband in a coma. Laurel begins to almost sleep walk through life. Before the accident, David and Laurel were on speaking terms that consisted of awkward "hi's" mumbled through the hallways. Of course they wouldn't be friends before, the designated "bad boy" and the school orientated girl would never in a million years become friends. But after the incident they have something in common, loss. They grieve differently but they always end up attracting each other like magnets. This book is filled sadness and wit, and you might even cry.

Question Answer to #3

This story is a continuous story that follows a direct timeline. It does at a point or two tell a short story of something that Laurel or her family had done in the past as long as it relates to the topic at hand. The view point of view is strictly from Laurel's, making it a first person point of view novel. I think the author chose this point of view so that the reader can truly understand the way the main character feels. This makes it easier for the reader to see what the main character goes through and why she makes the decisions she does.

Question Answer to #4

One of the author's main ideas, I feel, is discovering who you are after drastic change forces you to be someone different. I don't think the author uses symbols throughout the novel to restate the main ideas, but I do think she really locks onto one big event to clearly steer the novel. This big event being the death of her family, which is what enables Laurel to change in the first place.