YA Review: After the Fire

Dang, I missed these! With the end of QSR and getting sick, I haven't written a review in a while. I assume I still remember how to do it, so let's get going.

After the Fire by Will Hill

Published: I believe it was first released in 2017 in the UK, but its North American debut will be October 2nd, 2018 from Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Contemporary YA
Binding: E-arc
Page Count: Goodreads says 464
Part of a series? No.
Got via: I requested it on Edelweiss.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.

But there are lies behind Father John's words. Outside, there are different truths.

Then came the fire.

Review: Not gonna lie, I find cults fascinating. I know it's kind of awful to say that, but I also know I'm not alone, or there wouldn't be so many documentaries and books and TV shows and movies and what-not about them. I bet there's a fair few of you who are right there with me in reading the summary of this and being instantly intrigued, because cults.

Normally I wouldn't mention this in a review because it's not the book's problem, but in this case it's actually shows how much I liked the book - my e-arc of this was fairly messed up. The formatting is kind of a disaster, with no paragraph indents, no real indication what's a break like between scenes or whatever, sentences jumping around from where they should be. And honestly sometimes if I'm not that into the book, I'll give up on it if the formatting's really bad because it just gets annoying and I already read slower on Kindle.

I read this in a day. While that's about average for me with a hardcopy book, Kindle books usually take a couple days. This was really, really good.

Plot Talk: This is told by our main character Moonbeam after a fire has ravaged her home, a property that would be most effectively called a compound, though she hates that word being used to describe it. She's in the hospital in a closed psych ward to be treated both for the physical effects of the fire, and for the obvious trauma of having been raised in a cult. As the book goes on, it tells about her daily life and the events that lead up to the fire, with also a fair amount of focus on her recovery and the criminal investigation into the cult. It's not entirely told through flashback, which I really appreciated. I thought what was happening afterwards was just as interesting.

Characters: This has a fairly large cast and mostly manages to use them in really interesting ways. Moonbeam is a great narrator. She's observant enough and curious enough that we get really good looks at the other characters and dynamics going on, without her personality disappearing, or being one hundred percent objective. It's a lot more interesting than her being a blank narrator to see her start to think about people she's known all her life and realizing they did bad things.

Which leads me to something else I liked a lot - the way people were presented talked a lot about the idea that people that Moonbeam grew up with, people she cared about deeply, people that she considered good people - could do terrible, abusive things. And it was very interesting to see it examined how people could get into a situation like this, and how one bad person could essentially trap them. Not all of them, but a lot of them.

I also liked the people at the hospital and the agent questioning Moonbeam. It's interesting to see them contrasted with other adults who had been in her life, as they react to things that have been normalized for her. And especially as they open up a little, and relax a little. It's a very good dynamic.

Also, props for the lack of romance in this book. Moonbeam has a crush on an older dude, but nothing ever, ever happens between them, and his feelings for her are like those you'd have for a younger sister. With how messed up Moonbeam is, honestly, it's nice to see the book kind of avoid that whole area, as it probably wouldn't be very healthy for her at that time. And I honestly did like the book saying it was fine for Moonbeam to have a crush on an older person, but it was his responsibility to not return those feelings, or do anything inappropriate or anything like that. She's allowed to have those feelings, and she isn't doing anything wrong. Nice to see that in YA.

PG-13 stuff: Trigger warnings for sexual abuse, sex shaming, slurs, religious abuse, child abuse, and abuse in general, fire, guns and gunfire, ableism (from the cult), suicide (the method of which is describe bluntly, but Moonbeam does not witness it or anything), physical violence, alcohol and drug abuse mentions, and murder. There's a lot going on.

Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: This is a really white, straight, abled book. Sexual orientation is mentioned once by Moonbeam's doctor, but there's not really much of anything for diversity. And I get that cults might be a little bigoted, but there's enough time outside of the cult that the author could have included a bit more. I think her psychiatrist is possibly Latino, but that's only judging by his last name. As far as I noticed, he's not physically described very much.

I also think this lacked women a lot of the time. Moonbeam's main nurse is the only real positive female character besides her, and she doesn't get a whole lot of screentime. I see no reason either the Agent or her doctor couldn't have been a woman, or her nurse could have been more developed beyond asking how she's doing and hugging her once.

There's also a running thread of fatmisia. There's like no positive fat characters. There is one large man, but he is described only that way, as large, and it's implied more he's very tall and strong. Since he's (mostly) a good character (and Moonbeam cares a lot about him), he's described positively. Meanwhile, there's a bad character who is very manipulative and abusive, and whom Moonbeam hates, and he's, of course, fat. And him being fat is mentioned every single time he shows up, and usually in terms like "hugely fat". It's clearly meant to be another reason he's meant to be seen as a bad character, including looking "rat-like" or whatever.

Cover comments: I could take it or leave it. It works for what the book is about, but it doesn't wow me. It's fine.

Conclusion: While obviously I had a few complaints, I found this fascinating and couldn't stop reading it. It's a great premise, and I think over-all it's handled really well. I do really like therapy in YA, and I think it's really important that almost everyone who treats Moonbeam is kind to her, and recognizes that she's had a very traumatic experience. With so much mental health care in media being depicted as evil or bad in general, it's important to see positive examples. All in all, I'd really recommend this one if you're into media about cults. Four out of five roses, with a half rose off for lacking diversity and the fatmisia.



Other notes:

- Whenever Luke talks, I just hear Isaac from the Children of the Corn movie.

- The book opens quoting my favourite Johnny Cash song that I used to use in playlists for school a ton. It's such a good tone-setting song.

Peace and cookies,
Laina