Amy Efaw

Devon Davenport is a straight-A student, a soccer star on both her high school and club teams, with aspirations for college and the Olympics. So why is she being held in jail on charge of attempted first-degree murder…of the baby she supposedly didn’t even know she was carrying inside herself?

As Devon goes about her routine in the detention center, she continuously talks with other adults—as well as herself—in order to try and figure out what was running through her mind for those show more past nine months, up until that fateful morning when she had given birth and tossed the baby in the dumpster behind her apartment building. What unfolds is a shocking exploration into one teenager’s mind—a mind that is perhaps not much different than any one of ours.

Writing a story featuring a protagonist that readers might find hard to sympathize with maybe be rewarding eventually, but it is certainly difficult. Attempting to unravel the complicated minds of a teen girl who has committed an atrocious act is even more challenging. I’m not sure how successful I thought Efaw’s attempt at this goal was, but I appreciated her effort nonetheless.

As I mentioned above, Devon is hard to like. Not just because of the deep denial she’d immersed herself in—a denial so thorough that she nearly killed a helpless baby. She also has a personality that does not easily appeal to people. For instance, in much of the beginning Devon is often listless and unresponsive to others talking to her, to the point where I wanted to reach into the story and shake her, hard, by the shoulders. Even as we continue to see different aspects of her, we find that she is intense, driven, and quiet, leaning towards the loner side. Devon is exactly the kind of person I’d always wanted to get to know in high school but found it impossible to.

AFTER moves through lengthy and ever-present conversations, encounters, and periods of thoughtfulness. Because so much of the book occurs inside Devon’s head, it’s best for those who are patient enough to reap the rewards of dealing with a difficult, unlikable protagonist. I would almost consider it more an intense character study than a novel. In fact, AFTER often blurs the line between fiction and reality. Naming a great number of her supporting characters after real people who helped her in her research, the disarming accuracy of details such as locations and statistics… these and more contribute to the uncomfortable feeling you might get while working your way through this book. AFTER is not afraid to shake you up and make you wonder about the effects of fiction on reality, and vice versa.

AFTER is a difficult but moving read, and a great choice for adult readers—especially fans of writers like Jodi Picoult—looking for something they can love in YA fiction. show less

This book took me on a roller coaster of emotions and I think that was her intent. One second my heart went out for Devon and the next, I wanted to throttle her. I spent most of the book trying to come to terms with why and what would cause Devon to do what she did. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I was horrified by what Devon had done and felt myself making judgments before I really had all the facts. By the end of the book, I was still horrified by her actions but at the same time show more I had a clearer picture of what might make someone do what she did. I say might because my mind still doesn't want to wrap itself around what Devon did.

I still want to deny that it happens at all. But the sad truth is, it does. I think it's an important subject and like eating disorders and such, one that doesn't get enough attention until it happens to another baby somewhere in some city.

Even with the rough subject of the book, I really enjoyed it. Amy did a wonderful job writing it. I was instantly pulled in and I didn't want to put the book down. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about reading it. show less

I received After as an Early Reviewer, and quite frankly can't quite remember requesting it. When I read the line on the inside front page, 'Who would leave her baby in the trash to die?', I began to worry that I had received a book that was not going to be to my liking at all. I guess it says something for Amy Efaw's writing that not only did she keep my attention through the entire book, she also held it enough that I finished the book in one sitting!

This is not any great work of literary show more genius. What it is, however, is the honest and straight forward story of Devon Davenport, a teenager who tries to throw her baby away after she gives birth to it on her bathroom floor and blanks out afterward. She has no recollection of the birth, nor did she have any idea that she was even pregnant. Due to the circumstances surrounding the event, she is arrested and sent to a juvenile detention facility, where she is held on charges of, among other things, attempted manslaughter. At first, she can't believe that she is there, since she is obviously not like the other girls there. In typical fashion, however, she begins to see that there is more to the other girls than her initial preconceptions, and she even begins to befriend the one girl who gives her problems from the beginning. This part of the book read like an after school special to me and was highly predictable. It wasn't until Devon started to come to terms with her own actions that the story started to have some substance. The story of her giving birth is told through flashbacks, from her own point of view as she begins to remember the events of that night, and these are handled very well; Efaw does not sugarcoat these aspects of the story. As Devon matures (over the course of a week) she begins to understand that she needs to accept responsibility and accept whatever punishment is given her.

It is a well-written book and does an admirable job of expressing Devon's emotions through the entire course of her journey, as she begins to understand what it is that she has done and what the consequences of these actions will be, even if she doesn't remember any of it at all. Not something that I would have picked up on my own, but I'm glad that the book made it's way to me. show less

For Andi and 1000 other incoming freshmen at West Point Academy, the first six weeks of the summer are the Beast, an intense training regime designed to break them all down, weed the weak from the rest, and reshape them into the best future members of the US Army. Andi battles taunts from squad leaders, classmate prejudices and problems, and her ongoing issues with her messed up family, and finds out what being a cadet truly means.

Most of you do not know this about me, but I have always been show more fascinated by military protocol. For a nation that champions individuality and creativity, its military seems to be one of the last bastions of enforced conformity and groupthink. Coming from both a collectivist and individualistic culture, I can see the pros and cons of this military protocol. BATTLE DRESS was a solid glimpse into the mysterious world of West Point, although Andi’s internal conflicts were a little roughly drawn.

Creative insults and capital letters flood the pages of BATTLE DRESS, appropriate for the strict discipline surrounding West Point. I enjoyed how the book so thoroughly created the terrifyingly intimidating environment of the Beast: small details such as the different uniforms required for different activities, the time (these cadets have to get up unbelievably early), and the language really contribute to making you feel as if you were experiencing Beast too—without the ridiculously early wake-up calls and five-mile runs, that is.

So I appreciated the details that made Beast come to life for me, but felt much less connected to all the characters, including Andi. There is a sort of running conflict between Andi and her unsupportive, mentally abusive family, and Andi’s feminist side. What exactly a kind of space does a female occupy in the still male-dominated military world? Andi’s feminine roommate, Gabrielle, and a handful of stereotypical sexist squad members contribute to the theme of women’s rights in the military, but in a way that always felt very glossed over and underdeveloped.

Interestingly enough, I think this book might’ve worked better for me if it had just stuck with a straightforward presentation of Beast and not tried so hard to make Andi have complicated emotional issues. I felt like Andi’s struggles to overcome her family’s disappointment, contributing to and combined with her obsession with proving herself in Beast, lent a forced feel to the story. No, I’m not questioning the fact that she has family issues—but issues as delicate as that one need to be carefully and thoroughly developed, and I think that BATTLE DRESS may have relied a bit too much on Andi’s family’s inarguable meanness to carry that part of the plot along.

Overall, however, BATTLE DRESS will make a great read for anyone interested in West Point or the military training culture. Amy Efaw’s personal experience translates well onto the page, and the book does not disappoint in that aspect. show less