What Comes After

Given that suspense/mystery works aren't my genre-of-choice, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed Tompkins' riveting, twist-filled tale. It's masterfully told in a captivating way from multiple perspectives, a structure that keeps the narrative moving at an impressive pace.

What Comes After is a novel both heartbreaking and filled with hope. Following a tragedy that leaves two families and a community devastated, a broken teenage girl emerges from the woods and into the lives of those who are grieving the unimaginable loss of their sons, Daniel and Jonah. Evangeline is a girl who has been abandoned by a mother who chose drugs and men over her. Evangeline has lived a near-feral life scavenging for food until she is evicted from her ramshackle home. Knowing both Daniel and Jonah, she heads toward Daniel's home seeking refuge where Daniel's father and his dog live. Knowing she is pregnant adds an urgency to her quest for food and shelter.

Issac is a devout Quaker, a man of few words and few expressed show more sentiments who wife left him prior to Daniel's death. His near neighbor is a single mother, who is left with a daughter, Nells, after Jonah's death. The neighbors' lives become entwined after Evangeline's arrival, and both suspect that one of their sons is the father of her baby. As the relationships grow, their profound grief is replaced with grace and understanding.

One of the most powerful moments in this book is the death of Issac's dog, Rufus, who has an uncanny understanding of the human heart. Ironically, his death corresponds with the onset of Evangeline's labor. This is a novel that I will remember for its depth of the ultimate love these people and this dog had for each other. show less

“Humans are forever picking their heroes and villains in waves of reversing fashion. Though at times—and this has happened not only with some pit bulls but with all manner of people and entire countries—we name our villains and then treat them in such a way that they prove us prophets.”

Isaac Balch, a high school teacher in the seaside town of Port Furlong, finds sixteen-year-old Evangeline McKensey alone and sheltering in the yard behind his home and takes her in. Evangeline, abandoned by her mother, is homeless having previously lived in a decrepit trailer with her mother and is pregnant and has had to resort to desperate means and measures to support herself. Isaac, a Quaker in faith, sees in her a lost young girl who needs show more help and out of the goodness of his heart decides to assist her in every way possible. Isaac whose wife left him a year ago is still reeling from the recent death of his teenage son Daniel who was recently murdered by Jonah, their friend and neighbor Lorrie’s son who was Daniel’s school friend and who later committed suicide. We also find out that Evangaline was no stranger to Jonah and Daniel – a fact that she initially keeps to herself. As the story progresses we get to know more about Isaac, Jonah and his mother and sister and the community they shared. We see how Isaac, Lorrie and her daughter Nells, Evangeline and Rufus (Daniel’s pet dog) deal with the aftermath of the horrific tragedy, accept the irrevocable changes in their lives and their relationships and learn to co-exist in the best way possible - learning to live with the guilt and pain of their shared loss and forging new bonds from forgiveness, compassion and acceptance.

What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins is an incredible debut novel that revolves around family, grief, guilt, acceptance, kindness, faith and forgiveness. The author touches upon issues such as child and sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and suicide with the utmost sensitivity. The prose is elegant, the narrative is engaging and the characterizations are absolutely brilliant. The narrative is shared in chapters alternating between Isaac’s and Evangeline’s PoVs with a few chapters from Jonah's final days narrated in his voice. Isaac’s grief, reflections on what he perceives as his shortcomings as a parent, and his kindness towards Evangeline were beautifully written as was Evangeline’s story as she shares her distrust, confusion and the pain of adjusting to life with a child on the way while adjusting to a new town among strangers she whose kindness she is forced to accept. Jonah’s narrative was simply heartbreaking with his complicated friendship with Daniel, his dysfunctional family dynamics and his guilt over his crime that pushes him to take his own life. Each of these voices is distinct and congruent with the profile of the characters crafted by the author. However, I felt that Lorrie’s character should have been explored with more depth and though we get to know some details through Jonah’s narrative,the author could have given a voice to Lorrie and her struggles with her abusive late husband, Jonah’s crime and subsequent suicide, her guilt over her son’s actions and the ensuing strain in her friendship with Isaac. This is a complex and powerful story that will evoke strong emotions and though it might not be the easiest read, it is well worth the time invested.

“You can see the crimes that people commit, see them in their clear brutality, and yet someday, somehow, forgive. It might be the only way. How is forgiveness of what is not acknowledged forgiveness at all?” show less

TW/CW: Death of a child, murder, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, child prostitution, suicide, graphic death of (more than one) dog, complications of pregnancy, bullying

REVIEW: I did not like this book. Look at the TW/CW to figure out a lot of the reasons why. When I chose this book from BOTM, I thought it would be some kind of mystery. That is not the case. There is no mystery in this book. Instead, this is a weepy, overly verbose treatise on faith and grief that seems to want to find out just how depressing a book can be and still get people to read it.

While I did enjoy finding a book that actually spoke of ~my faith – something that rarely happens – and was mostly show more pleased with the portrayal of Quakerism (although not entirely), that was about the only thing I liked about this book. The writing was good, although way too flowery and very repetitive.

I did not like any of the characters – I couldn’t relate to any of them even vaguely and it didn’t seem like any of them really grew or changed in the over four hundred pages of mental anguish that everyone went through.

I do not recommend this book. show less

Told from three POVs, What Comes After is a powerful book, especially so for a first time author. (1) Evangeline, a pregnant teen, has been abandoned by all so has developed a tough exterior, is untrusting and is in desperate need of love and support. She is the central character in the seminal events of the book: a killing and a suicide; (2) Isaac, a devout Quaker and father of a boy killed in his teens, abandoned by his wife, and also seeking companionship, especially when his closest friend is alienated, guilty of unconscionable acts short of murder; and (3) the ghost of Jonah, who was Isaac's son Daniel's neighbor and good friend. Jonah's character is raw and vulnerable, and I personally did not care for his perspective. Jonah's show more mother (Lorrie) has a complex relationship with both Isaac and Evangeline, and Isaac's/Daniel's/Evangeline's dog Rufus is a wonderful companion: loyal, true, and sensitive to human needs. show less

Isaac is alone, his wife has left him, his son tragically dead, his dog his only companion. Alone until a sixteen year old pregnant teenager, Evangeline appears at his door. He is a Quaker, a religion that is used to helping those in need. Through this young girl he will learn things about himself, the death of his son and the strength of his beliefs.

An amazingly mature and well written debut novel. From the beginning we know what happened, what the characters do with this knowledge, how they move on is the story. I learned so much about the Quaker religion of which I had known little. We hear from one of the dead boys on his last days, from Evangeline we learn her back story and more of the recent pass and from Isaac we learn his show more grief, his doubts, inner turmoil.

A strong novel about the family we make when we have lost the families had. There is also a wonderful dog, and a bittersweet, heartbreaking story about this loyalist of companions.

ARC from Edelweiss. show less

Tompkins has written an intense debut novel set in a small community on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It is a mystery as well as a novel about how we deal with grief. Daniel, a high school senior has been killed by his friend and neighbor, Jonah. Jonah then commits suicide leaving no clue who he murdered his friend. Daniel’s father, Isaac, is a Quaker, who after Daniel’s death takes in an abandoned pregnant 16-year-old. Isaac wonders if either Daniel or Jonah is the father. Told from the characters’ different perspectives. Those told by Jonah are particularly difficult to read. Jonah’s mother, a widow, helps Isaac with Evangeline, the pregnant teen. As the story unfolds the truth slowly comes out. For me, the most show more thought-provoking chapters are the ones told by Isaac as he struggles with his Quaker faith and his look and good and evil. Its eventually, forgiveness and human connections that help ease the pain. show less