After the Fall
Kate Hart
Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt's bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn't even seem to realize she's a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn't want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family's eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn't really get it… and he'd never understand why she's fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NOV 7, 2016
High school seniors Raychel and Matt have been best friends forever, and any day now, Matt is going to tell her that he loves her. But while he's dawdling, his younger brother, Andrew the designated screw-up to Matt's responsible A student makes his move. In addition to the questions of brotherly rivalry, secrecy, and family dynamics introduced by this turn of events, Raychel is also struggling with a nonconsensual sexual encounter and worrying about her future, since there's no money for college. Hart's debut novel has a lot going for it well-defined and believable major and minor characters, in particular as well as a lot going on. The book takes up consent, slut shaming, issues of class and (to a lesser extent) race, unrequited love, and competition between siblings and then adds a tragic accident and the resulting guilt and fractures. Although it can feel overloaded as a result, Hart holds it all together and closes with an ending that retains a measure of hope without becoming unrealistically perfect. Ages 14 up.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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