Aftermath

by Brian Giffin

A school girl and a rebel biker join forces to escape the turmoil of a world upended by a devastating alien plague. From gun battles with rival gangs of desperate renegades, encounters with demented cult leaders and the terrifying threat of enormous wildfires, Tahnee Goss and Talon Willis are forced to rely on each other to survive as civilization collapses.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2006

Reviews

[Books Ring Mah Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

So here's the situation: complete nerd restaurant owner loses his job after boys from two local high schools square off in the restaurant parking lot. The brawl leaves one of the boys brain damaged. While this could make for a great story, it fell short. There was a plot there, but it never seemed to materialize, and I think it was in part to the weakness of the characters. Somehow, they all felt very flat, forced, or unreal. It's pretty difficult for me to get into it when the people I'm reading about seem like literary cardboard cut-outs. Not even wax models, just cardboard.

Take Casey, the dumb manager. He can't seem to do anything unless the restaurant handbook tells him what to do. Maybe that's why he stands there with his thumb up his butt while the fight unfolds in front of his very eyes.

Casey's girlfriend appears out of his league. Intelligent and way hot. A teacher at the local high school. It makes no sense why she's with him. (I imagine him referring to the restaurant handbook looking for tips on dating and cunnilingus.)

The waitress is the beautiful girl trapped in a white trash life. She plays an important role in the story. That's all I'll say about that.

The brain damaged guy, Colin, is the sexy/rich boy/jackass jock. Seriously, he's such a dillhole his mom doesn't even like him. Until his head gets bashed in. Then he's all four year old innocent and sweet.

The character the author got just right, the one character that rang true for me was Colin's mother, Lea. Her response to her son's injuries was heart breaking and accurate as hell.
Lea says of the brain damage:
The phrase [mind like a 4 year old:] was also misleading. When Colin had been four, there had always been hope of five, of ten, of twenty-one... "Four years old" implied a set place in the continuum of a life, a signpost of childhood, a marker to be reached, experienced and passed in the course of a year. But Colin would be "four" forever...

There's also a particularly painful scene where denial meets rage and she smacks Colin, screaming, "I know you are in there!"

In Lea, the author captures the range of emotions a family faces when dealing with such a devastating change. Particularly the emotions of a mother hoping/grieving the loss of her son.

The rest of the story left me unimpressed, but left me with this: would I be willing to break up a brutal fight? Would I stand by while someone was beaten?

I hope like hell I never have to find out.

[Jason Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good obscure novel by a lesser known author. Shawver is a creative writing instructor at Missouri State University, or was as of the book's publication in 2006.

[Recynd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot goes wrong for the characters in this book. It left a strange after-taste (the aftermath of Aftermath?).

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in a day, distracted only by the Patriots game and making dinner. I had grabbed it off the shelf impulsively, with no expectations, knowing only that the main character was castigated for not reporting a beating that he saw in progress. I had a hard time putting it down.

Make no mistake, this isn't a book that leaves you all warm and fuzzy. It's one of those books that leaves you shaking your head, and one you want someone else to read right away so you can talk about it.

After just a bit of background to help the reader understand what was going on in Casey's head, the author got right down to business and laid out the rumble that changed his life. In the rest of the book, we got to know Casey better as he searched for what was behind the incident, kind of selfishly looking for someplace else to lay the blame. We also got to know the victim's mom, as she looked for clues as to why this happened to her son.

I can see why some people said it was slow, because you're not really sure why you're being led down the path. Casey is not a likeable guy. At no time do we ever feel sorry for the victim. You don't even really know for some time whether there really is more to the story, or if it was just the classic tale of townie versus preppy.

That tale is one that I know well, having gone to school in a college town, and I thought the author did a good job of laying out the class issues that framed the whole book. Casey grew up on the poor side of town, but he followed the rules, worked hard and had a good job that he did well. The mom, Lea, was married to a doctor who had also grown up on the poor side of town, but worked hard academically to get where he was. Their son was an arrogant jerk that did what he wanted - and they let him get away with it because they couldn't control him.

It all felt very real to me. I wasn't crazy about the twist at the end that tied up the threads with a bow, but I did enjoy the journey, as I enjoy any book that isn't simplistic and makes me think, and I'd like to read more from this author.

[Ktbird · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a fight in a restaurant parking lot and a high school boy suffers significant injury. As the characters struggle to understand why this happened, all is not as it seems. Although there were parts of this book I would rate higher, the punchline is too dark and the characters were not all that compelling.

[ECCJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a dark book. Not much joy, but interesting all the same.

[chinchilla domination · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's pretty bad. Only part I was really into was how the mother was with her son Collin after the incident. I am only reading it because I want to find more about the mother and the son. I do not care for the old "man" or whatever his name was that worked at O'Ruddys and then got fired because he didn't do anything about the kids fighting. The book progressed pretty slowly.

[Allison Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read Russell Banks' Affliction, but this book reminded me a lot of Banks' The Sweet Hereafter. (In fact, I could have sworn I saw the comparison somewhere, but endless Googling tells me I must be crazy. I probably saw Banks' name and linked it to his other novel.) Shawver's novel seemed like a more modern telling of The Sweet Hereafter, which explores a town's emotions after a bus crash kills or injuries many of their children. In Aftermath, the town boys are divided and fight in a local restaurant's parking lot until one boy is critically injured. The book is told from two different points of view - the restaurant manager's, and the injured boy's mother. I love how diplomatically Shawver presents both POVs, so at times you're on each character's side, hating the other. He makes it very hard to pick sides in the way you traditionally would when reading such a news story, because he delves into the characters and makes them seem completely real. Each time I'd end a chapter, I'd convince myself to read just one more. It was very compelling.

I'm still rolling the resolution around in my head. It didn't come out of the blue, but I think there could have been a little more foreshadowing, or even just a few details stressed more in the beginning that would have made it seem like less of a jump. As it was, the resolution didn't shock me either way - I wasn't disappointed by it, but it didn't really "resolve" things like I thought it would. Still a great book, one I will re-read.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Casey Fielder, manager of the local O’Ruddy’s restaurant, allows a fight between the privileged St. Brendan’s kids and those from the public high school to escalate, his inaction puts him at risk of being charged with negligence. As a result of the fight, Colin Chase has suffered brain damage. Shawver alternates between Casey and Colin’s mother Lea as they both investigate the circumstances behind the fight. Casey has been fired and in exploring the reasons for the fight hopes to find absolution for his inaction. Lea, on the other hand, searches her son’s past out of the guilt she feels for the type of person he was becoming and assumes a great deal of guilt for his past actions.

Aftermath is not a happy read (or I would be able to say I really liked it or even that its amazing), but it is a powerful exploration of guilt, grief, class differences, and how they all intertwine with our legal system. This book would be a good choice for book discussion groups.

[Laura Ramon Galva · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Chapter 1-7 It was January. Casey likes hardwork he's proud of his job. He loves Friday nights because more people come and he feels happy having alot of people. He onwens a restaurant called O'Ruddy's. Man I couldn't believe when I read that people were allowed to smoke in his restaurant. They gain 8 thousand dollars on evenings. Casey allways followed the manager notebook. I think his really diligent in this chapter. i TOO FOUND OUT THAT HE PUTS GOLD BOND just to not smell Sweaty, THAT'S GOOD OF HIM.They put latin songs in the dinner/restaurant.Jenny is the other character of the book I think shes dramatic. There was a huge fight bettween two school: Breeds Township High School and ST Brendan High School.Casey had a Honda Accord. One of the the kids that was severly hit on was Colin Chase.

[Chase Blessington · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting and written fairly well. The only reason that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped was due to the extremely long and slow beginning. Aftermath was a book of tragedy and hope but started off immensely boring. Maybe it was due to the environment in which I was reading but I had a hard time getting into this book and therefore rate it around two, maybe three stars.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very complicated, lots of moral issues to ponder. There were no good guys, but there were people trying to do the right thing. It's a good book to read and then argue about with someone else

[James Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't find a single likeable character in this entire book. Not one. And, the slight twist that you find out towards the end kind of cheapens the story and makes it seem less realistic. Yet, somehow I enjoyed it. I liked the writing and the way the story was told by different POVs.

[Sevastian Jimenez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ridiculously boring. I would recommend this book to anyone who has too much time on their hands. It was a slow pace for me and not my type of story. It is a typical predictable story. All of the characters.

[JoAnn/QuAppelle Kirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compelling story, but a weak and contrived premise that created a major flaw. The further away I got from the book after I finished it, the less I liked it!

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A parking lot fight at a chain restaurant in a small Pennsylvania town provides the backdrop to look at how the outcome affects various characters. A very good read.

[Ivoree V]

Ive learn the main topic of the story, who's the main charecter and the bad guy good guy thing. i like the book so far it really interesting.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange kind of detective story. Very thought-provoking.