After the Fall

By: Brad Graber

Narrated by: Kebba Button

Rikki, a teenager being raised by her grandmother in Queens, has a secret. She can't remember her mother. Whenever Rikki asks her grandmother about her mother's death, the older woman refuses to answer. Desperate to learn the truth, Rikki finds a hidden album with family photographs. Can the boy in the picture with her mother be a long lost uncle? Determined to unlock the mystery, she embarks on a journey to meet Harry, a writer who is struggling with his own issues of identity.

From the award-winning writer of The Intersect comes After the Fall, a fast-paced, engaging listen, with twists and turns that will surely surprise. After the Fall: an emotional roller-coaster of a mystery packed with personality and charm. Once you start the journey you won't be able to turn back.

©2018 Brad Graber (P)2019 Brad Graber

slow

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
It is very hard to get into, slow to start. Connfusing, the story seems to jump around, you never know who is telling the story next.

Interesting story that takes time to warm up

I was fortunate to request and receive a complimentary copy of this audiobook from the author and am voluntarily leaving this review. After the Fall is an odd book that I took a while to warm to. There's a lot of unhappiness in it: Teenager Rikki is unhappy in the sheltered and generally emotionally cold life she shares with her grandmother in NYC. Writer Harry, who lives thousands of miles away, is lonely and way too old to have still not found comfort in his own skin. What the two have to do with each other remains unclear until far into the novel. Life being what it is right now, I was sorely tempted to put aside all this unhappiness in favor of something more uplifting. But I stuck with it, and the last third of the book is quite beautiful and sensitive. I had not read much about the book before listening, nor did I study the cover. Doing either might have enlightened me a bit, but I'm glad the story unfolded itself to me organically. Stick with After The Fall. You won't regret it.

After the fall

This was very good. Rikki can not remember her mother. She has been wiped from her grandmothers house as if she never lived.What she finds out on her way to finding her mothers story,is the story of a family torn apart by horrible predjudice. Narration by Kebba Button was okay.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

An Journey from Start to Finish

When I first started reading this, there were characters that I was unsure of, not sure why the way they acted they way they did. By the end I got a clearer picture, and I really understood them. Don’t be wrong, it didn’t excuse some of their past actions but it did make me understand them.

Sometimes I did forget that this book was set in 2005, until some really relevant references made me remember oh yeah, this was a person of belief in 2005 and not really in the current day.

The ending, when we figure out was happened to Rikki’s mom was just heartbreaking, and it made me tear up a little. It’s just sad, no other way to put it. At least, the ending was hopeful for most of the characters.

The only negative thing with the story is that I really didn’t like the little bit of music at the end of the chapter. It kind of took the attention away from what had been going on with the story.

Overall, I would rate this 5 stars.

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Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left a review.

a difficult darling to embrace

I requested and received an audio review copy of AFTER THE FALL and this review has been written voluntarily by me.

OVERALL — 2½ stars
This was a difficult book to get into and it seemed to take a long time for things to happen. There was a lot of talking without much happening. At one point after a lot of talking, then one of them said "Come, sit. Let's talk", I rolled my eyes. (I know that is a cliche, but this book itself uses that phrase, among other cliches). Maybe the problem is that I'm a guy and I like more action than jibber-jabber. And the names Rikki and Rita seemed too similar, especially since so much of the first half of the book has them together in scenes.

PERFORMANCE — 2½ stars
I recommend listening to this with the speed set to 1.25 at least so that it will sound like a normal pace. I suspect Kebba Button was reading it so painstakingly slow so as not to make a mistake (which is not allowed in Audible recordings). Somehow the emotions of the characters didn't come through. And when, for instance, "Elle sighed", there was no sigh in the words Elle said. Basically, the book sounded "read" versus "performed".

STORY — 2½ stars
I suppose the most difficult thing for a writer to do after finishing a book is to reread, revise and cut words... because, over the course of time writing it, the words likely had become like a lover to the author. Unless a writer is willing to "kill their darlings" – so to speak – their published book won't become a darling to readers. Ironically, the most important aspect of the story (what I believe is the true darling of Brad Graber's work) does not come until the final half of the book, but because the earlier darlings were not laid to rest many readers will not make the effort of getting to that point and understand why the book was written at all.

Then again, maybe (as I suggested earlier) the problem was with me—that I'm a guy—because this book (especially the first half) borders on being chick-lit. So take my review of AFTER THE FALL with a grain of salt.

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My rating scale:
1 = Junk! (dumpster worthy) // 2 = Poor // 3 = Good (average) // 4 = Great // 5 = Excellent! (award worthy)