Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin

I received an ARC from Net Galley and publisher Legend Press in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a little confused because I got this book from Net Galley where is is apparently being released on the 3rd May 2018. However, Goodreads says it was published 27th June 2017. Oh well.

This is a bit of an odd read for me. Genesis (I hate that name so much) is a girl with many problems in her life-her dad died of an overdose, her mother is suicidal and her boyfriend ran out and left her at the abortion clinic. This book focuses on her dealing with the latter problem and adjusting to the idea of a life without her boyfriend. Despite the intense subject matter, this is actually a rather detached book which makes it easier reading than it might have otherwise been. The characters are okay but they don't really cross the line into feeling like real people, perhaps with the exception of Gen herself. This isn't necessarily a flaw-in a book like this, too much focus on character would have been very difficult to read and distracting from the main character. On the other hand, anyone who isn't Gen is a bit flat.

There isn't a whole lot of plot here but that's okay. I enjoyed the flashbacks to before the abortion being told through the medium of play scripts. It was a nice touch and it came across like Gen dealing with her pain through distancing herself from it by writing the scripts. I don't know if that was the intention but I appreciated it all the same.

So why isn't this rated higher? Honestly, it's mostly because of things it lacks rather than mistakes it makes. Not much attention is given to things like developing Gen's friends as characters and so when we do get vague details about them, it can be confusing. Ditto Gen's family situation. We know her sister moved out and Gen misses her but only because we are told these things explicitly. We're never shown Gen being close with her sister or missing her particularly. A similar thing happens with Peter's mum hating Gen. We get one script scene flashback but the rest is all told to us.

Overall, I don't regret reading this book. It's an interesting read and I wasn't really sure where it was going, both of which are good. It's a shame I couldn't rate it higher but it just doesn't have that life to it that makes me love a book.

Overall Rating:

.5