Taylor Before and After

December 1, 2019
A Hawaii teen charts life before and after the catastrophe that's reshaped her world. Three years ago, Taylor's family (presumed white) left Oregon for Oahu, where her mom's clinical depression and the friction between her dad and brother, Eli, a high school senior, have worsened. Eli skips school to hang with his surfing brahs and girlfriend, Stacy, partying, drinking, and driving to the North Shore to surf. Eighth grader Taylor escapes into social networking, fantasizing about a career in fashion. Thrillingly befriended by wealthy, stylish Brielle, whose manipulative ways are patterned on reality TV, Taylor allows Brielle to coax her into abandoning one friend and betraying another. Taylor's responses to classroom writing prompts--dating both before and after the catastrophe--comprise the text. Like Brielle, Taylor's turned winner-take-all competition into her life template. Triumphant outcomes are transmitted and amplified through social media, but so are humiliation and tragedy. Publicly scrutinized by indifferent strangers, they prove deeply isolating. If the shape of the plot's defining events at first seems withheld capriciously, the technique pays off in a powerful story charting the evolution of a life-shattering night and its aftermath. Oahu's dizzying contradictions, from shabby to glorious, and cultural events such as Bon dances are carefully rendered and, like the Hawaiian orthography, largely accurate. Though character names and actions convey Hawaii's uniquely mixed, multiethnic population, physical descriptions are disappointingly few. A resonant look at coming-of-age in a socially networked world. (Fiction. 11-15)

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February 1, 2020

Gr 4 Up-A story is told in journal entries that flash forward and back in time involving an unnamed tragedy. Taylor lives in Oahu. Transplanted from Oregon three years earlier thanks to her father's new job teaching at a college, Taylor's family has not found the move easy. Her mother, who experiences depressive episodes, now does not get out of bed. Taylor's brother, Eli, and her emotionally distant father are in conflict. Eli has discovered surfing and cuts class in order to find the perfect wave. Taylor has had trouble fitting in, but is happy when the seventh grade alpha female grants her entry into her circle of friends. The disjointed narrative in this compelling debut shifts between "before" to "after," and is appropriately disorienting. Readers slowly piece together what Taylor herself is barely able to articulate. Her dysfunctional home situation leaves Taylor with no mooring. Both parents are emotionally unavailable and her beloved brother has betrayed her. Taylor herself can't help but be affected by the fallout and makes some poor decisions. But she is resilient and introspective. VERDICT Readers will root for Taylor as they read her honest musings. Mild swearing and the sophisticated structure of this fascinating coming-of-age story make this better suited for a thoughtful upper middle grade reader.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ

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