My library now offers electronic loans of audiobooks, and I've started borrowing them to listen to during my newly adopted workouts. The browsing interface is still rather awkward unless you're looking for a specific title, but I did manage to stumble on this audiobook, which had a description that fascinated me. An infant left in the trash to die. A teenage mother who never knew she was pregnant . . .Before That Morning, these were the words most often used to describe straight-A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hardworking, mature. But all that changes when the police find Devon home sick from school as they investigate the case of an abandoned baby. Soon the connection is made-Devon has just given birth; the baby in the trash is hers. After That Morning, there's only one way to define Devon: attempted murderer.And yet gifted author Amy Efaw does the impossible- she turns Devon into an empathetic character, a girl who was in such deep denial that she refused to believe she was pregnant. Through airtight writing and fast-paced, gripping storytelling, Ms. Efaw takes the reader on Devon's unforgettable journey toward clarity, acceptance, and redemption.In truth, I was irked by the idea that it's "impossible" to sympathize with a teen in such a desperate situation. I did, however, suspect that such a description would lead me to some excellent writing. After is one of the best executed instances of a close-third point of view that I can remember in all my history of reading. In truth, it felt closer than first person could have, if only because some readers would have thrown up mental barriers against being in the head of, in the words of one of the other characters in the novel, a "psycho". By taking that slight step back into an excruciatingly close third, Efaw strips the layreader of such protests (unconsciously as they may be) and draws more protesting readers than I into the frightening, frustrating world that Devon inhabits. The plot centres around not fifteen-year-old Devon's trial, but her first days in custody and the question of whether or not she will remain in the juvenile system or be tried in adult court. If found guilty as a juvenile, she could be held until she was twenty-one. If tried as an adult she could spend her life in jail. Notes on the reader:Rebecca Soler contributes in no small part to Efaw's already excellent writing. With exquisite attention to detail, she delineates the many people, new and familiar, in Devon's life, down to the detail of two characters who, within five seconds, give alternate, background-specific, pronunciations of the word "route". I shall have to see out more works with her narration.
