Review: My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication date: 2nd April 2013
My rating: 3.5 stars.

 

Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it's all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of. And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family? Now her life is completely different...every moment is a gift. Because now she might not have many moments left.

My Life After Now first captured my attention because of the mystery which was blurbed surrounding our main character Lucy, she seemed to have a happy life, but something happened to cause everything to tumble down around her. I had a few ideas in my mind of what this could be, but was surprised to find out what the big mystery turned out to be. 

I have to praise Jessica Verdi for tackling this taboo topic in her story in the first place. I don’t think I’ve come across a novel which places this issue in the forefront of their story. It was truly an eye opening experience getting into our protagonist's head when she had to go through such a rough ordeal. And despite having a strong support network through her parent’s, best friends Max and Courtney and boyfriend, it just goes to show you how this issue can quickly cut off the support around you. Some chose not to support Lucy because they were scared for themselves, whereas Lucy also lost some friends because she wasn’t knowledgeable on the subject and so shut everyone down. I know that if I was in Lucy’s shoes I would feel like my life had become pointless, so cutting everyone off would have probably have been my first response too. And as Lucy felt ashamed to confide with anyone about her issue, (the rights and wrongs had been drilled into her for so long), and she had slipped up, it’s no wonder she immediately jumped to the worst case scenario. It was a tough time for Lucy at first, and Verdi portrayed well just how isolated an individual could feel. 

On top of that Lucy had to deal with the unexpected arrival of her pregnant mother, her ex-boyfriend being in love with the evil Elyse St. James and the school play where the most important scene, her co-star wouldn’t even come close to her. I admired Lucy’s character, as things at times did get extremely bad for her, but she tried to hold her head up high and battle on. It’s at times like these you truly discover just who your true friends are and I’m glad Lucy was able to realise which ones she could hold onto forever and which she should have dropped a long time ago. 

My Life After Now was a beautiful read, but also a truly insightful one. Authors take note; novels such as My Life After Now not only leave lasting impressions, but are also able to build knowledge and insight into issues many individuals try to bury their head in the sand about.