Afterwards by K M Kendrick

 

2024 

upper secondary  Key Stage 4, ages 14 -17, Kendrick Karen,  afterlife, dystopia, teen pregnancy,     

Girl is dead.

She knows she is dead because she remembers dying. The afterlife is not what she had expected – she has awoken into a nightmare, in which everything seems hell-bent on killing her all over again. She is the only one who remembers what life was like before death and she has no idea why.

Also, Girl is pregnant and that shouldn’t be in this setting. The birth of the baby will change everything about this world. It may end it. 

The only way to beat the game is to keep moving forwards, even if it means the end of the world.

We get to the end of the novel. The baby is born. The world changes but doesn’t end. There may be a sequel.

Boy is ordered to kill her but in the end he doesn’t want to. Ali becomes at once her friend and her protégé. His presence in the novel shows a softer side of Girl.      

Grim in places, Karen Kendrick’s Afterwards is also fast-paced and emotionally challenging. It is a larger font novel with 296 pages.  

 

Find your copy here 

Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

2001, first published 1991  

   

Helen writes letters to her unborn baby – hence the “Dear Nobody” of the title.  The novel begins  on the day Chris is about to start university when he receives a parcel.  It contains all of the letters that 

Helen has written to the baby.  Chris reads through them and realises that their child has been born. He rushes to visit mother and child.   The story ends as Chris write s from his student room to his daughter Amy.

This is a story of an unplanned teen pregnancy.  We have little detail of how Chris and Helen become parents but there is a hint of a romantic scene and unplanned love-making.  We do get a few reality checks as Helen faces some of the physical realities about pregnancy. There is no happy ending.  We do not find out what happens to Helen and Amy after the birth. Chris decides he is not yet ready for fatherhood.

The story is told through the letters to the unborn baby and the flash backs they cause for Chris.  Thus the voice alternates between the two main characters.

It is a little dated: they use landlines and talk about cassette tapes. The chapters are quite long compared with a 21^st century book.    

The book is 234 pages long, in blocked text and in an adult font.   

 

Find Your Copy Here  

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.