I picked up After You on a bit of a whim the other day – it seemed like a relatively light read, which I was in the mood for. In that respect, it didn't disappoint. It's the story of Ellie, a thirty-five year old woman from Boston, whose best friend Lucy is murdered in a tony London neighborhood in front of her 8 year-old daughter Sophie. Ellie, who is at a crossroads in her relationship with her husband, flies to London – for several months – to help take care of Sophie and process her friend's death. While there, she is forced to confront the problems in her marriage and learns about some problems in Lucy's marriage that she didn't know about.
I had heard of Julie Buxbaum before I bought After You. She is a fellow Harvard Law School alum who, like me, appears to have left the law for greener pastures. Her first book, The Opposite of Love, got good press, and I was curious to read one of her books. While I enjoyed After You and found it readable and compelling, I also thought it was kind of predictable. I don't want to give away too much, but there were some plot twists that seemed cliched to me, like I have read them before. Ellie was also frustrating to the point of irritation at times. I don't have to like all the characters I read about, but if I can't understand why they are acting as they are – if even they don't even seem to understand what they are doing – then I get turned off. There were also some plot points that got short shrift here. They had the potential to make the book more interesting – Lucy's double life, for example – but were left relatively unexplored.
I liked the London setting and Buxbaum's clear, fluid prose. i just wish she had taken some more risks with this book and gone in some directions that didn't feel like well-traveled paths.
I just did a search for other reviews of this book, and am finding that I am in the minority here. Several bloggers whom I respect a great deal – such as Heather from Book Addiction and Swapna of S. Krishna's Books, enjoyed After You a lot and had very positive things to say about it. So you might want to check out their reviews to get a balanced view of this book.
Relax, FTC, I bought this one myself at the Strand.