PDF Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books
PDF Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books
Download As PDF : Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books
A mother being dragged ever deeper into the icy waters of depression. A daughter who finds a devastating secret about a shadowy past buried in her mom’s dresser. And the key to unlocking a long-hidden family mystery that could save or destroy much more than their two lives.
Fourteen-year-old Molly worries about school, friends, and her parents’ failed marriage, but mostly about her mother Elaine’s growing depression. Molly knows her mother, who shuts herself off from human connections and instead buries herself in the lives and deaths of the strangers she writes about, is nursing her own carefully-kept secret. But in Elaine’s raw and fragile state, Molly knows not to pry too deeply.
Until her Uncle Stephen is thrust into the limelight because of his miracle cure of a young man and her mother can no longer hide behind other people’s stories. As Molly digs into her mother’s past, she finds a secret hidden in her mother’s dresser that may be the key to unlocking a family mystery dating to 1918 New York—a secret that could save or destroy their future.
Between Before and After is
- A riveting YA story told in dual narratives during the flu epidemic in 1918 New York City and 1955 San Jose, California
- An historical coming-of-age novel about the complex bonds between mothers and daughters.
- Written by award-winning poet, novelist, and teacher Maureen McQuerry
- Perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Laurie Halse Anderson
PDF Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books
"I am equally charmed by Maureen McQuerry’s Between Before & After as a book and as a story. As a book, you can tell right away that Between Before & After is going to be a lovely and intricate story. The cover sketch is a key - with letters, pigeons, a typewriter, all sorts of clues - in shiny gold leaf woven into it. Even the typography helps convey the complexity: Chapter One is introduced in different fonts for the chapter number, chapter header, chapter setting date and place, and the character point of view. Lovely little dinkuses throughout the book – a bird on a branch, a key, fleurons setting off passages - speak to the care with which the book has been crafted.
As for the story, Between Before & After is the story of three pairs of siblings. One pair we know well – Hansel and Gretel. Their story is interwoven in the stories of the other two pairs of siblings: a woman and her brother, Elaine and Stephen, and her two children, Molly and Angus. We hear first from Molly, speaking in first person present, but the overarching story is that of her mother, Elaine. Hearing the story largely from Molly’s point of view immerses us in the mystery of Elaine’s struggles. We don’t know why Elaine behaves the way she does, or feels how she feels, or struggles as she does. Molly’s interactions with her brother Angus and her best friend, Aricelia, feel normal and familiar – but Molly’s relationship with her mother feels clouded by emotional distance. Between Before & After is the exploration of that distance, weaving in and out of the times and places and people of Elaine’s life.
In chapters from Molly’s perspective, McQuerry gives the reader mere glimpses of Elaine’s relationship with Molly and Angus’ father and Elaine’s strong sentiments regarding the church and miracles. In chapters told from Elaine’s perspective, we learn more about her challenges growing up. Hers was a hard life, with poverty, disease, and death, starting with the devastation of the 1918 influenza epidemic. It’s in the telling of the story back and forth in time that we come to understand the linkages between past and present; keeping faith and living in the world; and the relationship between a mother and her child. Molly tells the story of her childhood in trying to understand her mother, but in Between Before and After, we come to understand how Elaine has survived her own childhood.
Now that I know, I need to go back read it all again!
[Review originally posted on Goodreads, based on ARC.]"
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Tags : Between Before and After (Blink) (0025986767389) Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books,Maureen Doyle McQuerry,Between Before and After (Blink),Blink,0310767385,Brothers and sisters,Brothers and sisters;Fiction.,Dysfunctional families,Family problems,Family secrets,New York (N.Y.) - History - 20th century,San Jose (Calif.) - History - 20th century,Secrets,Secrets;Fiction.,Single-parent families,Single-parent families;Fiction.,Young adult fiction,EVENT / Summer Vacation Reading,Fiction-Historical,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,TEEN'S FICTION - COMING OF AGE,TEEN'S FICTION / HISTORICAL,TOPICAL / Teen,TOPICAL / Women's Interest,United States,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Coming of Age,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Orphans Foster Homes,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Parents,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Historical / United States / 20th Century,Young Adult Fiction/Coming of Age,Young Adult Fiction/Family - Orphans Foster Homes,Young Adult Fiction/Family - Parents
Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books Reviews :
Between Before and After Blink Maureen Doyle McQuerry Books Reviews
- I so enjoyed this novel! Mc Querry seamlessly shifts Elaine and Molly’s intertwined stories from 1919 New York to 1955 San Jose and then back again, contrasting the stark, haunting persona of the Spanish flu and gray poverty of the streets of Brooklyn with the prosperous, carefree, idyllic California of the ‘50’s. Imagery drawn beautifully, charming characters, and stories about clever brothers and sisters melding from past to present are underpinned by a beautiful retelling of a familiar fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.
- “The year Uncle Stephen performed a miracle, all our lives changed.†Between Before & After starts with this promise of change and then plunges into the messiness of life of secrets, of broken relationships, of skepticism. In one first-person thread, Molly, a curious 50s San Jose teenager, seeks to know her mother’s secrets. In the other third-person thread, her mother, Elaine, survives tragedy as a young girl in Brooklyn This novel is a lovely and realistic examination of life that leaves “a little room for miracles.â€
- I very much enjoyed this book and found it difficult to put down until finished, just wanted to keep turning the pages to see what would happen! Great story of resilience and determination to make things better. The author's writing makes it easy to envision what that period was like also. Would definitely recommend this book
- Every page kept me desiring to know what would happen next. Beautiful imagery and a well crafted story that I didn't want to put down.
- Now, I'm always interested in stories that connect different times in the past. Usually I like when they are related to more of major historical events, but this one had its own connections that definitely kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering where it would all go, and how it would all connect. As we followed through the mother, Elaine's time period, there were so many things going on in her life that it kept me guessing and catching clues for paths to try to figure out just what the major secret she was hiding from her daughter was. I started to figure it out a bit, once we learned of the crush Elaine had, but how that all turned out wasn't the exact path I'd predicted in my head, and I love how an author can keep you guessing, and even when you start to figure it out, still have surprises left for you in the end! I liked how even though we had Molly's Uncle Stephen who was very religious, and then her mother who was not happy with god, all of that was done without seeming to force the reader to feel one way or the other. Definitely a great mystery and also a good family story. It was fun to read about a trip to the very first McDonald's in their town back in that time period and compare it to what the fast food restaurant is today. Now, I can't give a specific quote, in case anything changes in the final edition of the book, but there was one line or bit that I really, really liked. A part where one of the characters said that a good story isn't written to teach a lesson. Anything that the reader learns is through what they identify with in the story. Also they said something about there being something in the human heart that needs a story. I believe all of those things are true. At least for me, and the books that I read.
- I am equally charmed by Maureen McQuerry’s Between Before & After as a book and as a story. As a book, you can tell right away that Between Before & After is going to be a lovely and intricate story. The cover sketch is a key - with letters, pigeons, a typewriter, all sorts of clues - in shiny gold leaf woven into it. Even the typography helps convey the complexity Chapter One is introduced in different fonts for the chapter number, chapter header, chapter setting date and place, and the character point of view. Lovely little dinkuses throughout the book – a bird on a branch, a key, fleurons setting off passages - speak to the care with which the book has been crafted.
As for the story, Between Before & After is the story of three pairs of siblings. One pair we know well – Hansel and Gretel. Their story is interwoven in the stories of the other two pairs of siblings a woman and her brother, Elaine and Stephen, and her two children, Molly and Angus. We hear first from Molly, speaking in first person present, but the overarching story is that of her mother, Elaine. Hearing the story largely from Molly’s point of view immerses us in the mystery of Elaine’s struggles. We don’t know why Elaine behaves the way she does, or feels how she feels, or struggles as she does. Molly’s interactions with her brother Angus and her best friend, Aricelia, feel normal and familiar – but Molly’s relationship with her mother feels clouded by emotional distance. Between Before & After is the exploration of that distance, weaving in and out of the times and places and people of Elaine’s life.
In chapters from Molly’s perspective, McQuerry gives the reader mere glimpses of Elaine’s relationship with Molly and Angus’ father and Elaine’s strong sentiments regarding the church and miracles. In chapters told from Elaine’s perspective, we learn more about her challenges growing up. Hers was a hard life, with poverty, disease, and death, starting with the devastation of the 1918 influenza epidemic. It’s in the telling of the story back and forth in time that we come to understand the linkages between past and present; keeping faith and living in the world; and the relationship between a mother and her child. Molly tells the story of her childhood in trying to understand her mother, but in Between Before and After, we come to understand how Elaine has survived her own childhood.
Now that I know, I need to go back read it all again!
[Review originally posted on Goodreads, based on ARC.]
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