Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: After the End
AUTHOR: Alex Kidwell
NARRATOR: Gregory Salinas
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: October 31, 2014
LENGTH: 7 hours, 43 minutes
BLURB:
After Quinn O’Malley loses his partner of ten years, Aaron, to cancer, he withdraws from everything. In a single tragic moment, he goes from an artist with a loving partner and a future to an uninspired comic book store owner who barely exists. He hides behind a shield of grief, refusing to let Aaron go. He feels guilty for even trying to imagine a life apart from what he’d had.
The charming party planner Quinn’s best friend insists he meet on a blind date isn’t someone he’s ready for. Brady Banner walks into Quinn’s small frozen world and turns everything upside down. For years, Quinn has focused on endings, but as Brady begins to thaw his existence, Quinn realizes that one moment can do more than stop a life—it can also start a new one.
REVIEW:
Before starting this book I, actually read the blurb – for once. I also fully expected the story to leave me an emotional and sobbing mess. So I put it off, kept reading others before this one. Until now where this was the last one left on this particular list. I need to be in a certain mood to fully appreciate highly angsty books. I love them, but I also need to be ready for them.
Almost immediately I realised I was not going to be crying or sobbing. I just wasn’t connecting to this story or the characters. In general I did not really feel this book, there was a wide distance between us. And not all of it was due to the reader/listener being told about events and feelings instead of being there and feel them with the characters.
This story opens up in the middle of a blind date between Quinn and Brady. We weren’t there for the introductions or the basic get to know you part, so our main characters have a bit of a head start. I think that might be one of the reasons for my disconnect. Because supposedly they’d met for the first time only that night. Yet based on some of their interactions and comments it almost seemed like they knew each other and well. I mean Brady knew how Quinn would react in any given moment this innate knowing that comes from knowing someone inside and out – well part from the ex-partner thing. Which was also kind of strange. None of it felt genuine, it felt off somehow.
I did appreciate that the author showed that everyone grieves differently and on different time tables. At the same time Quinn’s grief felt too raw and fresh sometimes, especially for two years having passed. Personally I feel that someone who’s still that deep in grief is not ready for something serious. I mean Quinn basically had shrines dedicated to Aaron, still had all of his things and clothes, and thought of him constantly. It didn’t feel healthy. I could get behind moving forward and starting to live again, but doing it by starting to date didn’t feel sound, especially since it wasn’t his idea or step in the first place.
I was also not really fond of the narrator, or rather reader Gregory Salinas. There was no natural flow of the words, there were too many small pauses for that and it ended up sounded choppy and mechanic. There was no way for the listener, or at least me, to be swept away and be immersed in the story. I also missed and hint of real feeling or change in tone or intensity in his narration, so all in all this was a bit of a miss for me.
After the End could have been a beautiful and moving story about love and loss and starting over. Sadly it fell short in both the execution of the story and the narration.
RATING: 
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