My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi

My Life After Now 

By Jessica Verdi

Published April 2nd, 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire

304 pages

4.5 stars - Awesome!

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.



Review:

Wow. My Life After Now is definitely a thought provoking read. The main issue in this book is a big one and really encourages the reader to think about the characters and real life. I was completely emerged in the book and read it in a day. 

In the beginning of the book we get a feel for how the regular Lucy is, before she has the worst week ever. She's a nice girl, confident, and loves the world of drama. And she doesn't have any worries besides if she's going to get the role of Juliet or not. Then we watch as Lucy's world slowly falls apart, one problem at a time. Lucy doesn't handle things very well in the beginning and ends up making a mistake that will change her life forever. She finds out that she has contracted HIV. After that things get pretty difficult for Lucy but soon she realizes that with support and a positive attitude, she can handle anything. 

Like I was saying before, Lucy is a nice girl and was easy to like as a main character. It was easy to feel for what she was going through because after just one mistake, her whole world is turned upside down. Throughout the book we watch as Lucy matures and learns more about the disease that she'll have to deal with for the rest of her life. She learns how to deal with her issues and how to trust others with such huge information. Lucy has two dads and I loved both of them. They were super supportive and it was great to watch her relationship evolve with them throughout the book. Then there were Lucy's two best friends who are fantastic as well. Another character that I enjoyed for most of the book would be Evan. I won't tell you who he is exactly but he is a friend of Lucy's. There were a couple other characters who I was not fond of, in fact they really bugged me. But for the most part Lucy had some amazing people in her life and it was great to watch her realize it.

I really enjoyed this book and I don't think there was much to complain about. You can tell that Verdi did extensive research on HIV/AIDS and I really appreciated that. It made you feel as if you really knew Lucy and could feel for what she was going through and what she would have to go through. My Life After Now is an eye opener. You are able to read what it's like for a teenage girl to go through something so life altering. Getting to read about some of her family members or friends reactions was interesting and real. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I loved how it made me think and empathize with the characters. There were some great quotes throughout the book and the ending was awesome. I recommend this book to anyone and I advise you read it now if you haven't. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Vanessa