BEFORE AND AFTER YOU AND ME

A teenage artist struggles to balance new circumstances with old comforts in Woodburn’s YA novel.

High school sophomore Emma Mason, a talented artist, gets a scholarship to Wabash Academy in Indiana. She’s spent all her life in Buenaventura, California, and has great relationships with her parents; her best friend, Céline, whom she’s known since she was little; and a new boyfriend, Hunter Murray. After starting her junior year at Wabash, she experiences serious growing pains and wonders if her connection to faraway Hunter, which feels “strained and off-kilter,” and to Céline will survive the distance. When a shocking event occurs during Emma’s winter break in Buenaventura, the sensitive painter realizes that she must decide where her loyalties lie. The Before in the title seems to imply that the novel will include accounts of before Emma became Hunter’s girlfriend, but only one chapter, explaining their meet-cute, qualifies as such; it actually refers to Emma’s mindset regarding their relationship before the pivotal event. Woodburn helpfully clarifies this early on, alternating chapters between the Before and After timelines, with the life-altering event as the firm nexus. The After chapters progress chronologically forward while the Before chapters progress in reverse, ending when Emma and Hunter began dating. It’s certainly a clever conceit, and it adds a layer of complexity to the proceedings; however, it also adds a layer of fragmentation that jarringly ricochets the reader between time periods. In this charged tale of teenage romance, friendship, and identity formation, though, Emma’s tone of self-reflection and warm-heartedness keeps everything on track.

A creatively told tale of emotional and personal growth.