ALL THE TOMORROWS AFTER, by Joanne Yi, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)
A Korean American teen agrees to accept money from her estranged father in exchange for letting him get to know her in All the Tomorrows After, by Joanne Yi.
Each night, Winter Moon counts her earnings dreaming of escape. Once she’s saved enough, she and her grandmother can finally take flight and disappear. But when her spiteful mother steals her money and blows through it all in one day, Winter is forced to turn to her estranged father, who recently reappeared in her life after being absent for more than a decade. They agree upon a simple contract: she spends time with him in exchange for payment.
It’s not easy reconciling the past and the present, though, and when she’s struck with a sudden loss, Winter flounders in grief and rage. The only person offering a hand is Joon, the new boy at school who sees Winter when no one else does.
When Winter discovers a secret her father has been keeping from her, things get even more complicated. As she navigates grief, first love, and forgiveness, Winter begins to forge connections, new and old, that make her question everything: her future, her conviction to disappear, and what it really means to be family. Winter knows that broken things can never be fixed, but can they come back together in a different way? —Synopsis provided by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Sometimes a book really speaks to you. For me, All the Tomorrows After is one such book. The sticking point for me was the diagnosis of ALS for one of the main characters. While my husband does not have ALS, he does have a neurodegenerative disorder that will progress similarly, although at a slower rate. More than once, I found myself reading late into the night, in tears, comparing notes with my little family.
Author Joanne Yi, whose own father had ALS, captures the complicated emotions and challenges surrounding this type of disease with such clarity and heart. You mix in the other challenges Winter is facing — grief, estrangement, a mother who is there in body only — and you get an emotional and heartfelt novel with real staying power.
Winter is a character that many a teen will relate to. She dreams of traveling, getting away from her situation and seeing the world. She’s smart, smarter than most people would give her credit for. She’s creative. She has been shaped by Korean culture and food, and isn’t ashamed of it. She loves her grandmother unconditionally. She hurts deeply. She’s perfectly flawed and far from perfect.
All the Tomorrows After isn’t a fast-moving read, but that’s OK. Yi’s slower pacing allows you to sit with moments and work to understand both the characters’, and your own, emotions. It isn’t a particularly happy story, but it is hopeful and leaves you better off than before reading it.
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