After the Fall by Kate Hart - NO

Hart, Kate After the Fall, 321 pgs. Farrer Straus Giroux, 2017. $17.99. Language: R (163 swears, 6 'f');  Mature Content: R (underage drinking, drug use, crude language, sex, rape) Violence: PG-13  

Raychel and Matt have been friends for a long time, but recently his feelings for her have been changing and he'd really like to tell her.  Of course, it doesn't help that his brother is making a play for her and she seems to be interested.  Then there's Carson, the guy she hooked up with at a party, so everything is complicated now.  They aren't connecting like usual, and something happened the night of the party that she won't talk about.   

I had a hard time getting through this book.  It had the potential to connect with readers as the issues addressed are serious and the fallout is heartbreaking but the characters have very little depth, are annoying and I just didn't care.  I found myself just trudging along trying to get through it.  What a disappointment.  The first half of the book reads like a journal entry -- what I did my senior year --the second half reads like a lecture covering way too many serious topics to do any of them justice.  It feels as though the author is trying extra hard to be edgy, current and political.  Also, I didn't care for switching back and forth between Raychel and Matt's perspective, sometimes several times on a page.  It was frustrating and distracting. The mature content might fit better with older readers or a public library, but in combination with everything else, I cannot recommend this book.    

NO. Reviewer: RB