After The End by Clare Mackintosh – a Review

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Description:
Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They’re best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can’t agree. They each want a different future for their son.

What if they could have both?

A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find.

Review:

After the End by Clare Mackintosh is an emotional standalone novel.  I have read and loved all of Mackintosh’s previous suspense thrillers, and was surprised that this novel was not a suspense, but an emotional tearjerker.  After the End is a story that she needed to write, as it was so close to her heart.

We meet Pip and Max, a wonderful couple, happily married, but life changes when their son Dylan, becomes very sick with a brain tumor.  They both help each other get through the emotional agony of watching their son go through so many operations and medicine to find a way to cure him.

As Dylan becomes sicker, with the lead doctor, saying that they need to do the unthinkable, since the tumor has grown and his survival rate has decreased, and all they can hope for a few more years. Dylan is at the point where the damage to his brain is irreparable, with him unable to talk, walk or communicate. This is where the story changes, and Pip and Max become divided. Pip does not want to see her son suffer anymore, as ‘it is not a life’, and she wants to allow him to die peacefully.  Max is the opposite; he wants to try another procedure that will bring him to the United States that will prolong his life.

What follows is an emotional journey that will tragically divide and separate our couple. A major court case is publicized, with Max using all means to get money to fight, and at the same time Pip will receive bad publicity.  Who is right?  What would any of us do?

This story has a Before and After POV; before the court case and afterwards.  The difference here is that in the After, Mackintosh gives us a what if?  Just when the court decision is to be announced, we are thrown into what if Pip wins the case, and what if Max wins the case.  At first I was confused, then I realized what she was doing, and it was an interesting and different concept.

After the End was a heartbreaking storyline that was at times depressing, as we felt for both parents.  The decision making, the division and pain, as well as the final results can very well destroy marriages. Pip and Max were a great couple & very well portrayed by Mackintosh. After the End was so well written, that even though it was heart-wrenching, it was an excellent story.  My heart goes out to Clare Mackintosh, as she had to have used her own heart break to write this emotional story.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher