Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Animal death, grief and loss depiction, implied PTSD and imprisonment of a father, child abuse
Score: Seven points out of ten.

I never heard of this one till now. It was difficult to get a hold of The Road to After since no libraries I know of had a physical edition of this book. However, one library had an eBook edition of this, so I immediately wanted to pick it up. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem like a heavy, yet intriguing read. When I closed the final page of The Road to After, it was enjoyable.

It starts with the first character I see, Lacey, who has to escape her home after her grandparents arrive to pluck her from her abusive father. She and her mother go to a new, yet temporary place to live in called Caring Unlimited, where people can try their best to recover from their traumas. The opening pages feature Lacey and her mother staying at that location, but Lacey still remembers the trauma she had to experience living with her father. It's almost like she has childhood PTSD, but I don't know for sure. No child should experience that. The writing style is okay, but I appreciated the simile and metaphor usage. For a story that falls short of 200 pages, it packs a punch, a brilliant example of what happens when the author utilises every single page rather than filling pages in with insignificant events. I thought The Road to After was emotional and hard-hitting, but ultimately, it was hopeful as it shows Lacey moving on from the events in the past. ( )