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Book Review: Before and After

BEFORE AND AFTER by Andrew Shanahan

4 Stars

Verdict: Unique take on weight loss and a zombie apocalypse.

Trigger warning for eating disorders and body shaming.



Ben is a soft soul struggling with mental health that centres around food. He's obese and hasn't left his flat in years. The day he's scheduled for surgery to remove his diabetic foot, the world seems to lose it's mind and turn into angry zombies. 

I didn't like this book much at first. I could tell it was quirky, which appealed to me a lot, but it took a little while to get going, and then the apocalypse angle seemed...odd. I wasn't sure about it.

The story jumps between day one of the apocalypse and Ben's weight story throughout his whole life beforehand. For a while, I only really enjoyed the flashback chapters. Here's where we really got to meet the main character and where I could understand him better. Here's where the charm and struggle of the book felt real. 

There are a couple of funny moments sprinkled throughout. Personally, I found it characterful rather than laugh-out-loud funny, but I liked Ben as the main character. There's a bit of gore which I had to shimmy on past, but overall this isn't a scary book - it's horror in premise but not in heart. 

It's the apocalypse stuff that I didn't manage to ever connect with, and I wouldn't say action scenes are the author's forte either. To be fair, none of that stuff is really the point of the book, other than to keep Ben in the flat like a manifestation of his anxiety.

After a certain point, I found it quite easy to read on to the end. I enjoyed the ending, too.

I loved the unique perspective this book provides. How different it is from others in this category. How openly it talked about mental health, and how it focuses on one specific person and their plight in a slice of an apocalypse. It took me a while to get into it, but in the end, I'm glad I read it.

Source: Received as part of the End of The World Reading Club.

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