SuitabookTaylor Before and After
Jennie Englund
- Reading
- Read alongside the young person if helpful, pausing to distinguish what Taylor chooses from what happens to her. Discuss social-media pressure and family strain without requiring immediate judgements.
- Themes
- Growing up under public scrutiny: Taylor escapes into social networking, is drawn towards a popular new friend, and encounters the amplified effects of triumph, humiliation and tragedy. The book appears to question winner-take-all social values by showing both their attraction and their isolating consequences.
- Family strain and substance use: Taylor’s mother has clinical depression; her father and older brother are in conflict; her brother’s story includes partying, alcohol and drugs. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Loss, change and hope: Taylor’s life is divided into before and after a catastrophe, and she struggles with fear, anger, despair and the search for hope after great loss. The book treats continuing through hard times and reaching towards hope as meaningful, without promising a conventional happy ending.
- Worth knowing
- Expect discussion of depression, alcohol, drug abuse, tragic accidents, grief, social humiliation, family friction and friendship betrayal; the alternating structure may initially feel disorientating.