week 12, After

Amy Efaw, the author of After, chose the title for After for many reasons. One is because the book is set after Devon Davenport’s pregnancy. After her pregnancy, she has thrown a baby in a dumpster and realizes the effects of her actions. Her actions have led her to jail and a court date. During her time in jail, which takes place after the police find the baby in the dumpster but before the court date, Devon thinks of everything she has done and how her life could have been different if she had not met Connor, the baby’s father.

This book is also called after because of the way Devon thinks. She is thinking of her consequences after the baby was born. What would things have been like if she had known about her pregnancy? Would she have kept the baby still? She has all these thoughts going through her head that it is hard to think straight. As she sits in jail and thinks about That Night, things start to connect. She sees that she could have known that she was pregnant, but she may not have wanted to see it. She does realize that something was wrong with her, but she did not know until That Night. These consequences are one of the reasons the novel is called After, too.