I knew that AFTER would be a tough novel to read, just from the first line inside the dust jacket... "WHO would leave her own baby in the trash can to die?" 
 Before even picking up the book for the first time, I became intrigued when I saw an interview with Amy Efaw on YouTube. She explained her own encounters with what she called the "Dumpster baby" phenomenon and mentioned a few real-life cases that inspired her story. While I've read a handful of YA novels on teen pregnancy, this seemed to be such a sensitive topic that I definitely wanted to give it a try. 
 The story centers on Devon, a model student and star soccer player with a very perfectionist Type-A personality. Her teachers adore her and her coaches constantly brag about her abilities, so nobody ever expected her to be locked up in a juvenile detention center, charged with the attempted murder of her newborn baby. 
 While the novel begins right after the pregnancy and flashes back to the actual incident, the majority of the story focuses on Devon's stay in the detention center and her trial to determine whether she will be tried as a juvenile or as an adult, with the possibility of life in prison. 
 There's no doubt that the most graphic scenes are hard to read. We get glimpses of a teenage girl delivering her own baby on the bathroom floor... stashing the baby in the bathroom sink while she mops up her own blood... throwing the baby in a trash bag to hide the evidence. But, please be aware that while these sensitive scenes are difficult, there's nothing exploitative here at all. Efaw actually accomplishes what one may presume to be impossible... to give a real live human face.. one that may even inspire sympathy from the reader..to what we would assume to be the monster behind this horrific act. 
 I think I'd describe AFTER most as a memorable book... one that I would definitely recommend to anyone.