Reviewed: “After Annie” by Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen’s novel After Annie doesn’t come out until March 2024 but the hype for it is already building… it should be noted that I’m writing this review in November 2023 because I got hooked by the hype and had received an advance copy of Quindlen’s latest novel so I just finished it. I should also state, perhaps, that I’ve never read anything by Anna Quindlen that I’m aware of, so my interest in this novel was maybe a bit different than it might be for others.

Angsty novels are my addiction, and the NetGalley blurb promised angst.

That about sums it up.

And After Annie delivers on that count, absolutely.

It is, as the title so succinctly says, the story of a family after the death of Annie… wife, mother, sister, friend.

Annie’s children are young when she dies suddenly, before the age of 40, and that makes the story all the more heartbreaking. Her childhood best friend struggles to stay afloat now that she’s lost the anchor who kept her from spiraling into addiction again. Her only daughter becomes a surrogate mother of sorts to three younger brothers before she’s fully a teenager. Her husband is forced to find a balance where he can grieve for his wife and do more than simply exist for his children.

The detail Quindlen put into all of this, the world without Annie, even creating vibrant characters in the residents at the nursing home where Annie worked as a CNA who adored her and mourn for her death when they know they should have passed first, is stunning and powerful.

I can’t give After Annie five stars, though, because I think things get almost carried away in the end and go too far. This is especially true with her daughter Ali’s friend Jenny who tries very hard to convince Ali not to talk to the school therapist after Annie’s death because, it later turns out, she is the victim of sexual abuse by a family member and is afraid. While that particular aspect of a story is one that’s all too common in society, I don’t think it was handled with the care and respect it should have been handled because it didn’t seem to be much more than a way to give Ali a reason not to trust someone who could help her.

It would be worth it to read Jenny’s story and Ali’s story would have stood just as powerful without the abuse subplot.

In the end, After Annie is a very good story of family and heartbreak and healing. So if that’s the sort of thing you like to read, I definitely recommend this one.

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What are some angsty, heartbreaking books you love? I’m always looking for angsty, heartbreaking stories!

(I received a copy of After Annie through NetGalley and Random House in exchange only for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)