{Release Day Review} After the End by Clare Mackintosh (@claremackint0sh @PutnamBooks)

Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son. 

What if they could have both?

A gripping and propulsive exploration of love, marriage, parenthood, and the road not taken, After the End brings one unforgettable family from unimaginable loss to a surprising, satisfying, and redemptive ending and the life they are fated to find. With the emotional power of Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, Mackintosh helps us to see that sometimes the end is just another beginning.

​Pip and Max Adams were never happier than when their son Dylan was born.  He was a vibrant curious little boy who made everyone he came in contact with smile endlessly. And just before he was to turn three, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  
 
Now Pip and Max are faced with a decision that no parent should ever have to make – continue to seek experimental treatment that may only extend his life for a year or maybe just a few months or to let him go. 
 
As shattered as she is, Pip watched Dylan’s tiny body endure so much and she doesn’t want him to suffer any longer. But Max wants to continue to fight for more time.  If they can’t agree, the NHS and courts will step in to decide Dylan’s fate. And the world as they know it will never ever be the same.

​In a few moments, the doors will open, and the next act of Dylan’s story will begin. No matter what the judge’s ruling, Max’s and Pip’s lives will be irreversibly changed today, and Leila knows they will forever question the choices they made in the weeks leading up to the hearing. But when you stand at a crossroad you cannot see each destination, only the beginnings of the paths that will lead you there. All you can do is choose one, and walk, and hope that someone will walk with you.

​After the End is one of the most beautifully devastating books that I have read in quite a while.  Told in alternate points of view and from different choices made, Clare Mackintosh gracefully captures the hollow pain of loss and the sparks of hope that drive us on. 
 
I understood both Pip’s compassion and Max’s determination. How each desperately wanted a different outcome.  Their struggle was so poignant that I found myself on the verge of tears after almost every page.  And I will never forget how it felt to stand with them – even if it was for such a fleeting amount of time…

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
​~ Robert Frost

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