Reviews of After the Kiss

(Starred Review)

Camille has been forced to move, once again, due to her father's job, and she's unhappy in her new Georgia home. Becca is a hometown Georgia girl who's frustrated that her time with her adored boyfriend, Alec, becomes more and more limited when she has to get a job and Alec starts baseball season. A lonely and restless Alec finds his emotions reflected in Camille, whom he meets at a party. When he kisses Camille, Becca's friend captures it on her cell phone camera, and Becca breaks her own heart and his by breaking up. While Camille knows nothing of Becca, Becca recognizes her rival when she comes into the coffee shop where she works, but the story doesn't go in the expected direction of angry confrontation; instead each girl works out her various sorrows and confusions on her own. Camille's perspective is conveyed through prose poems, while Becca employs more traditional short-lined free verse to trace the path of her heartbreak. The poetry is richly allusive, with particular entries smartly and self-consciously modeled on poems by Pablo Neruda, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens among others, and the imagery is often startling with an originality that exhales into a perfect aptness for the experience. This is more than simply a language-lover's edition of traditional chick-lit fare, however; the back-and-forth interplay of perspectives calibrates the delicate edge between the poignant yearning for intimacy and the psychic need for separation, as Becca grows beyond a need to hold on to a love truly lost, and Camille lets go of the fear that's driving her away from a love that might have a chance.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 2010

McVoy's (Pure) roots are showing—in a good way. A love of language, literature, and the city of Atlanta, where she lives, pervades her sophomore novel, a thoughtfully wrought coming-of-age story. Camille, whose second-person narrative is light on punctuation and heavy on metaphor, has moved all over the country with her parents and is starting her final semester of high school in Atlanta. She tries to avoid creating attachments, but is having trouble getting over a boy in Chicago. Another senior, Becca, who tells her story in free verse, lives for her jock/poet boyfriend, Alec. Camille connects with and then kisses Alec at a party, unaware that he has a girlfriend. The aftershock of the kiss affects both girls, but this rich story also encompasses their struggles with family and friends, as well as their respective journeys of self-discovery. McVoy's prose is confident and adventurous—some of Becca's poems are styled after her favorite poets ("The only empress is the empress of gossip magazines")—and while not every stylistic gambit pays off, on the whole it's a fresh, observant story. Ages 14–up.

Publisher's Weekly, May 25, 2010

In alternating sections, Camille’s and Becca’s poetry describes their senior years, their anticipation of future plans, and their romance with the same guy: Becca’s long-term boyfriend . . . Though the kiss mentioned in the title doesn’t happen until past the 100-page mark, the girls’ stories on their own are interesting enough to keep the reader turning pages to find out just how the two girls, who do not initially know each other, are connected. . . . The two poets have distinctive styles and voices: Camille writes observant, second-person prose poems, while Becca is more traditional, even mimicking some of her favorite poets, such as Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop. This gives the narrative device a more natural feel . . . and helps the book stand out among novels in verse.

Heather Booth, Booklist, April 2010

Becca is just another high school senior, counting down the days to graduation and college and passing her time with her boyfriend Alec, the one guy that truly gets her. Camille has been dragged across the country and back again multiple times thanks to her father's job, and she's miserable in her new Atlanta home. Thoughts of her old home in Chicago—and the boy she left behind—won’t stop haunting her. Camille doesn't know Becca, but she gets to know Alec...and when they share a kiss that Becca's best friend witnesses, neither Becca nor Camille will ever be the same again.

Terra Elan McVoy's striking second novel examines the power of one kiss and its many ramifications. After the Kiss alternates between the points of view of the two characters: Becca's perspective is told in many lovely, inventive, and diverse poems that are fun to read and showcase McVoy's talent nicely, while Camille's portions of the story are more emotionally grabbing. They are in second person, and she lacks capital letters. This style is unusual, but it embodies Camille's confusion and her detachment as a coping mechanism perfectly.

Though the girls have very few physical encounters throughout the book, their stories flow together seamlessly. Becca's new job, which forces her apart from Alec, helps her mature and the experiences she faces help her to obtain the confidence she needs to talk openly with her mother and plan for her future. In a world where everything is interchangeable--homes, schools, friends--Camille wanders around without any sort of purpose, but she finally learns to open up to others and slowly comes to the realization that goodbye for now doesn't necessarily mean goodbye forever. Each girl's journey is entertaining and profound, and the best part is that McVoy doesn't force you to take sides. Instead, she demonstrates that people are never what they appear to be, despite their actions and what little information you may know about them.

After the Kiss isn't so much about romance and Alec as it is about growing up and all the problems and triumphs that come with that process: figuring out your own problems, coming up with the appropriate solutions, and making peace with others. This is an extraordinary novel about letting go and holding on that you won't easily forget.

Cover Comments: Though this cover gives you the impression that the book will be lighter and more romantic than it really is, I love it! The pink on blue is very pretty, and I like the how the candy hearts and the title all gravitate toward the bottom of the cover. It's a very fresh, neat effect!

After the Kiss will be available on May 4th, 2010!

The Compulsive Reader, April 19, 2010

OPINION: 4 STARS

This is a beautifully woven take on a love triangle type situation, pitched through alternating points of view that are connected in an invisible way. Though it took me a little to really get into the novel, it was well worth it. Camille and Becca have separate lyrical styles, one more prose than the other but it certainly helps paint their overall unique perspectives.

The pacing, first and foremost, is unique and endearing. Some events that are classically elaborated on in most books are instead surpassed here, letting the reader know what happened without going into detail. Things rush unexpectedly before slowing again, helping to create the overall feeling of being overwhelmed with events and unsure how to respond. This particular facet did not come across as choppy, instead drawing the reader in more and forcing attention to keep up with the sometimes rapidly occurring events.

Despite the two points of view, there is little retelling and choppy overlap and changes. These are two separate stories, twined together because of Alec without either girl knowing the other before his actions. Even after said kiss, the two girls remain strangers, showing the mayhem on each side and pitching each in a vulnerable, victim type light without one girl being particularly in the wrong over the other, at least within each perspective.

Though this book is in lyrical form, each girls' personality comes out strongly, creating the overall picture of who they've become over the years, their home life, and their habits and drives. McVoy does a phenomenal job keeping them separate yet together, allowing the kiss to take place early in the book and showing in sometimes great and other times vague detail the aftermath.

The most notable aspect of this book is the manner in which McVoy chose to bring these two girls together, putting them face to face despite what happened and continuing to play the events out. Her final outcome was surprising and beautifully played, as was Alec's ultimate ending of the story. Despite the dual perspectives, McVoy brought forth each girl's mentality and pulled the reader in to them through her strong writing even in a lyrical setting. With the many unique elements added in, even with a commonly used love triangle type premise, McVoy has created something that will stand out and engage the reader.

Kari (Flamingo1325), A Good Addiction, April 20, 2010

Told in split-point-of-view from both Becca (verse) and Camille (second-person stream-of-consciousness), Terra Elan McVoy’s novel examines what happens when two girls have to climb outside of their own heads and deal with their actual lives. This novel is an exploration of not only the aftermath of an ill-advised kiss, but an exploration of what comes after first love, first heartbreak—and perhaps more important—after high school. Subtle, smart, and never too didactic, McVoy’s story is strong contemporary YA.

Although it’s a strong story in general, it’s not perfect. Camille is hard to get to know as a character. Her stream-of-consciousness is off-putting at first, and there are often too many words used, requiring the reader to really dig for the essence of her meaning. Becca’s verse is mostly successful, but there are times when she slides into the slightly nonsensical. Both girls have distinct, authentic teenage voices, which is essential for a story as narrative-driven as this one is.

Although it would be easy to allow this story to devolve into a basic cat-fight over a rather uninteresting boy (the boy is kept bland on purpose here), McVoy doesn’t allow it to happen. Instead, she crafts a complex tale about two girls who are complete strangers with a single event linking them. A complicated, tenuous relationship forms as a result, and it never feels forced or unrealistic. The story’s ambiguous ending helps add a feeling of realness to it as well.

It’s also worth noting that McVoy populates her story with literary references that are delightfully unobtrusive: readers in the know will revel in them while those who aren’t familiar will be able to let them slip by without missing out on the meat of the story. This reader loved, loved, loved them. Recommended. This is a slow-burn of a read.

Clementine Bojangles, Early Nerd Special, February 23, 2012