This was a fabulous book. Elena heads to Puerto Rico to find her father who has gone missing four months after Hurricane Maria. This book is about family, family secrets, identity, found family, mental illness and a journey to find the meaning of home. The writing in this book is so gorgeous. I really enjoyed how the author told this story in the present time and then the past narrative went backwards in time.

This is my third novel of Franqui’s and I feel like very few do family drama as intimately as she does. After reading the acknowledgements, I know how personal this book was to her.

Elena is a Puerto Rican Jewish American, an only child of divorced parents struggling with her own identity and place in the world. Her father suffers from devastating mental health issues and that is a large part of the narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this digital copy.

After The Hurricane is an absolutely heartbreaking story however also shows the power of family, resiliency, and discovering the truth.

The story follows Elena, who travels back to her estranged father's home country Puerto Rico, after receiving a phone call from her mother that he is missing. The island is still recovering from Hurricane Maria and much of the island is still in ruins. Once there, she begins to learn and unravel all the mysteries and details of her father's life, and a family she didn't know anything about.

I'll say, I liked the story. I wasn't hooked on it, and I didn't want to put it down, but it wasn't something that I felt excited about reading while I was in it. To be honest, it moved way too slowly for me, bouncing between Elena's story and her father's background. I found her father's story compelling but was confused at times. It seemed like it was constantly jumping around to various ages instead of being linear. Looking back, I do think his story is more or less way from close to the current day to the day he was born, but it still jumped around too much for me.

Overall, it was okay for me.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

Elena Vega studied history in graduate school. Ironically, she knows very little about her father’s background outside its broad strokes: Santiago Vega was born in Puerto Rico, then grew up in New York City with his mentally ill mother after his own father returned to the island. A brilliant student, Santiago received a scholarship to attend Stanford then went to Yale for law school. But mental illness exacerbated by alcoholism eroded his relationship with his wife, Rosalind Goldberg, until she divorced him. He could not even maintain a relationship with his daughter. Finally, he retreated to Puerto Rico, and Elena has had no contact with him.

Shortly after Hurricane Maria, Rosalind tells Elena that Santiago is missing and asks her to look for him. It is almost a relief to leave her tedious job managing corporate properties, but she is shocked to see the damage left by the hurricane and horrified at the state of her father’s house.

Armed with photo albums she found among her father’s belongings, Elena travels around the island meeting relatives and her father’s old friends and learning about his past in the hopes of locating him. Through her journey, she witnesses the devastation weather wrought on Puerto Rico while discovering what the island means to her.

Told both from Elena’s point of view in the present and Santiago’s through flashbacks, 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘦 considers identity, intergenerational trauma, the impact of shame, and the meaning of success. Although internal monologues often dominate Elena’s sections, the mystery of Santiago’s fate provides a compelling forward momentum to the narrative. Franquil’s phrasing is impressive; her words are a delight to read even when expressing painful truths.

After surviving Hurricane Maria myself I was super hesitant on reading about a subject that still feels super uncomfortable. Thank God I was pleasantly surprised with a complex yet raw story about searching and finding your Puerto Rican roots. Was interested in learning more about this quest of Elena of trying to connect with her family while looking for her disappeared yet troubled father, and also understand Santiago's point of view. You can put into perspective not only the daughter's life, but his past before alcoholism, his terror of being a father and the possibility of madness taking over him, just like her mother. Got a little frustrated with Elena and her "demands" on understanding why her dad was "abandon" by her grandfather, felt super out of the blue.

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for my copy of After the Hurricane!

Pub date: 8/9/22
Genre: literary fiction, family drama, ownvoices
In one sentence: Elena's father Santiago goes missing after Hurricane Maria, prompting her to return to Puerto Rico to untangle the mysteries of his life - and decide what she wants from her own.

I've read a lot of character-driven books recently, and this was a great addition to the bunch! I enjoyed the alternating perspectives of Elena and Santiago as their family history unfolded. The writing flowed so beautifully, and I found myself underlining various passages in my copy. If you enjoyed Black Cake or Of Women and Salt, you might like this one too!

2.75⭐

The premise of this book had so much potential as Elena searched for her dad in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and uncovered his past, but unfortunately, the narrative's pacing and style made for a tough read. I found it easy to put down this book for days because there was not much forward momentum in the story and the narrative changes and flashbacks did not help this. An excellent concept, but this book just did not work in execution for me. I'll keep an eye out for future Leah Franqui books!

Hurricane Maria caused devastating damage to Puerto Rico in September,2017. I was on a cruise in April, 2018 and spent the day in old San Juan. The author brought back vivid memories of the city when Maria arrived in February 2018. Maria, the daughter of divorced parents, has taken vacation time to travel from New York search for her father who has been missing since the hurricane. His house is a disaster. To me, it represents the plot of the story..what can be repaired,…..Most of the story is told through Maria’s eyes as she searches for her father, Santiago (Junior). She travels and meets people from her father’s past (friends, and family members). Interspersed are chapters dedicated to her father’s past. I especially enjoyed her father’s friend Diego’s story and the story of Santiago’s high school teacher who served as his mentor. The author is an excellent writer. She explores mental illness and it’s effects throughout the story. In my opinion, the story could be shortened by curtailing Elena’s cousin’s blog entries and reworking the last few chapters of the book. My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.
3.5 raised to 4 stars

I was provided a free advanced copy of this book from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This story follows Elena Vega on her journey of discovery. After Hurricane Maria hits her "native" Puerto Rico, her estranged father, Santiago, goes missing. She travels to the island to find him, find herself, and hopefully piece together her history.
This was a bit of a slow burn and I struggled initially with connecting to the storyline. However, as the story progressed I became more and more invested in discovering Elena's history, as well as Santiago's story. I liked the way that we found out bits and pieces of Santiago's story in a backwards timeline interspersed throughout. It helped fill us in with his life as Elena was learning about it too.
I recently read Infinite Country and saw a lot of similar themes of identity within a culture, people group, and country of residence. It was interesting to read about those topics again, with new perspectives. Elena struggles with her Puerto Rican heritage as she never lived there, struggles speaking Spanish, and knows very little about her family. As she discovers more about her father, the island, and her own personal history, she begins to better understand the identity struggles she has been dealing with into adulthood.
I would definitely recommend this book and also think it would be a great book for a book club as there would be a lot to discuss!
Luckily for you, I was a bit late in finishing this and it was published yesterday, so you can already go grab it and start reading!!
#NetGalley #AfterTheHurricane

Incredible! I thoroughly enjoyed "After the Hurricane" by Leah Franqui, a magnificent, heartfelt novel about Puerto Rico post hurricane Maria, as well as a family drama. I really appreciated the sensitive depiction of mental health, identity crisis, examining cultural roots, and the enormous impact of family dysfunction. Added mystery for a missing father and uncovering the past, this book was just phenomenal. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the early reader copy, all opinions are my own.

I was lucky to receive a copy of After the Hurricane by Leah Franqui from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. This is the first book I've read by this author and I will say I will be adding her to my list of must reads going forward. This was a very well written book with lots of details about Puerto Rico and a woman named Elena and the search for her father. You will be drawn in immediately and unable to put it down. Do yourself a favor and read this the first chance you get.

After the Hurricane is a beautifully written novel about family. Told in two different time periods and almost feeling like two different stories yet they are so similar. The story is a heartbreaking journey of a daughter looking for a father and so much more.

Thank you to William Morrow, NetGalley and Book Club Girls for this ARC.

I really loved this book. I liked Franqui's "America for Beginners" but this is a level up. "After the Hurricane" tells the story of Elena, a cautious young woman, in search of her volatile, estranged father, who has gone missing in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. In her quest to find him, Elena finally learns more about the enigmatic man and how the island, which she infrequently visited growing up, plays a such a large role in her life and her heritage.

At points, I did struggle with the fact that Santiago's story was being told backward, but by the end I appreciated the circular nature of the entire narrative, almost like a hurricane's twisting winds.

In the author's note, Franqui says she tried to write this as a movie script at one point and while I am glad it is a novel, I bet this would make for a great screen adaptation in some form!

Elena is searching for her father Santiago and, in the search, also finds herself. Told by both Elena and Santiago, and in two timelines, it's the story of how the past, a tough past, can affect a family. Santiago's story is one of alcoholism, poverty, and mental illness but also of pulling himself out of those things and into a family with his wife and daughter, until he just can't. He's kept that past from Elena, and, since he went back to Puerto Rico six years ago, they've been estranged. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Terrific atmospherics and good characters make this a read many readers will appreciate.

I loved that this gave a beautiful description of the Island. I just couldn't find myself totally invested in the main character or the family history.

Elena Vega reluctantly, painfully, heads to Puerto Rico in search of her father, Santiago Vega, Jr., who has disappeared. Puerto Rico is still in the early stages of trying to clean up and recover from Hurricane Maria, and Elena's increasingly detached relationship with her father over the previous years, not only makes the search difficult, but adds to the deeply untethered inner self against which Elena constantly struggles — almost unaware.

Ravaged by nature, the island itself is a hollowed-out reflection of Elena herself. Over the years, she has learned very little of her father's past — even her mother (before and since their divorce) honored Santiago's desire to begin life anew, fresh, and disentangled from his history. As Elena tries to gather clues, for relatives both living and dead, her pain at having been so resolutely fenced off from her father's past becomes increasingly painful, reinforcing her feelings of being unworthy and not belonging.

Franqui has constructed a story with which I connected deeply — some areas more than others — and I found myself slowing down to savor this journey of self, through which Elena stumbles, gaining footing as she goes. Franqui's writing is beautiful, and though she focuses on pain and longing, she also takes the time to turn the page just a little and show the beauty of living. The pain of the blindingly bright, white light that hurts your eyes just as you emerge from some of the darkest tunnels in life.

Not only did I love the story Franqui told through Elena and her father, but also the world she created between the triangle of an only child and her two divorced parents. The triangle of New York, Puerto Rico, and the limbo that exists between two worlds for many children of the United States. Ravaged by nature, the island is both beautiful and painfully sad. Elena, ravaged by the lack of the kind of nurturing she most needed and desired, begins to slowly recognize parts of herself she thought either didn't exist or she found lacking. This duality of beauty through destruction and how Elena's experience and current thoughts were mirrored alongside that of Puerto Rico's post-hurricane state was almost perfect. My one issue was the depth to which Franqui doled out the mirroring information about the history of Puerto Rico itself — reflective of Elena's discovery of her family's history and her father's past.

Through a cousin's blog, Elena learns about the island's history — and I think this was a bit of a momentum-breaker in the story itself. Franqui transfers this info-dump into the story by way of Elena reading the blog entries, which are simply displayed within the body of the book. While the story itself was already a slower-paced, character-driven tale, winding its way across the island because of Elena, these pauses to inform the reader of history of the island and its people were a little long and a little too on the nose. However, pushing beyond these pauses, I could certainly appreciate how easy it was for Elena's hunger for information anywhere she could get it — so empty was she of it otherwise.

Elena's journey across Puerto Rico is one of simultaneously searching for her missing father and searching for herself. She discovers relatives and friends of her father's she never knew existed; she clears out his house that has become nigh on unlivable with accumulated clutter; she reassesses what she thinks she knows about her father and who she thought she was. And, at the end, Elena's journey is simultaneously complete and just beginning — beautifully open to being rebuilt.

This is my first novel by Franqui, but I'm absolutely going to check out her other books.

This is a story of finding yourself in the history of your ancestors. It is not really a coming of age novel but a coming of self. Discovering who you are based on who your parents and their parents were as individuals and as a group/family. The characters are deeply flawed and realistic. The setting, as much a component of the identities of the characters as their regrets, fears and longings. Not a happy novel but a profound one.

An interesting read. The main character is trying To find her father and also his past. It’s back and forth between revealing the father’s history and modern day. It doves into Puerto Rican history and culture.
It’s a pretty good story. Santiago grapples with many demons and has to come to terms with certain elements.

I apologize but I was not able to finish this book. I was in a different headspace at the time of requesting / recieving this book and the time I got it.

From the outside looking in, Elena Vega seems to have it together, but on the inside she is a mess. Her parents are divorced and her Puerto Rican father is living on the island, while she and her mother are living in New York. Over time, Elena becomes estranged from her father. When Hurricane Maria ravages the island, Elena and her mother become increasingly worried about Santiago Vega, Jr after months of not hearing a word from him. Where could he be? Is he OK or even dead?

Elena goes to Puerto Rico in search of her father, and what she finds is that so much has been kept from her throughout her entire life. Why haven't her parents told her any of this information, and why are they keeping secrets? Elena meets various people along her journey around the island to find her father, but what Elena uncovers is so much more.

This is a beautifully written novel and Elena's character development is noteworthy, but this novel fell short for me. It is on the long side with too many details that were fluffy and didn't really contribute to the story. I was not satisfied with the ending at all. I was really hoping for a more unified ending, but I was disappointed.

Special thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.