the afterpains is a beautiful weaving of the lives of four women told through different perspectives and is a story of loss, hope, and healing. rosy is a grieving mother who, in her pain at loosing her daughter as an infant, has pushed away her only son eddie to protect her heart from more potential loss and now is dealing with the fallout of their relationship. isuara is single mother who fears that her daughter cannot escape the curse that plagues the women of her family, no matter the distance from their homeland. yesenia (or mivi) feels pressured to becoming the only woman in her family to avoid a teenage pregnancy, and in trying to break the centuries long curse upon her family feels the distance between her and her heritage growing further and further apart. vivian, rosy’s daughter who died as an infant, has stayed behind in spirit, her memory held onto by her mourning parents and serves as an ‘outside’ witness to the dynamics of the two families.

”before we had our babies, we thought that the toughest part of it all would be giving birth. we had no idea that our recovery would be a lifelong project, and that the physical tests would be far less taxing than the rest. even now, we are discovering new pain points and learning how to soothe them.”

one of the things that stood out to me most was isuara’s and mivi’s relationship with their homeland. the ocean that isuara crossed to protect her child would become the chasm mivi would yearn to feel connected to.

”you think i wanted to come here? to start over all alone? no. but mothers don't think about what they want. they think about what their babies need.”

”how, as it turned out, you couldn't escape curses. how they'd find you even if you left your land, changed your language, grew your hair out. how all the running was for nothing.”

rosy’s story was painful, i imagine much more so for those who have gone through similar experiences. her struggles with grief were a painful portrait of how difficult it is to minimize all the rage, despair, regret, worry, and hope into such a tiny little word.

”i thought it had all been about you. but we were not divided by you. we were divided by my fear of losing him. the inevitability of his departure was the reason i couldn't want him.”

my only small tiny complaint would be that i would have liked to bear witness to the healing between rosy’s and eddie’s relationship. but, nevertheless, the afterpains was a stunning debut.

[thank you to the publishers for the arc!]

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Having a POV from Vivian, Rosy's deceased daughter was perfect for this story. Since Vivian acts as a ghost or a spectator to everyone you're really able to gauge how everyone feels aside from Mivi, Rosy, and Isaura from their own POVS. I liked being able to know what Eddie was thinking and what his father was thinking. I think without her POV this would have been a very confusing story and honestly probably not as good as it is.

It deals heavily with grief and abuse and how had it is to move past the loss of someone you loved deeply. I was glad to see that in the end Eddie and his mother were able to have a reconciliation, and that Eddie and Mivi had theirs too. Although I'm not a mother myself I could really emphasize with these characters and what they were going through.

The Afterpains is a story of grief, loss, motherhood, and relationships. It is set in Toronto, with stories told of earlier life in Honduras. It's also told by 4 different narrators, which is important for given everything that transpires, and shares unique perspectives on the experiences of women living through various life experiences. It is beautifully written and grips you from the start. Shockingly, this is a debut from Anna Julia Stainsby, and I will read anything and everything she writes from here on out.