Before the Storm (Kennebec Large Print Superior Collection)

by Diane Chamberlain

This is the third adult book that I have read so far. I don't usually read adult books because they are too long, descriptive and detailed but Before the Storm had descriptions and details that made it a piece of art.

This book is about Andy and he has Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). A fire starts at the church while there is a lock-in for the children. Andy who leads most of the people to safety is called a hero, but when all the evidence about who started the fire leads to him, people start to question whether he started the fire in order to gain peoples affection.

The timeline of Before the Storm shifts between the past and the present. I loved how magnificently Chamberlain wove the past and the present together in order to create a solid and cohesive story. I'm usually one of those people who skim through flashbacks, but in this book, I eagerly waited for the flashbacks POV's because I knew that they would bring more interesting and conflicting information to the story.

Before the Storm is told in multiple POV's. These POV's are from the perspectives of Andy, Maggie, Laurel and Marcus. Writing four different voices is difficult to achieve, but Chamberlain made it seem really easy! So here's what I thought about the characters and their POV's:

ANDY
In Andy's POV we learn about the struggles that a child and teenager with FASD faces. Andy's POV's seemed to be an accurate portrayal of someone with FASD. I feel really bad to say that I enjoyed his POV the least because his life was simple and didn't contain as much drama as the others

MAGGIE
Maggie is Andy's older sister. I thought that Maggie was a really cool kid, until I realised that she wasn't. I felt as though she made stupid decisions that were necessary to move the story along. Decisions such as thinking a relationship with an ancient guy like Ben would last and that he wasn't leading her on. But for some reason, unknown to me, I still loved her as a character. She's a stupid impulsive teenager, but at least she owned up to her errors. I also admire how much she loved and protected her brother.

MARCUS
Marcus is Laurel's brother-in-law and Maggie's uncle. Marcus is a really difficult character to explain. There's the flashback Marcus and there's the present day Marcus. The flashback Marcus annoyed me because he was immature and selfish. The present day Marcus is still paying for his flashback stupidity, but he has picked himself up and I respected the new Marcus for that and the fact that he spent most of his time with Andy and Maggie.

LAUREL
Laurel is Andy's and Maggie's mother. Laurel was the character that I had the most conflicting feelings about. Like Marcus, there is a flashback Laurel and present day Laurel and they both make me confused about my feelings. I loved the flashback Laurel at first, then I started to feel sympathy for her and in the end I hated who she had become (an alcoholic while she was pregnant with her son) and then I loved who she was all over again. I thought that the present day Laurel was amazing. She's strong, smart, doesn't give up and she had so much of love and patience when it came to being a mother and especially looking after Andy.

What gave this book the most colour was the characters. None of the characters are one-dimensional. Each character has different personalities and perceptions in life, but they are all flawed. Each character in Before the Storm has made human mistakes that have deeply affected their lives and their relationships. I hated the characters one minute and loved them the next, hated how they treated one person and admired how they treated another and hated what they did, but understood why they did it.

Another addition of colour is the research that Chamberlain put into Before the Storm Research such as setting, the firemen, the arson investigation, the justice system, alcoholism and most importantly FASD. These topics were carefully research and made this story realistic.

This book was predictable in some aspects, but was shocking in others, especially at the end. There are so many twists and turns along with the revelation of secrets that each characters hides. This book had a Jodi Picoult feel and I have fallen in love with it.