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    Sweet, Hereafter
    Sweet, Hereafter
    Sweet, Hereafter
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Sweet, Hereafter

    By Angela Johnson

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    After Heaven and The First Part Last, three-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Angela Johnson concludes her acclaimed trilogy with a poignant tale of finding where you belong and who you belong with.

    Shoogy left home with all her jeans still in the washer because she couldn’t think of a reason to stay. She’s not sure where she belongs, until she meets Curtis. Curtis knows for certain where he does not want to be and that’s to be back in the army. He is happy to be in Ohio, where it is quiet and he can spend time with Shoogy. But when Curtis gets orders to return to Iraq, will belonging with each other be enough to keep Shoogy and Curtis together? Angela Johnson takes us back to Heaven, Ohio in this bittersweet tale of first love found and lost.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateJan 5, 2010
    ISBN9781416998655
    Sweet, Hereafter

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    Reviews for Sweet, Hereafter

    4/5

    19 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Called the third volume in the Heaven trilogy, but it's not really a trilogy. It's three separate books, unrelated apart from sharing characters; but the main characters in the other books are extremely minor characters in this one.Sweet, also knows as Shoogy, has left home to get away from her parents, and moved in with Curtis, a young man who is an Iraqi war veteran. He's kind, quiet, gentle, and more than anything else, doesn't want to go back to war again. This book doesn't have a plot particularly, nor is it episodic. It feels more like Sweet is just sharing her random thoughts. We feel like we get to know her pretty well as the book goes along, but the reader is never wondering what will happen next, because there isn't a real story line. That would be problematic in a longer book, but at barely over 100 pages, it works.
    • 4/5
      Though I've read the two previous novels in the Heaven trilogy, Sweet, Hereafter works perfectly well as a standalone (as do Heaven, and The First Part Last). "Sweet" is just as poetic and real as any Angela Johnson novel, from behaviors and reactions of the characters, to their idiosyncrasies and emotions. The inclusion of Marley, and Bobby and Feather is a nice touch, something more for the fans than anything else. Shoogy's story is no doubt touching, and readers will have been moved to their core by the final line in Sweet, Hereafter.
    • 3/5
      Sweet or Shoogy left home or was kicked out by her parents because no one really understands her. But Curtis does. She doesn’t really like school and she and Curtis like to be alone together. This is the third part of a trilogy, Heaven (1998) and The First Part Last (2003), but it is not entirely necessary to read the earlier books, though some of the same characters show up in this installment. Curtis lives in a small cabin on the shores of Lake Erie away from the town of Heaven and he is in the Army Reserves having served one tour of duty in Iraq. He is also in college and has books lining the walls of the cabin. He does not want to go back to Iraq and may have gone AWOL and the tragic ending is foreshadowed by the Prologue. As Sweet and Curtis fall in love, she struggles to give him space but cannot figure out how to help him. The story unfolds slowly with beautiful, evocative prose but despite its short length will not appeal to reluctant readers. It is more appropriate for sophisticated readers who like ambiguity and cryptic, spare writing. Buy this if Heaven and The First Part Last are popular in your library. Positive review in Booklist and starred Kirkus.
    • 4/5
      Though I've read the two previous novels in the Heaven trilogy, Sweet, Hereafter works perfectly well as a standalone (as do Heaven, and The First Part Last). "Sweet" is just as poetic and real as any Angela Johnson novel, from behaviors and reactions of the characters, to their idiosyncrasies and emotions. The inclusion of Marley, and Bobby and Feather is a nice touch, something more for the fans than anything else. Shoogy's story is no doubt touching, and readers will have been moved to their core by the final line in Sweet, Hereafter.
    • 4/5
      Sweet Hereafter is the final book of the Heaven trilogy. In Sweet Hereafter Shoogy leaves home for unclear reasons and stops communicating with her family. She moves into a cabin in the woods with Curtis, her former neighbor. Curtis recently returned to Ohio from Iraq where he served in the armed forces. He does not often speak about Iraq but the impact of this experience is evidenced by nightmares which cause him to wake screaming. Shoogy is frustrated by the world and its events. The book describes loosely connected events in her life which convey her confusion about belonging and identity. Shoogy searches for happiness with deep insight that might be beyond some teen readers. The book might also be confusing for readers who have not read the previous books in the trilogy. Ages: 14+

    Book preview

    Sweet, Hereafter - Angela Johnson

    sweet, hereafter

    sweet, hereafter

    ANGELA JOHNSON

    An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

    1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

    www.SimonandSchuster.com

    This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    Copyright © 2010 by Angela Johnson

    Photograph of girl copyright © 2010 by Chad Hunt

    All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

    is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

    For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.

    The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

    Book design by Laurent Linn

    The text for this book is set in Aldine.

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Johnson, Angela, 1961–

    Sweet, hereafter / Angela Johnson.—1st ed.

    p. cm.

    Summary: Sweet leaves her family and goes to live in a cabin in the woods with the quiet but understanding Curtis, to whom she feels intensely connected, just as he is called back to serve again in Iraq.

    ISBN 978-0-689-87385-0 (hardcover)

    [1. Identity—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Iraq War, 2003—Fiction. 4. African Americans—Fiction.] I. Title.

    PZ7.J629Sw 2010

    [Fic]—dc22

    2009027618

    ISBN 978-1-4169-9865-5 (eBook)

    For those who did and did not come home

    sweet, hereafter

    Prologue

    THERE’S A FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF MY friend Jos standing by the side of a road on a hot summer day. I almost don’t recognize him, because he’s out of place. It’s a frozen moment in time—but I’m so used to Jos being animated, funny and moving. It bothers me that one picture can define everything in other people’s minds but never really tell the whole story.

    A cop in dark shades is touching him on the arm. Gently. The photographer was close, ’cause you can see every line on the cop’s and Jos’s face. There weren’t any lines an hour before.

    •     •     •

    It’s early. Everything is quiet. Too quiet. I turn on the radio to make sure there hasn’t been some kind of world-ending disaster. Hell—they do happen. More than you could ever dream they do. I’ve seen them, been a part of them, don’t even have to watch the news to see one happening.

    My feet are cool on the old hardwood floors, and I don’t even mind that I’m still trying to work out a splinter. I walk to the front window.

    I love the cool.

    And I love the feeling I get knowing I’m walking on floors people walked on a hundred years ago. I blow the candle out ’cause finally the sun is struggling past the clouds.

    The radio crackles as I stare out at Lake Erie haze.

    I press my face against the window and feel cobwebs on the side of my head but don’t pull back. If I listen close I can hear cars blowing past on the road about a hundred yards away.

    I listen for Curtis over the drone of the radio—I do it without thinking. Then I see the groundhogs through the window and start peeling apples for them.

    I do it like I breathe or walk to the sink to get a glass of water.

    Automatic.

    It starts to rain, and I watch like the photographer did on that burning hot summer day, while rain streaks every inch of the window.

    Curtis

    1

    THERE ARE LONG ARMS ALL AROUND ME and I know I’m gonna have a serious curb put on my social life if I don’t get off this couch right now and go home.

    When I try to get up, Curtis’s arms squeeze me more, and I know that I’m not going anywhere, not until he gives it up and lets go.

    Still, I’m thinking I got so much homework I’ll be up all night trying to finish it. And if I want the parents outta my business I have to keep the low B going. I ain’t never been an A student, so my parents are happy about those Bs I drag out every semester.

    And there’s Curtis….

    I’d miss him if I were grounded for life. I’d miss the way he always smells like sweet leaves underfoot in the fall. I mean, that’s what I think of when I’m close to him. The woods. Leaves. Pine needles.

    And the feel of his skin …

    Shit like that….

    I don’t

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