The After School Crime Club by Hayley Webster

Grief is a hard emotion to deal with especially when the person you have lost is the only person in the world that seems to get you.

Willow has lost your Nan, the person that Willow confided in the most. Feeling adrift in life, Willow finds comfort in visiting Nan's house whenever she can, thinking about all the good times she has spent there.

Willow's mum signs Willow up for an after school tutoring programme at the local bookshop. Being the typical teenager response, Willow doesn't want to go but on her first session, her life begins to change. When she meets Tay, the carefree rogue of the school, Willow is desperate to be her friend but at what cost?

Marie is the popular girl who is always near and put together, but what lurks beneath the surface is the exact opposite. In order for Willow to be friends with Tay, Marie sets Willow a series of task to complete, each one more and more daring. Will Willow rise to the challenge or will she abandon her chance to be friends with Tay?

I really enjoyed the way that Hayley wrote about Willow's desperate journey to make friends and how she still relied on the advice her Nan had given her. With her Nan not being there anymore, she spends a good chunk of the book basically talking to herself and filling in the blanks with what she expected to be told by her Nan. It was a great way for the two characters to converse. I also really liked how Hayley wrote about the fallout of Nan's death on other people in Willow's life, for example how her Mum was putting on a brave mask of being out together when her bf was around but the moment he was gone, she would fall into a stump out, disregarding cleaning and her own self care. For me it highlighted how we can become so wrapped up in our own problems that we sometimes become blind to people going through the same emotions as ourselves. A great detail that was include was how Rich, her mum's bf, treated Willow. In many stories, the new bf/gf comes into the main character's life and is intimidating or bullies them. But in Rich's case, he shows Willow so much compassion and understanding. He tells her from the get go that he is not trying to be her dad or replace him but that he cares for her very deeply. It was wonderful to see such a positive portrayal of a person coming into someone's life when they have disconnected with a parent.

Overall, I devoured The After School Crime Club with its tender approach to grieving and how when grief is present, we battle to find support from others but are often blind to who is a true friend.