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Pipkin, Bonnie

WORK TITLE: Aftercare Instructions
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.bonniepipkin.com/
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:

Debut YA Author Bonnie Pipkin on “Aftercare Instructions” and Abortion

RESEARCHER NOTES:

LC control no.: n 2017024525
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017024525
HEADING: Pipkin, Bonnie
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040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
053 _0 |a PS3616.I645
100 1_ |a Pipkin, Bonnie
670 __ |a Aftercare instructions, 2017: |b ECIP t.p. (Bonnie Pipkin) data view (originally from California, Bonnie now lives in Brooklyn; she has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, teaches literature courses at Kean University)

PERSONAL

Born in CA.

EDUCATION:

Vermont College of Fine Arts, M.F.A.

ADDRESS

  • Home - Brooklyn, NY.
  • Office - School of English Studies, Kean University, Union, NJ 07083.
  • Agent - Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management, 630 9th Ave., Ste. 1101, New York, NY 20036.

CAREER

Writer. Kean University, Union, NJ, adjunct professor of English studies. FringeNYC, former fundraiser.

WRITINGS

  • Aftercare Instructions, Flatiron Books (New York, NY), 2017

SIDELIGHTS

Bonnie Pipkin lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches literature classes at Kean University in northern New Jersey. She has also worked on the theater scene, beginning when, as a teenager in Chico, California, she became involved in community theater productions. When she moved to the New York metropolitan area, Pipkin worked with inner-city teens who wanted to write and produce plays of their own. Pipkin began to write her first novel as a college student in Vermont; it was only later that she realized how important a role her theater experience would play in the final product.

Aftercare Instructions is the story of a suburban New Jersey teenager who makes a traumatic, life-changing decision and finds herself alone with the consequences. At age seventeen, Genesis Johnson decided to end her teenage pregnancy with an abortion. Her boyfriend Peter accompanied her to a medical clinic located across the Hudson River in New York. The story begins when “Gen” returns to the lobby after the procedure and finds herself alone. At this emotionally wrenching moment of her life, Peter has disappeared without a trace, leaving her without so much as a ride home.

Genesis has nowhere to turn. She lost her father a few years ago, and her widowed mother remains virtually immobilized by grief. In a daze, Genesis manages to find her cousin Delilah’s college dormitory, where she stays until she can ponder her next step. Her only lifeline is the “aftercare” pamphlet given to her at the abortion clinic, but Genesis bravely puts one foot in front of the next on her journey to recovery. When she confides in her best friend Rose, a support system begins to take shape.

Theater had been a source of pleasure for Genesis and her late father; now it becomes a source of comfort and inspiration. She meets a fellow theater lover named Seth, who encourages her to audition for a role in an upcoming play and, maybe, to give romance a second chance. Her path is not without stumbling blocks, including flashbacks to her time with Peter. Genesis and the reader see them as typewritten scenes in a play, complete with stage instructions.

Abortion can be a contentious issue in a young adult novel. Pipkin intentionally bypassed the issue by skipping past the abortion itself to begin Gen’s story with the aftermath. In an interview with Della Farrell at School Library Journal Online, Pipkin said: “It was really important to me that the choice never be questioned and to approach this topic without shame.” She knew that some readers would choose to avoid the topic altogether and others would prefer to read about the circumstances leading to Gen’s momentous decision. She told the author of the Deborah Kalb Books blog that she wanted to approach abortion as “one piece of the larger picture,” one that “doesn’t have to define your existence.”

Critics who accepted that premise offered congratulations and encouragement. Farrell called Aftercare Instructions “a smartly written, thoughtful exploration of abortion and the ever-changing nature of personal relationships,” while Caitlin Kling described it at Booklist Online as “incredibly honest and empathetic.” Raven Haller commented at RT Book Reviews that Pipkin offers “a fresh and much-needed perspective on abortion.” Lynn Farrell Stover observed in Voice of Youth Advocates: “The topic of teen pregnancy is very important and deserves attention,” but Pipkin also “encompasses the mature topics of pre-marital sex, suicide, drugs, and underage drinking.” A Publishers Weekly contributor acknowledged that “Genesis veers from place to place and friend to friend seeking solace, grieving, despairing, and raging” before arriving at a promising destination. A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews described Aftercare Instructions as “a journey through grief to hope.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

  • Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2017, review of Aftercare Instructions.

  • Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2017, review of Aftercare Instructions, p. 59.

  • Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2017, Lynn Farrell Stover, review of Aftercare Instructions, p. 63.

ONLINE

  • Bonnie Pipkin Website, https://www.bonniepipkin.com (February 9, 2018).

  • Booklist Online, https://www.booklistonline.com/ (May 31, 2017), Caitlin Kling, review of Aftercare Instructions.

  • Brit + Co., https://www.brit.co/ (June 28, 2017), Angela Velez, author interview.

  • Deborah Kalb Books, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (August 11, 2017), Deborah Kalb, author interview.

  • RT Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (June 27, 2017), Raven Haller, review of Aftercare Instructions.

  • School Library Journal Online, http://www.slj.com/ (June 26, 2017), Della Farrell, author interview.

  • Aftercare Instructions Flatiron Books (New York, NY), 2017
1. Aftercare instructions LCCN 2017005468 Type of material Book Personal name Pipkin, Bonnie, author. Main title Aftercare instructions / Bonnie Pipkin. Edition First Edition. Published/Produced New York : Flatiron Books, 2017. Description 356 pages ; 22 cm ISBN 9781250114846 (hardcover) CALL NUMBER PS3616.I645 A69 2017 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE
  • Bonnie Pipkin - https://www.bonniepipkin.com/about-me/

    Bonnie Pipkin believes in prose, performances, puppet shows, and public displays of affection. Originally from California, Bonnie now lives in Brooklyn. She has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, teaches literature courses at Kean University, officiates weddings, and looks after a very cute cat. Aftercare Instructions is Bonnie’s first novel.

  • School Library Journal - http://www.slj.com/2017/06/interviews/debut-ya-author-bonnie-pipkin-on-aftercare-instructions-and-abortion/

    Debut YA Author Bonnie Pipkin on “Aftercare Instructions” and Abortion
    By Della Farrell on June 27, 2017 Leave a Comment
    Traveling back and forth between New Jersey and New York City, 17-year-old Genesis has an abortion, loses her boyfriend, gains a handsome new friend, tries out for and lands a spot in a play, and discovers revelatory information about her recently deceased father, all in little over a week. To say that Bonnie Pipkin’s debut is a romp would be an understatement. Yet for all the turns in plot, Aftercare Instructions (Flatiron Bks., Jun. 2017) is a smartly written, thoughtful exploration of abortion and the ever-changing nature of personal relationships. As the book’s title suggests, it’s about what happens afterwards. SLJ chatted with Pipkin about her writing process and what she’s working on next.

    Photo by Stephanie Levy

    What has your debut author experience been like so far?

    My experience has been very positive. I’ve gotten so much support from Flatiron, and I’m super excited to share this book with the world. In the weeks leading up to my launch, I wanted to do something that would help people get to know me, so I shared some pieces of myself and also gave to the organizations that inspired my story originally. So, the first was a daily gratitude post on Instagram to spotlight someone I thanked in my acknowledgements, and the other was for a Facebook fund-raiser for Planned Parenthood, to raise money for this organization that has been so important to me. The outpouring of support has been overwhelming, and I’m so thankful for my community.

    I was immediately drawn to the narrative structure of Aftercare Instructions, specifically the use of stage scenes to retell past moments in Genesis’s life. Did you know from the outset that you wanted to mix prose with playwriting?

    I didn’t know at all! I first wrote the story chronologically starting from the abortion, and I kept getting feedback from my agent, Emily van Beek, that she couldn’t understand why Genesis was pining over someone [ex-boyfriend Peter] who did something so horrible to her. A relationship is more than the end though, so it finally clicked that I would have to show them falling in love. Then I thought about how we process our memories and distill them into scenes and moments, so I played with that idea. And finally, since theater is a big theme in the story, it seemed fitting to write it in that format. You know that feeling when you look back on your life and it seems like a movie or a play? That’s what I was attempting to convey. Theater has also always been a big part of my life. I was active in the downtown weirdo community theater as a teenager in Chico, California. [Later,] I was a fund-raiser for FringeNYC for nearly a decade and I also worked with inner-city teens to write and produce plays for many years. It was actually kind of a last ditch effort to solve the Peter-villain problem to write it like this. As I was writing it, I didn’t tell anyone what I was planning. It almost felt like I was doing something naughty, and that helped me write it!

    Most stories that involve abortion tend to center on the protagonist’s choice whether or not to have one, but here the abortion happens prior to the book’s start. What inspired you to take a different approach?

    <>. By taking this angle, the aftercare, I hope to drive home that even if you yourself have never had an abortion, there are definitely many women in your life who have already made the choice. And life goes on. Writing the journey to Gen’s choice felt too after-school special to me. I’ve read some feedback that it was a missed opportunity, but I don’t see it like that. I think that the conversation is normalized when we accept it as a choice that many women have had to make in their lives, and it doesn’t have to define them.

    Each chapter title is a riff on a typical instruction offered to someone who has had an abortion. Was this something you knew you wanted to play with?

    This was a more conscious effort and choice than the play script format. I wanted to play with the idea that yes, you do have to heal physically from this procedure, but it’s often the other stuff going on in your life that you focus on and deal with more acutely. I kept a list on hand of the “aftercare instructions” and then tried to match one of them with the emotional tone of the chapter.

    The friendship between Genesis and Rose was just spot-on. How did you go about building their relationship?

    Wow, thank you. I’ve always had really amazing and supportive close girlfriends. I think that my personal experience is definitely the starting point in crafting this bond. Then it’s about the secondary characters, the best friends, being well-rounded themselves, and not just there to move the plot along.

    What are you currently working on?

    I’m currently working on another contemporary realistic young adult novel that’s based on a very personal experience. Not many people have seen it yet, but I should be ready to share it soon! There’s been a lot of noise and excitement with the Aftercare Instructions book launch so that I haven’t had a lot of focused time to write, and I’m very much looking forward to having that time this summer. After a big blow out celebration, of course! My aftercare instruction to myself is to celebrate and savor the special moments right now.

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    Della FarrellAbout Della Farrell
    Della Farrell is an Assistant Editor at School Library Journal and Editor of Series Made Simple

  • Brit + Co - https://www.brit.co/bonnie-pipkin-aftercare-instructions-interview/

    Bonnie Pipkin’s Debut Novel Is Better Than Any After School Special
    Angela Velez Jun 28, 2017

    When it comes to teen pregnancy and pop culture, your options are pretty limited — there’s the quippy Juno and the uber depressing Teen Mom, but not much in between. In Aftercare Instructions, debut YA author Bonnie Pipkin introduces a new narrative, one that will have you rooting for Genesis as she sorts out the friends and foes in her life and makes major decisions — including what to do about her unplanned pregnancy. It’s a novel that’s thoughtful and compassionate, and reading it will make you grateful for all the people standing in your corner.

    We caught up with author Bonnie Pipkin and chatted creativity advice, incredible reads, and more. Scroll on to hear more from this brilliant author!

    Brit + Co: Describe your book in six words or less.

    Bonnie Pipkin: Caring for yourself after the worst.

    B+C: Where/when do you do your best writing?

    BP: I do my best writing in the morning before my brain becomes crowded with all the noise of the world. Ideally, I’d go straight from bed to the coffee maker to my little home office and start working. Of course, there are usually detours, but that is always the goal!

    B+C: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done in the name of book research?

    BP: Lived my life with periodic fits of wild abandon. Every day, I’m researching even if it isn’t directly for a book. When I’m in the thick of a project, my research doesn’t usually expand beyond reading and interviewing (or an occasional road trip), but the things I do when I’m just living my life eventually seep into the work. This has meant falling in love with the wrong people, or eating something strange and new, or singing at the top of my lungs. For me, experience is the research.

    B+C: What’s your go-to cure for when you’re stuck in a creativity rut?

    BP: I once had a writing mentor say to me: When you’re not downloading, you’re uploading. This was to say that experience (uploading) ultimately leads to putting good writing on paper (downloading). And not to be too hard on yourself when the words aren’t coming out because all the living is for the work eventually. Remembering this perspective has been really important to my process. I’ll also turn to music if I need instant inspiration — either I sit down and play the piano for a while, or turn on a song to have a private dance party.

    B+C: What two lady heroes do you turn to for inspiration, and why?

    BP: I’m inspired by women who are honest and brave. Kate McKinnon’s work is making my head spin right now. She’s just so talented and badass. I also always love anything Roxane Gay has to say, in her essays or on her Twitter feed. She’s the realest. (Photo via Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty)

    B+C: What’s your latest social media obsession?

    BP: Can I veer a little here and say a couple of podcasts I follow obsessively? 2 Dope Queens and Nancy are in my earbuds as soon as new episodes drop.

    B+C: Can you name a book that you think deserves a little more love + recognition?

    BP: But Then I Came Back by Estelle Laure. Beautiful writing that will pop and bubble into your dreams. This is a companion piece to Laure’s first novel, This Raging Light, and her writing sinks into my skin when I read it. Everyone needs to read both these novels.

    B+C: What’s next on your to-read pile?

    BP: The to-read pile is about to topple and trap me in the rubble at any given moment, but I’m eyeballing American Street by Ibi Zoboi, and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid for my next reads. Oh, and I haven’t gotten to either of Nicola Yoon’s books and that’s killing me.

    B+C: What advice do you have for aspiring creative ladies?

    BP: Keep living life boldly. It’s important to go into the cave and do the work, but you also need to poke your head out and put your heart out there with it so you can feel EVERYTHING — the good, bad, and the ugly. It’s all going to manifest in your work. Dance and sing and be brave!

    Got an author you’d love to see interviewed? Tweet us @BritandCo and let us know!

    Brit + Co may at times use affiliate links to promote products sold by others, but always offers genuine editorial recommendations.

    (Featured photo via Stephanie Levy)

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    Angela Velez
    Angela is an MFA Fiction candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. You can find her reading obsessively, wandering bookstores and watching melodramatic television.

  • Deborah Kalb - http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/2017/08/q-with-bonnie-pipkin.html

    Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
    Check back often for new Q&As, and for daily historical factoids about books. On Facebook at www.facebook.com/deborahkalbbooks. Follow me on Twitter @deborahkalb.

    Friday, August 11, 2017
    Q&A with Bonnie Pipkin

    Bonnie Pipkin, photo by Stephanie Levy
    Bonnie Pipkin is the author of the new young adult novel Aftercare Instructions. She teaches literature courses at Kean University, and she lives in Brooklyn.

    Q: How did you come up with the idea for Aftercare Instructions, and for your main character, Genesis?

    A: I started writing the novel while I was in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I knew I wanted to tackle the topic of abortion, but do it in a way that felt like <>. Having an abortion <>. It is something you must process and heal from, but it’s not the whole story.

    The first scene of the book came to me as the starting point: that a girl would have an abortion and her boyfriend would leave her during the procedure. After that, I had to learn who she was and what motivated her beyond that choice.

    Q: In an interview with School Library Journal, you said of your decision to place your character's abortion before the story starts, "It was really important to me that the choice never be questioned and to approach this topic without shame." What has been the response to how you handled the issue of abortion in the book?

    A: Of course there are people who are maybe seeking out the journey-to-the-choice perspective in a novel, but this just isn’t that. The only way I felt authentic in writing the story was to leave it unquestioned. I feel it’s my part in normalizing the conversation around the topic.

    The response has been great. I think people identify with the honesty and the absence of stigma. It was chosen as the July pick for Bustle’s American Woman Book Club specifically for this reason. You can see the interview here that we did at The Strand Book Store in Manhattan.

    Q: The novel also includes sections set in the past in the form of stage scenes. How did you integrate those scenes into the rest of the story?

    A: I first wrote the story from the moment of the procedure straight through to the end without flashing back, but then realized that I had to go back in time a little bit to humanize Peter. He does a horrible thing to Genesis by abandoning her during her procedure, but he hasn’t been a bad guy all along. I had to show that as well.

    As for the reason of using a script, the first is that part of Genesis’s healing journey is to rediscover her love of theater. And the second is I started to think about how we distill our memories into moments and scenes, and how sometimes looking back on life feels like scenes from a movie or a play. It just flowed from there!

    Q: Did you know how the book would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

    A: Alas, I am a pantser, not a plotter. I never know exactly where it’s going. To me it’s about getting to know my characters and then throwing challenges their way.

    Q: What are you working on now?

    A: I’m working on a new contemporary YA with another challenging subject, but it’s too raw right now to tell too much more about it.

    Q: Anything else we should know?

    A: I would love to hear your thoughts about the book! Please visit my website for how to contact me! Talking to and engaging with people who have read the book has been my favorite part about being an author.

    --Interview with Deborah Kalb
    Posted by Deborah Kalb at 6:13 AM

1/27/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517111926291 1/3
Print Marked Items
Pipkin, Bonnie. Aftercare Instructions
Lynn Farrell Stover
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.3 (Aug. 2017): p63+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
4Q * 4P * J * S * NA
Pipkin, Bonnie. Aftercare Instructions. Flatiron/Macmillan, 2017. 368p. $17.99. 9781-250-11484-6.
New Jersey native Genesis Johnson, a high school senior, is in an extremely distressing situation. Her
religious boyfriend, Peter Sage, has abandoned her at an abortion clinic. Hurting and confused, she knows
she must save herself and bravely makes her way to her cousin's dorm room in New York City. Initially, her
goal is to contact Peter, but when he does not answer her calls, she begins using the advice in the postabortion
pamphlet to guide her behavior while she grapples with her values and aspirations, experiences
grief over the death of her father, and deals with conflicting emotions over her mother's obvious mental
illness. As the week unfolds, Genesis learns about the value of family, friendship, self-reliance, and acting
on intuition. She also meets a potential new boyfriend, Seth, who shares her passion for theater.
The story unfolds in two formats. The narrative, Genesis's first-person stream of consciousness, informs the
reader of current events and emotions. Flashback scenes, written in script format and inserted throughout
the text, serve as tool to enlighten the reader about Genesis's pre-abortion life; her dysfunctional family,
loyal friends, and relationship with Peter. This action-packed and complex coming-of-age story
<>. Genesis's abortion
is actually not the most compelling theme in the story and the issues of pro-choice and pro-life are rarely
referenced. <>, while the abortion itself
may not be a topic accepted in every library. Fans of Rainbow Rowell will want to read this book.--Lynn
Farrell Stover.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Stover, Lynn Farrell. "Pipkin, Bonnie. Aftercare Instructions." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2017, p. 63+.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502000813/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fde093cd. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502000813
1/27/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517111926291 2/3
Pipkin, Bonnie: AFTERCARE
INSTRUCTIONS
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Pipkin, Bonnie AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS Flatiron Books (Children's Fiction) $17.99 6, 27 ISBN:
978-1-250-11484-6
Pipkin's debut leads readers on <> again.Genesis is a high school senior on the
cusp of her 18th birthday in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. At the open readers find her in the
immediate aftermath of an abortion, left alone in Manhattan by her boyfriend, Peter. Classmate Rose and
cousin Delilah form the primary emotional support system for Genesis as she grapples with the
compounding losses in her life. First, her father's death, then her inconsolable mother, lost to grief, onceclose
friendships, and finally the baby and the first love who helped make it. Nevertheless, Peter's
abandonment becomes a fulcrum on which Genesis' life turns, compelling her to identify her own values
and dreams. Despite several trips, falls, and unwise decisions on the way, the payoff is ultimately hopeful.
Chapters of first-person stream-of-consciousness narrative are interspersed with short scenes written as a
play that flash back to the events leading up to that moment alone in a clinic in the city. At times this
narrative style begins to feel narcissistic, as other characters' motivations are not revealed until the final
moments. Ethnic identities of the characters are never explicit, and it would be easy to picture them with
any number of combinations, though the overall impression is of predominant whiteness. Although Gen
may be hard for readers to connect to, her story is interesting enough they may well stick with her anyway.
(Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Pipkin, Bonnie: AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491002724/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d2fefd6b.
Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491002724
1/27/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517111926291 3/3
Aftercare Instructions
Publishers Weekly.
264.18 (May 1, 2017): p59.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Aftercare Instructions
Bonnie Pipkin. Flatiron, $17.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-1-250-11484-6
As Pipkin's sensitive and big-hearted debut opens, 17-year-old Genesis Johnson has been abandoned at
Planned Parenthood by her boyfriend, Peter, while she's getting an abortion. After, <> at Peter, who seems to have
disappeared at the most vulnerable moment of her life. Pipkin's chapters are framed by postabortion
instructions ("Talk to Someone If You Experience Feelings of Detachment"), and screenplay-style scenes,
interspersed throughout, recount how Genesis and Peter fell in love. These dueling formats powerfully
underscore what feels like an unbridgeable divide between then and now for Genesis, while amplifying the
role theater plays in her life: downtown New York City shows were a point of connection between her and
her late father, and she auditions for a role at the urging of a boy she hooks up with during an anger-fueled
bender. Genesis's conflicted relationships with her mother, grandparents, and friends are as engrossing as
her breakup with Peter, and her story packs a big emotional punch. Ages 12-up. Agent: Emily van Beek,
Folio Literary Management. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Aftercare Instructions." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 59. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575367/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=89d80cc0.
Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491575367

Stover, Lynn Farrell. "Pipkin, Bonnie. Aftercare Instructions." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2017, p. 63+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502000813/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018. "Pipkin, Bonnie: AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491002724/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018. "Aftercare Instructions." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575367/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 27 Jan. 2018.
  • RT Book Reviews
    https://www.rtbookreviews.com/book-review/aftercare-instructions

    Word count: 508

    Young Adult
    Image of Aftercare Instructions: A Novel
    RT Rating:

    Genre:
    Young Adult
    Published:
    June 27 2017
    Publisher:
    Flatiron Books
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    5 GOLD: Phenomenal. In a class by itself.
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    1: Severely Flawed. Pass on this one.
    AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS
    Author(s): Bonnie Pipkin
    Told in alternating present and past moments (with the past being written as if it were a script for a play), this is a heart-wrenching story of love, loss and what it means to grow up way too soon. It’s the story of everything that happens after The Decision to get an abortion. This reviewer loved that Pipkin took a very different perspective on this often taboo and always controversial topic. From page one, the abortion has already happened; the novel isn’t about the conflict of if one should get the procedure or not. Instead, the author focuses on everything that comes after an abortion: physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially and more. This is<< a fresh and much-needed perspective on abortion>>, and this reviewer loved and appreciated the author’s attitude toward owning your body, your choices and your future.

    When Genesis walks out of the recovery room into the lobby of the Planned Parenthood in New York City, she’s sure this must be a dream. It can’t be her real life. She’s standing in the clinic, just after having an abortion, and her boyfriend of more than 18 months is gone. She’s been stranded. Dazed, confused and heartbroken, she barely manages to make it home to New Jersey. Only her best friend Rose even notices her absence. Ever since her dad died a few years ago, Gen’s mom has been more zombie than human. And her younger sister Ally lives with their grandparents in the city. Gen is spiraling dangerously out of control, but something about falling apart feels like everything is also falling into place. The aftercare instructions sent home with her from Planned Parenthood might not have included the roller coaster she’s on, but, somehow, she might just come through the other side feeling better than she has in years. (FLATIRON, Jun., 368 pp., $17.99, HC, 14 & Up)

    Reviewed by:
    Raven Haller

  • Booklist
    https://www.booklistonline.com/Aftercare-Instructions/pid=8835481

    Word count: 266

    Booklist Review
    Books For Youth - Fiction - General Fiction
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    Aftercare Instructions.
    Pipkin, Bonnie (author).
    June 2017. 368p. Flatiron, hardcover, $17.99 (9781250114846). Grades 9-12.
    REVIEW.
    First published May 31, 2017 (Booklist Online).

    Pipkin’s <> debut novel opens with 17-year-old Genesis stranded at Planned Parenthood after her boyfriend, Peter, leaves during her abortion. The unconventional form alternates between prose chapters and scenes from a four-act play. Prose chapters pick up from the abortion clinic and follow Genesis as she navigates her titular “aftercare instructions,” with each chapter heading bearing a new step in self-care. The overall effect of the instructions overlaid on Genesis’ journey is less prescriptive or advisory and more a narrative tool, used to capture the sensitive and complex emotions at stake in the wake of such a personal decision. Flashbacks from Genesis and Peter’s relationship, including the events leading up to present day, come in the form of a play script. Pipkin highlights strong female friendships as Genesis’ friends support her through all of her aftercare, which includes finding purpose in an audition for übercompetitive underground NYC theater and taking a chance on a new romance, in addition to her physical health.

    — Caitlin Kling