What Comes After, published in 2021, is the debut novel of author JoAnne Tompkins. It traces the aftermath of the murder of a teen boy and his friend’s subsequent death by suicide in Washington state. Although the novel is generally categorized in the mystery genre, its use of imagery, careful character development, and refusal to focus on the sensationalism of the content position it more as a work in the literary genre of realism. Tompkins uses a shifting point of view reminiscent of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Protagonist Isaac Balch struggles with perspective, his faith, and his tendency to hide in silence in the wake of his son’s murder. When Evangeline McKensey, a pregnant teen, enters his life, the questions surrounding her identity, her past, and the paternity of her child push Isaac to examine his past and psyche to come to terms with his loss.

This guide refers to the 2021 Riverhead Books hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain references to and graphic descriptions of domestic violence, sexual assault, death by suicide, murder, and animal death.

Plot Summary

The novel opens from Isaac Balch’s first-person perspective as he explains the initial search for his son, Daniel, when he went missing after football practice. A week later, Daniel’s childhood best friend and next-door neighbor, Jonah Geiger, died by suicide and left a note confessing to Daniel’s murder and leading the police to Daniel’s body. Isaac is mourning his son and turns to his Quaker beliefs for solace but largely finds emptiness and pain rather than answers and comfort.

Sixteen-year-old Evangeline McKensey is in early pregnancy. Her mother, who has a substance use disorder and was often abusive toward Evangeline, has abandoned her. Evangeline doesn’t know who the father of the baby is but suspects that it’s either Jonah or Daniel. She plans to go to Isaac for safety and support while she’s pregnant.

The novel flashes back to Jonah on the day he dies by suicide as he tries to make sense of what he calls the evil inside him that led to Daniel’s murder. Jonah thinks about their friendship, his father (who was abusive and had a mental health condition), and the remarkable experience of falling in love with Evangeline.

In the present, Evangeline finds Isaac’s house and lies in the yard, waiting to be found. Daniel’s dog, Rufus, finds her late that night, curled up at the base of the plum tree, and leads Isaac to her. Isaac takes her inside, giving her clothes, food, and a room to stay in. She resists trusting him as he tries to learn where she came from and how to help her. He establishes some simple rules: She must be home for dinner and let him know where she’s going, she must see a doctor, and she must enroll in school. She agrees.

A doctor confirms that she’s likely right that Jonah or Daniel is the baby’s father. Isaac resumes his job as a teacher, and Evangeline starts school. Peter, the school principal, tells Isaac that he saw Evangeline getting out of Jonah’s truck shortly before Daniel went missing. Isaac searches Evangeline’s room and finds newspaper clippings and Jonah’s bracelet. When he confronts her, she runs away. He calms down and goes out to look for her, but she has returned and is in the back of his car. After the confrontation, they fall into a rhythm, but the questions regarding the baby’s father and Evangeline’s lies remain.

Evangeline recalls, in flickers of memory, her time with Jonah and Daniel. She met them at the park. Daniel’s arrogance repelled her, but Jonah’s out-of-place appearance appealed to her. The next day, Daniel picked her up to get pizza and then drove her into the woods to a clearing. After they ate, he forced himself on her. She tried to resist, but he raped her. The day after, she saw Jonah, who was kind and enchanted with her. They talked and shared stories of trauma about Evangeline’s mother and Jonah’s father. Jonah gave Evangeline gifts: a frog in a jar (which they released at the lake) and his bracelet. The night after releasing the frog, they had sex at the lake and shared an intimacy beyond sex.

In the present, Isaac worries about Evangeline and the baby, and he starts to consider the Geiger family. He remembers when Roy, Jonah’s father, died by suicide, shooting himself. Shortly afterward, his wife, Lorrie, came over and asked Isaac to rebury their family dog, which scavengers had dug up. Isaac talks to Peter, who recants and suggests sending Evangeline away for her safety. When Isaac refuses, Peter (after a confrontational private conversation with Evangeline) agrees not to file state paperwork yet. Isaac tells Evangeline that her abandonment paperwork has been postponed, and they have a nice dinner until he asks her about the identity of the baby’s father. He realizes that she doesn’t know.

While Isaac goes away to help his aunt get settled in a nursing home, Evangeline stays by herself. She has made friends and is catching up on schoolwork. Isaac asks Lorrie to check in on her and make sure that she’s eating well. Lorrie and Evangeline bond, despite a tense moment when Evangeline learns that Lorrie is Jonah’s mother. Isaac returns on Thanksgiving, and he and Evangeline spend the holidays together. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they join Isaac’s friend George on his boat. Isaac reflects on his problematic relationships and the events leading up to Daniel’s death. Lorrie and her daughter, Nells, join them for Christmas.

In Jonah’s timeline, he thinks about Daniel’s murder. Daniel’s girlfriend had broken up with him, and he invited Jonah out deer hunting to use Jonah’s new field-dressing kit. They killed a buck out of season, and while Jonah was dressing it, Daniel told him that he had sex with Evangeline. Instantly enraged, Jonah attacked Daniel, slicing his throat with the deer knife. He lied to his mother, and she burned his clothes, the two silently agreeing to ignore the obvious truth that the blood on them wasn’t from a deer. Jonah also recalls a time at a Quaker meeting when he saw a glowing orb float through the room and felt a sense of peace. He equates his mother’s strength and his sister’s fear with Evangeline. He recalls his father’s abusive behavior and how his mother calmed and comforted his father while protecting the family.

Evangeline’s pregnancy becomes apparent, and she experiences bullying at school. She discovers that neither Jonah nor Daniel is likely the baby’s father. Isaac confronts Lorrie about burning Jonah’s clothes and feels judgment from his friends at the Quaker clearness committee meeting. He stops attending the meetings and feels separated from Peter and George.

Peter is fired from his job after revelations about his extramarital affairs and visits to sex workers. Isaac resists what he considers rumors but must accept the truth. He visits Peter and forgives him, experiencing a sense of divinity in doing so. Isaac gets closer to George, and Evangeline overhears them talking and thinks that Isaac wants her to leave. She runs away to George’s boat, but after a day, Isaac finds her. She accepts his apology, and they return home. They redecorate her room and make the closet into a nursery. Isaac returns to the clearness committee and acknowledges Daniel’s tendency toward brutality and his own problematic response to it.

Rufus is diagnosed with cancer and eventually dies at home with Isaac and Evangeline. When he dies, Evangeline experiences a placental abruption, is rushed to the hospital, and delivers her daughter, Emma, via C-section. Isaac feels a sense of unity when he holds the baby. After they return home, Evangeline gets an infection and insists that Isaac accept Lorrie’s help or else he’ll lose Evangeline and Emma.

As the novel ends, Jonah’s spiritual consciousness remembers his death: how he positioned the truck so that the sheriff would find him there and how he preserved the note to make sure that Daniel’s family could find his body. Jonah equates his death with his father’s, connecting them through a desire to protect loved ones from their potential violence. The book ends from Jonah’s perspective as he returns to the boat on the day Isaac comes looking for Evangeline. Using the last of his consciousness, Jonah pushes them together and offers them love and protection.