Sunday 15 September 2013

DNF Review: Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Hereafter by Tara Hudson
Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.
Title: Hereafter
Author: Tara Hudson
Series: Hereafter #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 7th 2011

Rating: 1 of 5 stars

Thoughts:

"Tell me what happened after you died."

   I knew that the ratings for this were low. I knew that, and I'm solely to blame for picking this up anyway. Well, me and that cover. Can you take one look at that and not want to read this? So I picked this up and started to read. It was a horrible, horrible mistake. In fact, Hereafter has the honor of being my first Did Not Finish ever!

From the very beginning, this book is weak. Amelia is dull and has no personality whatsoever. All she does, from page one to page 212, where I DNF'ed this, is whining. I get that being dead isn't a party, but surely there are more useful things to do than complain about everything and never taking any action? She also says things like this:

What could be scarier than me?

*snort* A whole lot, let me tell you.

At least those would have been my thoughts were I capable of any.

Her words, not mine. 

Things really start to go downhill when she sees Joshua, a boy, drowning in the river. He's dead for a second, he sees her, and from that moment she's completely smitten. I'm not kidding: this book has the worst case of insta-love I have ever seen. I'll let the quote speak for itself:

Of course I knew his importance now. I knew it deep in my suddenly very awake core. I knew nothing about him - not his age, not his last name, the way his voice would sound if it spoke my name. But I knew things had changed for me. They had changed forever.

Are you freaking kidding me? She says this at the end of chapter two. After she's known him for literally ten (!) minutes.

And around the start of the second half of the book, Amelia says this: (and for the record, Joshua is sleeping here)

"I think I might... you know... love you, by the way."  "Too," Joshua whispered back groggily. "Love."

All they have done so far is make out. That's it! She doesn't know any more about him than she did at the end of chapter two, except for his music tastes. And now it's suddenly love? Get out. Get out. And don't even get me started on the fact that Joshua apparently loves her so much he even says it in his sleep.

*minor spoiler for this paragraph* And then there's a scene where Amelia finds out her dad died. She's all sad and her mom's alone now. I can understand that, and for one second I genuinely felt for Amelia. And then she starts making out with Joshua. Things even get all hot and heavy. Excuse me? Excuse me? You just found out your dad died and you decided that making out with yur boyfriend is the appropiate thing to do? This was the point were I officially called bullshit on this book and DNF'ed it.

This book is extremely dull. I got 50% in and I still saw no sign of any plot. And I'm assuming that this is  a plot-based book, since the characters aren't nearly strong enough to carry the story. In fact, the characters were cardboard cut-outs with no personality at all. The only person I liked was Ruth, who tried to kill Amelia.

The clichés in this book are overwhelming. There's the mean girl who showed up once to show us how everybody is after Joshua. Every word that leaves her mouth is 'purred', or with a 'throaty and deep' voice. Then there's a scene where Amelia and Joshua are in the car and he pulls his shirt over his head (because his shirt was inside out. *rolls eyes*). Amelia goes all:

I now had a full view of his chest and abs, and, suddenly, I couldn't remember how to breathe.

I'm sorry, but have any of you ever had trouble breathing because you saw a man's chest? I mean, there are lots of movies and TV-series in which the male actor gets to show off his abs at least once, and I've never sat before the TV grabbing at my throat and going "can't... breathe...". It might be different if it's your boyfriend, although I seriously doubt it.

In short, I wouldn't recommend this book. Hereafter is a dull mix of all possible clichés with a seriously bad case of insta-love.

8 comments:

  1. Oh nooooooo! I actually have a copy of this book but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I must admit it sounds rather horrendous. And INSTALOVE?! Dammit, now I really don't want to read it. But I should. Sigh.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, I know that feeling! I'm sorry :P Yes, there was instalove. A lot of it.

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  2. I had this one on my TR list once - then I read some mixed reviews and thought better of it. Turns out I was right. LOL at the bare-chest comment!

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    1. Haha, good for you! And thanks! I guess you're not breathless when seeing a bare chest either?

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  3. HAHAHA the thing about the bare chest is hilarious! Oh how sad this one didn't work out, it sounds terrible. I have it sitting on my shelf but can't bring myself to read it.

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    Replies
    1. Haha, thanks! I know how you feel... There are WAY more important books to read!

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  4. OMG THIS ONE WAS HORRIBUBBLE I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY WENT THROUGH THIS. The romance and plot was just an epic failure and the MC= BLEHHHH

    Great review! <33

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