After by Anna Todd
pages : 528
released: October 2014
publisher: Wattpad/Gallery Books
cover love: ♥
Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.
But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos, and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.
But he’s also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.
He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn’t the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.
Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her?
Unless…could this be love? (from Goodreads)
Review:
So I know this book was pretty popular online (one direction fan-fic, wtf)?But I’d only heard of it when the movie came out on Netflix.
So I watched it then read it. Here’s the rundown:
This is a long book (over 500 pages) but it’s a quick read. The first quarter of this book is heavily plagued with typos. Did no one edit this? Did they just print it straight from Wattpad? After is very repetitive. It’s just the same scenes over and over in different locations, on different days. This book could’ve easily been cut in half.
Tessa is the sweet, innocent freshman at college and everything for her has to be perfect. Her hair, clothes, boyfriends, grades, etc. Then she meets Hardin who is the complete opposite of her and he throws a wrench into her universe of perfection when he takes an interest in her. I like Hardin’s appearance. He’s cute, he’s got tattoos and piercings, he’s got attitude. Other than that, he’s creepy. And an asshole. There are a lot of times where he just shows up wherever she is. He implants himself in her life even when she asks him not to. Even when he himself wants nothing to do with her. I don’t see this as cute or romantic, it’s just fucking creepy.
They fight. A lot. Like this whole novel is them breaking up and making up. Tessa is Hardin’s emotional punching bag. He’s not that nice to her at all. He’s yells, throws shit, degrades her. And though she says and swears she’s done, she’s right back with him one chapter later. It’s confusing. I don’t think there was enough time between when they met and the end of the story for them to be so emotionally invested in each other. It takes place in a span of three months. I also didn’t buy his whole bad-boy persona. Besides acting like a spoiled brat, that throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, what did he actually do that made him a bad? Nothing really. I think Todd tells us one thing about the characters but then puts them in contradictory positions. Hardin makes it clear that he doesn’t date, he doesn’t like Tessa and that she should stay away from him. But then he basically stalks her. Tessa doesn’t want to cheat on her high school boyfriend (yet she does, repeatedly) and all Hardin does is make her cry and feel bad about herself and she lets him and keeps running back. And there’s no clear indication of why. Why does Hardin like her? Again, he clearly makes a bold statement that he does not care for her…so what changed his mind? That answer is not written in the text.
Todd put two characters that are opposites together, trying to convince the reader that they have a connection and fall in love. But she failed. I love romances where opposites attract but this wasn’t done very well in After. Their story seems unnatural. The attraction felt forced. Todd put too much emphasis on them hating each other and forgot that there has to be something to drive them together. Yes, Tessa and Hardin both have Daddy issues, so they have that in common. But that’s not enough. Because Todd created so many negative elements between Tessa and Hardin, something solid and believable would’ve had to happen in the story to drive them together. This isn’t a bad boy love story. This is just a bad love story.
Now the ending….again, here’s Todd putting all her effort into Hardin hurting Tessa (I’m talking unforgivable and gross). a brick of truth and dishonor is figuratively hurled into Tessa’s face. No, no…no. there is no coming back from that. I promise you. So how are there books 2, 3, and 4? wait, wait, there’s a 5th? foh.
What was left to like about After? Fast read. Somewhat entertaining. Sexy guy. Some decent/mildly hot sex scenes. For the most part the book was okay, just long for no reason and Hardin and Tessa’s relationship irritated me.
And to make a book to movie comparison: The movie is a heavily watered down version of the book. Especially Hardin’s character. Like they drowned his book version personality and replace it with a romantic music video one. They also change the plot a bit, the ending wasn’t as raw as the book.
I debated whether or not to continue the series but I’m deciding not to. I don’t really care to read about Tessa and Hardin again.
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