Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - After

This book sucked me in but it just wasn't as good as I'd heard. Gaslighting all over the place, but the final twist explained pretty much all of that. I don't think I'll read any of the sequels because I imagine I'd be furious with the main characters the entire time. Maybe once Todd finishes the graphic novels, I'll read those. The first one was good enough that I read the actual novel!

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readingduckling's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

Well first the one good thing I have to say about it was it was not boring, it was tedious anoing and tiering but not boring.
Every character in this book is absolutely toxic beginning with the main character, she seemed to like it to make everyones life difficult and provoce people in her proximity just to feel like the 'main character' I think the author wanted the reader to relate to this character but she was just a jackass.
Every friend and love interest ist also toxic in their own special way and in very depressed need of therapy.
Just like every adult mentioned in this story.
The writing style was sloppy the author was repeating the same words in a sentence, except for using euphemism so at least the writing style wouldn't feel that repetitive. But I think this is to much to ask. The story it self was also repetitive every chapter/part of the story was the same. The main character fights with the main love interest, they fight they make up, they make up, they do something sexual and then the circle stars over again. I was more than annoyed reading this book because ist was the same thing 100x over and over and over again.
If you are now wondering, why I didn't stop reading it, it was because some friends and coworkers recommended this book and wanted me to read it; 'because it's sooooo good'. It really wasn't!
First I thought maybe I didn't like the book because it's young adult, but that doesn't make any sense, because I often read young adult books that I really enjoy (my first 5 out of 5 book this year was a young adult book). And about half of the people recommending this book to me are older than I am.
In a way I am really shocked, that this bullshit, is a young adult book because I think it would be dangerous for young people to read this book (- series) they get the wrong idea of what a relationship in any definition of the word should look like. I don't have a a problem with toxic relationships being presented in books for teens/kids/young adults but than it should be clear that it is toxic. It doesn't happen in this book at all.
And I have a problem with this book that resembles a problem with the 50 shades series, it has a relationship that resembles a Dom/sup dynamic but has nothing that is important in this kinds of relationships, especially no after care.

All in all it is a disgrace that anyone was ever able to make money with this story, I will most definitely not read it again, I do not ever recommend reading it to everyone. And I will not read the other books in this series, or consume everything else realated to this.

Content Warnings

malignant_gnome's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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izzyf16's review against another edition

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4.0

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isabear's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Content Warnings

unphilosophize's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Big cliffhanger
All the characters are really annoying.
I really like the enemies to lovers //will they won’t they dynamic
Feels the same as fifty shades

Content Warnings

mj2148's review against another edition

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relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.25

1.5 Stars

It was just two days ago when one of my lovely friends asked if I wanted to join a buddy-read for After. I'd never heard of this book, and to be honest I didn't read the synopsis. But it was supposed to be cringey and I was bored so I said why not.

And wow...

I don't know if cringey is the right word...

The Kissing Booth is what I would define as cringey. This book on the other hand was... sickening.

After follows a college student, Tessa, who is not like other girls. She gets good grades, always finished her homework., and has a sweet, innocent boyfriend named Noah. But then she meets a bad boy named Hardin. Hardin is a walking stereotype. He has tattoos, wears black clothes, has piercings, and an emotionless jerk. But good girl Tessa falls in love with his d- *clears throat* I mean she falls in love with Hardin.

To start off, the characters were not even characters. They had two traits, horny and angry. Tessa was just wrong in every way possible. This is one of those books that actually says the words "I'm not like others girls." And you know what? It's 100% true! Tessa isn't like other girls, because she is much worse!... And then Hardin...

Hardin was abusive and manipulative. He basically raped Tessa in one scene and made her beg him for things that shall not be mentioned. I honestly felt bad for Tessa, Hardin was such a freaking jerk.

And then we have side characters. I stan Noah. I stan Steph. I stan anyone besides Tessa and Hardin and their body parts TBH.

And the plot... I am honest when I say that there was no plot. There were two events that were repeated over and over again: Hardin and Tessa banging & Hardin and Tessa hating each other because one of them wouldn't bang the other.

Nothing else. There was no climax and not one innocent scene...

The details though-

(view spoiler)

Also, let me add in this was over 500 pages. I'm glad I finished this before Valentine's Day because I do not want to tell people I spent my Valentine's Day reading this piece of trash.

And lastly, this was problematic AF. Check out more on that by searching up "After" on Google. I'm sure it will be one of the first things that pop up and beware of how much scrolling you will be doing once you find an article.

And you're probably asking why I rated this 1.5 stars? I read it with my wonderful friends (view spoiler) so it was amusing to make fun of and TBH it was so bad it was addicting in a way... But not more than an extra half star

Well anyways, the book sucked (no pun intended) yet I'll be reading the second one because it can't be much worse, you know? I lost all my brain cells and I assure you there are no more to lose.

See you After I read the second!

On a serious note, I will see you After I burn this piece of trash!

Ok... sorry you see what this collection of word porn did to me...
Bye ☺☺☺

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