Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Afterlove

Oh my GODS this book is amazing. The perfect sapphic story to read for pride month I am so glad I picked this one up. I laughed, I cried, I had an existential crisis. Poppy and Ash’s story is amazing to watch unfold, you feel every part of the journey with them. Well done Tanya Byrne, you should be very proud of this I commend you.

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irisvdn's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy fucking shit
This book is so good, I'm literally still crying. Tanya really knows how to make us love each character in the book, and I felt every emotion I was supposed to feel

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

3.0

Could have done without the throwaway transphobic line

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devynvictoria's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. I’m glad we got the backstory to Poppy and Ash’s relationship, but I would have liked more of the reaper plot line. I’m going to echo the sentiment that I think this would have been a better read if it was an adult novel and the characters were adults. Last note is thar the author talks about what shoes Ash is wearing way, way too many times, holy cow.

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arminam's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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betris's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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ode_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I read this super fast because the story is super engaging and I really liked the characters. I like the choice of this theme for a YA book, I feel like that isn't done too often and the balance between the darker subject and the cute love story was done well. The love story did feel naive and a bit too perfect to me, but since they are 16 that's perfectly believable, and relatable to teenagers having their first love.
The cover is also stunning which is always a plus.
However I do have to say that there are a LOT of typos in this book, more than any book I've read before, which is really a shame and brought me out of the story every time it happens. Also there are some continuity mistakes (character makes a point that they don't have a Christmas tree, then suddenly has one later in the story; character takes off boots, then looks at feet and has them on a few pages later). I was honestly shocked that nobody caught those before it was printed. Those are details of course, so they did bring down my reading experience a little, but I still think this is a great book, especially for teenage sapphics!

I do wish all the relationships the author built and made us care about had some sort of resolution... Like Ash's best friend, little sister and parents. I really badly wanted to see their reaction to Ash's death, know if Ash's dad ever learnt about her girlfriend, know if the mom blamed herself for the accident... And we had the perfect opportunity at Ash's grave, but the author didn't show us any card written by a loved one or anything. We just move on to new people and new events. I guess that's the point, that death cuts if all off and doesn't let you say goodbye, and we do get a tiny bit of resolution with the mom at the very end.. But I wanted more, especially since Ash got a LOT of resolution with Poppy, which I know she's super in love with but she hasn't known for that long in the long run? Idk. I guess the fact that I care so much about this fictional family means the author wrote them well though.

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