Hereafter, by Tara Hudson | Book Review #210

‘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.‘

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I’ve had this book on my shelf…for a few years. It feels like ten years has passed by, but I know it was only maybe..3 or 4 years (hopefully, at most) that I’ve had Hereafter on my shelves. And what I have to say about Hereafter is…iffy. Not good, but not entirely bad, either.

The initial factor that drew me into wanting to read Hereafter was the fact that the main character is a ghost, and that she herself realizes that she’s dead. But the real kicker for me was that Amelia can’t remember anything about herself or her past. Or how she died.

For the most part, I did enjoy reading Hereafter. I really, really wanted to love this book. However, that really wasn’t the case.  The setting was interesting, the plot was pleasing, and the action incredibly entertaining. Along with how Amelia interacts with the world around her, Amelia is..

To say the least: Amelia is Amelia. She’s dead, and she knows that she’s been dead. This gets talked about repeatedly throughout the book. For a while now, she hasn’t known how long she’s been dead. Amelia, in my opinion, didn’t have anything going for her. We find out eventually how she dies and the surrounding incident of Amelia’s death, but other than that.. I found Hereafter to be plain and predictable.

The book just gets worse from there, in my opinion.

The love interest, Joshua, is the stereotypical dark hair, dark blue eyed popular boy™ that’s liked and well known by everyone. Oh, and Amelia (as well as other girls and to Joshua himself) thinks that Joshua is pretty hot with those washboard abs of his. — Which I just find to be pretty hilarious to be honest; that Joshua thinks he’s well defined. Ahh, I just want to giggle to myself about that.

I’d say that if the roles in Hereafter were reversed, and it was Joshua who would be dead while Amelia alive, Hereafter would be a weird, typical YA book. Which leads me to my next point: Hereafter is your typical YA book.

• The love interest: Tall, dark and handsome.
• The antagonist: Would be CuteTM if he weren’t so evil.
• The plot: Predictable, yet pleasing.
• The action: Incredibly entertaining.
• Everything else: A sprinkling of interesting.

So in my honest opinion: Hereafter fits the parameters perfectly in terms of a Young Adult™ book.

Nearing the end of the book, the events surrounding the antagonist were patched up, and new, more evil villains were introduced to the story, so those of who have read Hereafter know who the Bad Guys™ are going to be in the next book, Arise.

Overall, I enjoyed the story while reading it. I managed to read it in 4-ish hours. However after finishing the book, and reflecting about the story and how everything went, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really like the book.

I ended up giving Hereafter 2 of 5 stars on Goodreads. My final thought about Hereafter is that I sincerely think that this story would go about better as a video game.

Have you read Hereafter before? What are your thoughts on the book? 

Happy Reading!
Adele