Book Title: After
Author: Anna Todd
Series: Name After
Book No.: Book 1
Genre: Young Adult, New Adult, Contemporary, Romance.
Published: October 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books

I was naughty and watched the film adaptation of After before reading the books. But I was surprised how much detail and empathise the books had on adult relationships compared to the film. It didn't shy away from adult content if you catch my drift.

Synopsis

Tessa Young has lived a sheltered, well mannered life with her mother who uses Tessa to live the life she wants. She starts Washington State University as a freshman, where she discovers the real world, and with it a tortured young man, Hardin Scott.

- Sophie Abel

Plot

I thought the plot book was going to tell a different story than it did. I thought it was going to be focused on the romance between Tessa and Hardin as well as Tessa finding her identity away from her oppressive mother. Although these plot-lines were in there, the plot-lines were darker and more intense. Hardin was portrayed as a tortured character who could be obsessive and controlling over Tessa. Still Tessa was drawn to him. I think Todd managed both the lighter and darker themes of the plotlines really well.

The light themes was more the university life. And getting used to it and adapting. Todd manages to avoid the cliche of Tessa discovering her identity while keeping true to student life and developing Tessa's character.

The darker themes were more about pressures with the drink. Some of the behaviours of Hardin Scott, because of his own inner issues, was emotionally and mentally abusing Tessa. He kept her on tenterhooks. The unpredictability of his character added a sense of danger for Tessa's welfare but she was still drawn to him. I feel this was handled well by being aware of his toxitality. I kept flitting from side to side. One minute I would be rooting for them and the next I would question Tessa's actions.

Some of the details evolved around Hardin's parents went into background details featuring sexual assault. I think this was handled very well because although the scene didn't happen on page you could feel how it affected Hardin's character.

Without spoiling the ending, I found the ending of the book quiet surprising and intense. It was not how I expected a type of romance book to end.

Setting

The book is set within the realism genre. So the world building was not too different to our own world, but the author put an empathise on the the student world. They stayed true to the life of students. I believed the settings the characters were in due to my own experience on campus university and found this realistic.

Characters

I think Anna Todd did very well in making the characters different from one another. She also stuck to the characteristics you may find of students at university.

Hardin Scott

I enjoyed the different layers to Hardin Scott, but I found that he kept switching personalities and I was slightly confused by his personality and wasn't sure on his mindset. One moment he would say he loved Tessa and the next he hated her. However this added to his character and made the narrative more enjoyable. Through background information, you could see how the trauma's of Hardin Scott's past affected his psyche.

Tessa

Personally, I enjoyed Tessa's character development the most, as it showed her timid and sheltered at the beginning but slowly breaking out of her oppressive mother. Although she was naive at times, you could see that she was growing in confidence. Todd showed the progress of Tessa's character slowly. And showed her getting more confident by changing her wardrobe, putting on make-up. It also showed the pressures of drinking and nightlife.

Zed

I enjoyed the character of Zed, who wasn't given much of a storyline in the film but in the book, I loved his role. He shows Tessa a different side of university life, a more calm and collective side, while still becoming a confident. However, it also added a triangle between Tessa, Hardin and Zed which was okay, but these kinds of love triangles had been done a lot. I'm not sure it was handled right because at one stage there was a heavy focus on it and then it became non-existent until later books.

Tessa's mother

I found Tessa's mother irritating because she still tried to mould Tessa into her own puppet, even when she was at university. Tessa's mom also tried to get Tessa's original boyfriend to try and manipulate further and using him to push Tessa back into that box that she had created for her. I think to some extent this was believable and I am aware that there are some parents out there, who are like that. To be honest, I can't give my opinion on it completely. But I think some parts were a little bit exaggerated as some of the things she did, like randomly appearing when Tessa and Hardin were together were unbelievable. I understand this could happen, but the fact that it happened frequently when they were together were not as believable for me.

Overall thoughts

I've read the whole series of the After books and it shows a progression of Tessa and Hardin's relationship, while still going back to key points in the first book. Personally, I think the first After book was the best of the series. It was my favourite out of the series because of how pointed the series was, and while the rest were good (except for the 5th book) the other books didn't have such a pointed, driven ending. So I just read them to see what happened next. Whereas, the first book, I was desperate to know what happened.

Be aware: this book is not for children. The content of the book is for mature, adult readers and it has detailed and graphic scenes for the adult relationships. It's not for the more sensitive readers.

~ Guest post - Sophie Abel: visit her blog.

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