Hereafter

Hereafter
Author:Tara Hudson
Pages:403
publication date: June 7 2011





Summary:
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.






review:
I wasn’t really sure what to make of this book. I read some reviews, mostly good and I saw the beautiful cover but I had my doubts. I didn’t want to read it solely because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I saw the plot, the cover and I thought this looks great.

And I was right! I powered through this book in no time. I don’t usually like reading books about ghosts, purely because I don’t like watching, or reading creepy things. But this was different. I was surprised at how the book turned out.

I loved the relationship between Amelia and Joshua. Joshua is so sweet and charming; if it weren’t for him I don’t think I would enjoy the book as much. He was a great character. And his family really made the book interesting. What were the odds that Amelia being a ghost, falling in love with a human boy whose family deals with ghosts. When Amelia first explained to Joshua that she was a ghost, I thought he would have at least tried to push her away after that. I mean he invited her to go to school with him. I would be nervous that I would get caught embracing a ghost, which would be invisible to everyone else but him. It made me nervous every time they were together in public because I thought he was going to get caught kissing the air every time.

But I felt like Amelia was kind of whiny and needy at parts. She kind of annoyed me the way that having Joshua in her life was the only reason she started making a change in herself and actually trying to remember her past. What would have happened if she wouldn’t have met him? Would she still be struggling, lost forever?

I liked Eli’s character, dark and brooding, also a ghost, trying to convince Amelia to be with him forever. The only thing was I kept picturing him as an older man. Obviously he wasn’t, he was only 19 when he died but I couldn’t correctly picture him. I felt like Eli should have showed up a little more. Even though he was the bad guy I was secretly rooting for him at the same time. He sounded so lonely and sad.

I definitely created a little crush on Joshua, along with a bunch of other teenage girls who fell in love with this story, the storyline was perfect, and the romance was perfect. Everything about this book was perfect. I’m excited to see what happens in the second book!


4/5 stars