Hereafter

This post first published August 24, 2011.

Author: Tara Hudson
Published: June 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Hereafter #1
404 pages (hardcover)
 
Admittedly, I do not have very high standards for YA paranormal romances. It’s pretty low, actually. I keep reading YA paranormal romances though because they’re sort of a guilty pleasure (which is pretty much the same reason why I keep watching Jersey Shore-why-can’t-I-stop-the-madness?!) Hereafter has an intriguing synopsis and comes with many rave reviews, plus a beautiful cover. So I bought myself a copy and eagerly started reading it, hoping that this one will turn out to be a rare gem in the flood of paranormal romances in the YA market.
It’s not.

Hereafter isn’t bad, but it’s not very good either. It starts off interestingly enough. Amelia is a ghost, who’s been dead for several years now, and wanders around aimlessly in the living world, without much memory of her living life. One day, she rescues a boy, Joshua, from drowning in the same river she died years ago. After the rescue, Joshua can see Amelia and … you guessed it — they fall in love. Yes, it happens that quickly. Amelia can’t get over how gorgeous Joshua is (naturally) and Joshua is unfazed by the fact that Amelia is, well, dead.

Since being dead isn’t going to be an issue in their relationship, neither should the evil ghost stalking Amelia to make her his servant … or Joshua’s grandmother who specializes in exorcising ghosts, right?

The majority of the story is quite boring, and the pacing quite slow. There seems to be an attempt at making a mystery out of Amelia’s unknown living life, but the author decided to only flirt with the idea instead of going all the way with it. A good chunk of it is just a lot of Amelia and Joshua moments, which wasn’t interesting to read because Hereafter is another case of YA insta-love.
Amelia must be bi-polar or something. She started off as a rather gloomy character, brooding about her death and her nightmares, but after meeting Joshua, she’d frequently burst into giggles and I can just see the heart-shapes dancing in her eyes whenever she looks at the guy. Joshua was a pretty cookie-cutter male love interest (meaning: perfect with gorgeous abs … why do all high school boys have abs in YA books?!) What’s most bizarre about him is how accepting he is that Amelia is a ghost. And then he invites her to come to school with him. And go home and spend the night with him. All in the span of a couple days.

Then there is their weird connection with one another. He’s the only thing Amelia can touch (probably because he can see her), and when they do, they get these sensations that are perfect descriptions of orgasms. There is a scene where Joshua even moans when they touch. I found that quite … odd, especially considering how when Amelia touches Eli (granted, he is a ghost) she doesn’t feel this way. Neither when she touches Jillian. Just Joshua. How weird. Guess it’s more evidence for their soulmates status.

The story redeemed itself a bit in the last quarter of the book or so — the pace picked up considerably and the story actually got a lot more interesting, though it was still riddled with strange coincidences. For example, that at the most climactic moment, Amelia discovers she actually has super ghost powers and can glow like the sun. W-What?! Where did that come from?

I feel like Hereafter could have been really good if only the kinks were ironed out better. It definitely had potential, but unfortunately fell victim to a whole slew of tired-out YA paranormal romance cliches. As of right now, I am unsure if I will continue to read the rest of the series … but we’ll see what happens …

My Rating: 2.5/5