First off, you might be wondering why I posted a review for book one: After and book two: After We Collided but didn't post a review for book three: After We Fell; well that because I still don't know how I fell about book three. So instead of just trying to throw something together that will surely sound much like my first two reviews I just decided to let Todd's words do my work for me.
"You're always fucking sorry! It's always the same shit: you do something, hide something, say something, I cry, you say you're sorry, and bam! All is forgiven."-Tessa
"I stomp down the stairs and throw myself on the couch like a temperamental child. That's what I am really, a fucking child. She knows it, I know it- hell everyone fucking knows it. I should just print that shit on a goddamn tshirt."-Hardin
That's book three in a nutshell... So, now that that's out of the way I can turn my full attention back too After Ever Happy. I never in a million years thought I would be saying this... I actually really enjoyed this book. I know I know, after how much crap I gave the first three how could this happen. I can't even full comprehend it myself. As much as I hated this series, this last book won me over. At first I thought that this series was ridiculous but after powering through it I actually completely understand it's madness. For example: I didn't understand why each book need to be 600+ pages, but now I do. This series is only written to be over a span of months, but instead of trying to cram all this into 200 pages she decided to just go balls to the wall and make the books as long as they needed to be. You (at least I ended up) feeling like I was going through everything with these characters. Characters that, and I quote, "I would never end up rooting for". Well guess what, I ended up doing just that. I was praying that Tessa and Hardin would end up together. I was hoping that even though everything they went through was so exaggerated, so overdone, far fetched, so pointless that it wouldn't end up being pointless.
Hardin and Tessa both turned out to be characters I ended up liking. I have NO CLUE when my opinion of Tessa changed, but I know that it was the middle of the third when Hardin finally made sense. It came out of nowhere too. I was just reading along minding my own business and WHAM, all of a sudden I found myself thinking "Huh, wow I finally get Hardin... I get all his rash decisions, his outburst, and how is attitude zero dark crazy." Then I found myself saying "What the HELL did I just say?!?"
Both the writing style and character development in this final book is both leaps and bounds above the other three. Both Hardin and Tessa reached me on a level they never had in the previous books. After Ever Happy, like the others in this series, still had a crazy cluster of a storyline, was still covered in flaws, and still had no real structure to it. I can without a doubt say that the After Series is one of the most pointless things I've ever read, yet I have no regrets about how addicted I was too it. AEH had me laughing, had me on the edge of my seat, and even had me shedding a few tears... Yeah I might have cringed a little too hearing myself saying that, but hell I just read close to 3000 pages of one direction based fanfiction, what do I really have left to be embarrassed about... So I'll say it again; a few tears were shed while reading this! Get off my case! Jeez.
I think the thing that AEH had going for it was that of all four it was the "most realistic". With more touching and real topics happening through out, and more human reactions were given in response to each issue. The After Series turned out to be one of the biggest surprised I've had in my reading history. I completely agree with both negative and positive comment, statement, and review ever written about it, because it is everything everyone has ever said about it. It's annoying, unhealthy, romantic, comical, addictive, and so much more... But damn it if I didn't fall for it even though for some reason I still can't stand it. I still can't manage to figure out what happened to me or when my opinion changed... But Anna Todd I'm pretty sure you've won me over... Maybe, I truly don't full know.
If it wasn't for the last half of the epilogue I might have given this book a higher rating, but sadly something about the last few pages rubbed me the wrong way. But, I guess all terribly good guilty pleasure reads must come to some kind of end, and I was overall happy with this one.
Turn on the TV for background noise, grab a jar of peanut butter, and make yourself comfortable, because once you grab a hold of this series you'll be in for the long haul.
8/10 Stars
-Angela
