Review: HEREAFTER

Stars: 5/5

Format: Hardback from the library

Read: August 6, 2011

This was one of the sweetest books I've read. A match between a dead girl and a live boy that doesn't involve zombies. HEREAFTER starts the ball rolling right away and it continues, going through the "waking up" of Amelia, the meeting of Eli, and the first sparks between her and Joshua. This entire book happens within only a few days, perhaps the max of a week and a half. It's not clear because time up until that point hadn't been clear to Amelia.

The love story between a ghost and a boy sounds lame and has lots of obvious problems. Touching, kissing, hanging out. But Hudson addressed all of these with a unique and refreshing take, with the bonus of the boy being a decent, good, normal boy with no ego problems or dark sides and the girl being an ordinary girl with a big personality that isn't flamboyant but more real.

I wasn't a huge fan of how Amelia died and the villain Eli because I really didn't feel them like I felt Amelia and Joshua. Perhaps she did the Amelia Joshua relationship so well that everything in comparison was just mediocre. But whatever the reason, I am in love with this book. It doesn't give you really any answers, but it doesn't claim to have any to begin with.

The cover makes this book look spooky, but it was never scary to me at all, not even when Eli came in. I could read it at night without worrying about freaking myself out. Do pick up this book, it's worth it and I will be getting my own copy.