*This review might contain spoilers*
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 world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back in the ghost world...forever.
I read this book without doing any prior research, which is something I really regret. I read the blurb and was like okay, ghosts, yay. Hopefully there'll be a bit more action than romance, some blood and gore. But no, it was practically all romance. All the time.
Oh no, I'm a ghost and the love of my (dead) life is a ghost hunter. I normally don't mind clichés as long as the book is good, but I have a lot of trouble enjoying books that focus so heavily on romance. There were some highlights though; like near death experiences, and the writing was awesome. My personal favourite was Amelia and Joshua saving each other over and over (and not necessarily from bad guys).
Despite my love-hate relationship with the book, it's not as bad as I might make it sound. I just have book snob tendencies, which is bad. The book is about a girl named Amelia who died in 1999 of very creepy causes. Fast forward a couple of decades and she's a ghost haunting the river where she dies, and just happens to see a boy in a similar situation as she was. He's drowning, and she saves him. Love at first sight, forbidden love because his family is made up of ghost hunters, creepy prophecies etc.
There are a few tear jerker moments like when Amelia and Joshua think they've found her family, but I still remained kind of distant from the characters and storyline. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because I wasn't hit as hard as I could've been by all the feels.
Pros
1) Tara Hudson's descriptions of the world she'd created was awesome!
2) The afterlife. I've read so many books and watched 'em crash and burn because of the poorly created afterlives of characters. While this book definitely didn't have the best afterlife storyline, I really enjoyed it. It wasn't gory, but at times it was really creepy and there were a lot of underlying prophecies.
3) The character of Amelia. I might not like her all the time, but there was just something about her (her need to know who she is) that was very believable. The way Amelia reacted to situations, although sometimes farfetched or odd, was ultimately exactly how I like characters to react. Yeah, occasionally I'd want to scream at her but that's part 'n' parcel with books. All in all, Amelia was awesome.
4) The ending was bittersweet. Amelia saw her mum, but there weren't any interactions seeing as she's dead. It was just a really nice way to end the book and I enjoyed that part a lot, even if it was a little cheesy.
5) My favourite characters were Joshua's grandmother & Eli. Eli is (to Joshua & Amelia), a dumbed down version of what evil is like with an alluring nature. Joshua's grandmother tries to kill Amelia, and I'm always up for a feud between some guy's girlfriend and his family.
Cons
1) Pet names. Depending on which section of the book you're reading they're mostly few and far between, but I cringed whenever I read the word "sweetheart". In some books it's endearing, but I've never been a fan. "Joshua, sweetheart, I have to do something today." It sounds like his mum is letting him know she's running errands.
2) Oh, the clichés. Some clichés make me laugh and I can really get into them, but they're the main reason why I stay away from romance novels and the reason I should've stayed away from this one. The book is packed with them.
3) I just didn't enjoy the book very much. Sure, there were good parts, but all in all I was kinda disappointed with how everything turned out.
It wasn't very recently that I read this book, and because I didn't have time to thoroughly reread it there's a good chance that this review isn't 100% accurate - but I wrote what I felt. I recommend this book to anyone that loves romance and ghosts and creepiness, or to anyone who loves books about people really finding themselves. I probably won't by the next books in the Hereafter series, but if you like the things I just mentioned I'm pretty sure you will! Happy reading!
Also, I know this was supposed to be my Monsters review but I still haven't finished the book. Sorry! I'll make the review extra awesome for you guys.
~Au Revoir!~
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