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rat-apologist · 5 years

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A Semi-In depth Review of Anna Todd’s After

So I’ve been seeing the trailer for the movie adaptation of this book every five seconds on my Instagram feed, and as a proud dyslexic unwilling to sit down and read it, I listened to the audiobook.

Again, these are all my opinions, if you don’t agree that’s okay.

Here is a quick, spoiler free plot synopsis for those who want/need it: Being moved from Wattpad into the real world of publishing, After follows a girl named Tessa, who simultaneously has the mentality of a five year old and an old man from the 1800’s. She is eighteen years old and is going to college to be an English major. Tessa loves control, planning, and books. She's an introvert at heart, and “not like other girls” (i.e. dresses conservatively, is a virgin (the books words, not mine)). She has a shitty mom and a nice, preppy, boyfriend who is still in high school, and her life is completely planned out. That’s all turned upside down when the poster child for emotional abuse named Harden (harry styles) waltzes into her life during a frat party her first week of college. Your typical Wattpad/teen movie drama ensues.

(the actual review under the cut)

This review is chock full of spoilers for Anna Todd’s book After. If you want a good idea of what I thought about this book without any spoilers I’ll just say this: I can really honestly say I was never bored while listening to this book. However, that is not necessarily a good thing. Often times I was just too much in awe of the clunky writing and truly evil supposedly “redeemable” characters to be bored. On a one to five star scale, I’d probably give it a two. More on that later.

Here are the things I liked:

(this one is only applicable to the audiobook) the narrator was amazing, her voice acting was very appropriate (though she did tend to drop accents sometimes- but that is forgiven because of how otherwise amazing her line delivery was- especially considering the quality of the dialogue).

Landon and Dakota were my favorite characters, and even though they had no personalities beyond what they meant to Tess and how they interacted with Harden (Hardin? Again, I listened to the audiobook I’ve got no idea how to spell that lmao) they still made the book better to listen to.

Despite the repetition of plot/narrative structures I can happily say again that I was never really bored.

Okay moving on to more mixed-bag feelings:

So the last chapter was from Harden’s perspective, and I thought that was an interesting idea. Learning what one character thinks, especially since our protagonist is, how you say, a little bad at reading/interacting with other human people. However the execution left something to be desired for me. It quite literally was just the exact same scene we just saw from the previous chapter, but from Hardens perspective instead of Tess’s. Which was just ended up being unnecessarily repetitive at times.

I liked how Tessa tried to be less judgmental throughout the book, however her growth is very, very limited.

I liked the fact that they mentioned they used condoms in pretty much every sex scene, and that most of the time clear verbal consent/clear nonverbal consent was given for the sexual stuff. That does not happen often in books, especially in fan fiction from what I understand.

I like that Tess does stand up for herself, while I could sometimes see myself comparing her to Bella Swan considering how much of her personality does kind of revolve around her relationship with Harden, she certainly was more vocal about her feelings. And boy, did she have a lot of feelings.

Moving on to the things I didn’t like, this is probably going to be a mix on writing, characters, and plot points so bear with me. (I’m saving my many thoughts on the twist for last)

Okay so a big number one is the biggest plot driver, the love story. So, I feel like it goes without saying, but the main relationship is SUPER unhealthy. Harden constantly stalks, manipulates, and bullies Tess throughout the whole book. He is pretty much abusive, using her caring for him to his own advantage and then dropping her when it suits him. Plus his hyper-sexualization of her “virtue” is really really nasty. Tess pretty much cries in every interaction they have together, and even acknowledges how toxic their relationship is, and yet I’m supposed to root for them? Hmm… I don’t think so

The near constant slut shaming and girl hate in this book bothers me, especially when it’s mixed with the hints of “I’m not like other girls” from Tess

The character descriptions kinda weird me out considering how much Harden is described like Harry Styles, like literally a tumblr punk edit of Harry Styles

The dialogue is… bad. To all the writers out there (myself included) make sure you read your dialogue out loud to see if it sounds natural, that way if your Wattpad fanfiction ever does get published, and your book is adapted into audiobook, you’ll avoid a situation like this one. Because, especially listening to it, the dialogue in this book is really really bad. Honest to god it sounds like robots imitating humans are talking to each other, only they’re trying to convince the other robots that they are humans. For some reason Anna Todd avoided using contractions for most of the book, making the characters sound unnatural and completely out of their predefined characters. Why would these college students not use words like “it’s” “we’ll” and “we’re”? It is truly astonishing, and it makes the few uses of contractions really distracting. Normally I don’t give a shit about grammar since I don’t really understand grammar, and normally grammatical errors aren’t that obvious when listening on audio, but the dialogue was seriously that bad.

The pacing was bad, that’s kinda all I have to say. It was generally too quick during plot development but then took a screeching halt for each fight/sex scene (of which there are many)

The repetition of certain words/phrases really got annoying. Everyone's always screaming, biting on their lip, or smirking. Harden is rude, as Tessa mentioned about eight million times, and Tessa finds his dirty talk arousing. We know this, because Todd uses those phrases about a billion times a chapter.

The sex scenes kind of grossed me out. I’m (in general) fine with sex, but the way the sex scenes were written seriously ucked me out. These college kids avoid using words like “penis” “dick” “pussy” etc. and use really really juvenile words like “down there” and “length”. Maybe this is a fanfiction thing, and I’ll admit that I have not read essentially any fanfiction, but it is truly a disturbing way to write sex. Especially since Tessa is written to have the experience and understanding of sex as like a child, not even understand what an orgasm is and unwilling to say words like penis or vagina, something our loverboy Harden is super attracted to, by the by.

I hate that this book uses “girl almost gets assaulted so man can come in and valiantly protect her” trope. It is super gross and I hate it. That’s kind of all I can say, the use of women's pain so that men can get some amount of redemption is awful.

More on Harden: I am sick of the “violent, broken man that I promise I can fix!” trope. It is used to justify and excuse abuse and I hate it. Tess is honestly scared of him several times in the book and it’s played as a personality quirk of his? Like everyone just accepts that’s how he is? I know for the most part we aren’t supposed to “like” him for the first part of the book, but it’s obvious that the author wants us to root for him and Tessa in some capacity. Especially with the inclusion of his perspective at the end, which in a way is exactly the kind of manipulation that he is into so idk. Also he is possessive despite the fact that they weren’t dating, and he is very clear he does not date. That’s already abuse, but of course there is more. On top of that he is cruel, and pretty stuck-up throughout the book- making him pretty much insufferable to me. And all of this shit just gets worse once the twist is introduced, and no amount of his whining from his chapter could at all change that.

The rest of the characters are all either boring, or the worst people you could ever meet. Tess’s mom, Molly, Jace, all really terrible to offset the horror of Harden. To almost justify what he does- because comparatively he doesn’t seem as bad (up until the twist).

The twist. Dear god the twist. So, as it goes it isn’t an extremely inspired twist. I’ve seen it done before in a similar way (I’m looking at you, Ten Things I Hate About You). For those who are wondering: the big twist is that Harden only really pursued Tess in the beginning because after she revealed she is a virgin at a party early on in the book he makes a pricey bet with Zed (another side character only used to add ~drama~ to Tessa and Harden’s relationship) to see who can take her virginity. All of the subsequent bullying, possessiveness, manipulation, etc. were all a ploy to have sex with her before Zed could. I feel like it goes without saying that that’s disgusting, but let me tell you exactly why: at least if he was actually interested in her at first his weird behavior could possibly be passed off as hormones (I wouldn’t like it, but I’d understand it more if you’d try to make that argument), but the fact that it was all for a bet not only makes his disgusting actions worse, but makes the fact that he supposedly falls in love with her so much more annoying. Plus, the fact that he literally tries to trap Tessa in a lease so she can’t leave him, and tries to bribe his friends into silence really shows how little he actually cares about Tessa and her thoughts and feelings.

So, why two stars? Honestly, because I was entertained (for lack of a better word) by this book. Maybe if I actually read it and not just listened to the audiobook it my rating would be lower, maybe if there was just one more sex scene to slow down the pace I would have been more bored. Who knows, but I was entertained. Sometimes by how terrible the dialogue is, by how astonishing the characters decisions were, sometimes by the actual plot. It’s like watching a shitty soap opera, it’s not good by any means, but it certainly keeps your attention.

#pj speaks #book review #after book #after book review

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lexxikitty-blog1 · 6 years

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Destiny Abounds by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane and Shei Darksbane Series: Starlight Saga: #1 Read: February 2016 Rating: 3.75 Stars

To start with – if it hadn’t been for the fact that I had already read, and enjoyed, every other book written by this pair of authors (not including a short story, which I haven’t read yet), I probably wouldn’t have given this book here a third chance. Yes, third. First doesn’t really count – it was just a causal like look over the book after completing the second book by this pair. Second one though – that one counts, it does. Since I started, and then fled the book. I just . . .. Well, that was longish ago. Third time was this time so I’ll just relay that one.

To a large extent, it probably would have been better if the book had started with any other character instead of the captains. I hadn’t actually realized it until stumbling through it and getting to other points of view, but the first, the captain’s point of view is that way on purpose. It’s off putting and annoying as hell though. Part of the reason why I didn’t immediately ‘get it’ is all the ‘errors’. Like the repeated use of words and phrases in, the supposedly, ‘non-point of view’ section. As in times when the phrase ‘it was’ was repeated. ‘The dog it was it was very large.’ (not an exact quote) or times when the word ‘the’ was oddly used. Mostly, though, it was the very unnaturally disjointed flow of the captains sections. I literally had to read the first page about 12 times just to figure out what the bloody hell was being said. It wasn’t that it involved difficult words, or the like, it was just so bloody weirdly worded. Took me getting to other points of view and seeing how smoothly, for the most part, those sections were, then getting back to the captains and again encountering the rough disjointedness of the captains to finally realize that her sections were that way on purpose. Once I realized that, everything began to become easier to read.

Right, so. I probably would have noticed, hmm . . I’m fairly certain I would have noticed . . . the similarities between this book and ‘Firefly’ (the 2002 show that was on Fox briefly). Well, at least vaguely. For the most part, only one of the characters has something of a 1 for 1 match. All the rest are vague. To a large extent, from the little given on the TV show, and in this book, Inara Serra (the ‘companion’ on the show), and Kalah Sirrah appear to be roughly similar characters. The rest, as noted, are mostly pushing puzzle pieces around, and pounded some pieces where they probably don’t really go.

Also on the ship, Branwen Hawke, Captain of Destiny Abounds, has some rough similarities with Captain Mal Reynolds of Firefly. Well, both had military backgrounds that both were trying to put behind them. Both captains of a starship. And . . . that’s basically it in similarities. Not really similar, eh? Oh, and both using ships uncommon – though the Firefly was a cargo ship much outdated to the time Captain Mal flew it, while the Destiny Abounds being a rather technologically advanced spaceship.

Prisoner 286 has some vague similarities to a combination of two Firefly characters - Jayne Cobb/River Tam character. 286 has some super advanced fighting skills that seem kind of magical, somewhat like River, has some vaguely anti-social tendencies somewhat like River (though more how, at times, River might suddenly go from looking like she’s sleeping to running around ripping things apart); but also has the ‘doesn’t give a shit’ vibe that Cobb has, is as talkative as Cobb is, and is something of a bully like Cobb.

I was thinking Zimi must match up with Dr. Simon Tam, from Firefly, but then I thought more about it and thought that I might just be going for ‘medic on Destiny Abounds’ and ‘doctor on Firefly’ as basis. Like several others, Zimi appears to be a combined character. Fitting some of Shepherd Books gibberish and . . . gibberish into her character, combined with the medical part from Dr. Simon Tam (though Simon was a top medical professional, while Zimi is more self-taught –still, Zimi is much more skilled than you’d expect for someone basically self-taught), and the fighting skills of Simon (somewhat ineffectual (at least during one fight), desiring to do the right thing but might accidentally shoot one of the crew while trying to shoot an invader; so unlike Shepherd Book, who gave off the vibe of a pacifist type, but actually had been a skilled intelligence officer at some point).

The pilot of Destiny Abounds, Merlo, has an obvious match-up with the pilot on Firefly, Wash. Merlo, though, seems a lot more military than Wash (though both had/have military training). I’d been thinking that Merlo might be some combo of Zoe Washburne and Wash Washburne, though only because Merlo seems to want to find the military option in every situation, while Zoe was always ready for the military option, though not necessarily leading with it. Truth be told, other than having military training and being super good at piloting, there really isn’t that good of a match between Merlo and Wash (or Zoe). I mean, Wash liters stuff like dinosaurs figurines all over the place, while Merlo has no use for debris. They are barely similar. Just job title.

Also, somewhat obviously, the engineers on both ships vaguely match up. Vaguely. Kaylee is kind of socially awkward while being a brilliant engineer, like Mr. Leonard. But Mr. Leonard seemed scared of his own shadow, while Kaylee seemed to be more of the socially awkward, rather roll around in grease fixing things than bouncing around a party type.

And, right. Quite frankly, there’s a big chance I’d not have tried to ‘smush’ the two things together. This book and Firefly, if I hadn’t seen it in reviews. Hell, I could probably attempt to ‘mush’ any old show with the book. Like, say, Stargate. Branwen is kind of like Jack O’Neill – military veteran, kind of sits back watching the others do their thing, but ready to step in at a moment’s notice to take command. And, um, Merlo . . . um . . is kind of like the early brash Major Carter before she got seasoned. And . . . um . . . Mr. Leonard is like Sgt. Harriman, there to keep things running, but is on the side, watching – Mr. Leonard because he’s really really shy and fragile like, and Gary Jones because he’s a bit player with a few lines of dialogue (though in 112 episodes) …. Yeah, okay, I can’t match up Stargate with this book. Hehe.

Well, got distracted there with my little Firefly diversion. There are at least 5 points of view shared in this book. The main ones are Branwen Hawke, Merlo, Kala Sirrah Nazai, and Prisoner 286. The fifth involves a few times that Mr. Leonard gets to pop his head up glance around, meerkat-like. Hmms. There’s only one other passenger/crew member – Zimi Praff. I can’t recall if Zimi has any time taking over things.

The plot, to a large extent, seems designed to show how each crew member ended up aboard the Destiny Abounds starship, including how the ship itself got its name (it opens the book nameless). At first the ship consisted of Branwen as captain and Mr. Leonard as engineer. However they ended up on or with the ship is not mentioned.

Branwen Hawke is the captain but doesn’t really know much about technology. Apparently really old, but she dodges the age question as well as she can. Everyone else, unless I’m forgetting something, get described as being ‘young’ – many seeming to be described as being around 17 years of age or thereabouts (not sure why the book ended up being overrun with kids, but . . . whatever; though these are mostly observations made by other people gazing upon the characters, not internal thoughts or overt conversation – the young age, I mean). Mr. Leonard, as mentioned, is the engineer. He gives off a vaguely ‘I’m actually a robot pretending to be a human’ vibe, but the hints that are dropped probably leads me in a different direction. <spoiler>There is a super advanced civilization mentioned in the book on a planet. No one lives in this civilization except for children and either an A.I. or with A.I.’s. The artificial intelligent critters guide and protect the children. There is a relatively high likelihood, as expressed in the book, that the children are children because they had been regressed – had been adults but they themselves did something to themselves to move them back to the age of children – because of how fun it is to be a child with no responsibility, etc.. Well, the hints that are dropped seemed to indicate that Mr. Leonard might be somehow connected to that civilization. I might be reading into things, though so . . .. Either a kid who wanted to ‘play’ and explore – and therefore allowed himself to grow to adult size, or an A.I. from this civilization.</spoiler>

Very quickly the ship adds a pilot – Merlo. Quickly as in almost immediately after the book opens. Merlo is a young woman who has spent most of her live being trained to be a pilot and is therefore super advanced in piloting. She has also been trained in military matters. Most other training, unless related to piloting, has either not occurred, or been of lesser importance. Mostly not occurred.

The three member crew bump around the ‘clusters’ carrying things here and there until they reach a specific planet. On this planet they need to deliver some medicine. While delivering the medicine they are attacked. Injuries occur, etc. etc. (I don’t want to give everything away here), and they end up being worked on by a medic. Named Zimi Praff. Shortly thereafter Zimi joins the crew.

Meanwhile, as the ship has bounced around, Prisoner 286 and Sirrah have been having their own story unfold (as in, they are traveling down the same story path, while the ship crew is on a separate path). Eventually 286 & Sirrah’s paths cross that of Destiny Abounds and they board as passengers. Because Destiny Abounds is super quick.

And so, once everyone is on board the ship darts around speedily doing the business required by Kala Sirrah. Much time in space occurs. Some on planet. Battles occur, some relatively massive. All planet side (a comment is made by Merlo while gazing upon, the as yet named Destiny Abounds, about how it looked like (a) a super advanced ship, (b) that had no obvious weapons; since that comment was made by Merlo who had no clue about that ship, or its capabilities, the question about whether or not the ship actually had weapons or not is still up in the air – weirdly).

Enjoyable book. Sucked me in, spit me out, and now I write this, whatever this is, here. Just like the other series I’ve read by this author pair, books and short stories are already named and mentioned to be releasing soon. Soon was last year. Something occurred which adversely impacted their writing plans, so I’ve no idea if this first book in a series will actually end up being an orphan book. Three books and two short stories all got released in 2015 – normally I’d not make comments like I made except for the fact that they had made this website that seemed to be tracking their work and putting up blog posts. Everything kind of froze, though, with no new information, and the progress bar on the writing locked at a certain number (19%?) for something like six or so months.

Regardless, I look forward to further adventures in this series and in the Dakota Shepherd series.

Review Written: February 18 2016

#Lesbian Fiction #Lesbian Science Fiction #Science Fiction #2016 Reads #Book Review #Lesbian Book Review #Kindle Unlimited #3.75 Stars #Starlight Saga #First in Series

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