Review: Hereafter

Hereafter by Tara Hudson
June 7, 2011 by HarperCollins

Received from Netgalley

Summary via Goodreads:
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 living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

My thoughts: Ghost books are not my forte. In fact, I rarely read anything remotely scary because then I'm in bed at night, staring at the ceiling convincing myself that Gremlins do not exist and that the Siamanese cats from The Lady and the Tramp are not going to strangle me in my sleep. These are my nightmare, folks.


I'm not sure what prompted me to request this book, but I did and I read it. And I fell in love with sweet Joshua and was intrigued by Amelia's ghost-ness. Hudson delivered a mysterious tale of love, death and good and evil, and one I didn't want to put down even after it was finished.

There were several things that really drew me into this book, one being Hudson's ability to describe the setting. The novel takes place in the southeast part of Oklahoma and being a native Okie myself, I enjoyed the beauty that is my home state. I could vividly see the places that Amelia took the reader and I felt that the setting almost became a character itself.

The second thing that I really loved about Hudson's debut novel was the characters--mainly Joshua, who becomes the first person who can see Amelia. Joshua is portrayed as having this incredible aura around him, one that draws people to him. He's friendly, kind, handsome, loyal and many other likable qualities to him. I fell in love with him right along Amelia. Of course, now looking back, he almost seems too perfect. But I'll take it.

I haven't read many ghost stories as previously stated, so I don't have much evidence to go by, but Amelia's presence as a ghost was interesting. She can't touch or move anything or anyone. Until Joshua came around she couldn't see or talk to anyone either. But it was Amelia's lack of direction that really made me think it might be different from other ghost books. It seems like most ghosts have a sort of purpose to be hanging about, and Amelia is just, well, there.

The plot was interesting and it had me captivated. The ending made me happy, but left me with the question What is going to happen to Amelia and Joshua? A teenage boy and ghost? Where is the happy ever after? Thankfully Hereafter is the first of a series :)

Hereafter comes out on Tuesday! Be sure to check it out if you love paranormal or romance novels!