In The After [Review + Rant]

In the After [Book 1 of the Fighting Chance series]

By Elisa Dane
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wow.

What an emotional roller coaster this book was for me.

I didn’t read the blurb about this book, wanting to be surprised.

Mission accomplished.

The cover is absolutely adorable, so I figured this would be a cute little love story. While there was a great deal of blush-worthy romance, this book was so much more than that. The main character, Sadie Reynolds, is constantly tormented by shadows of the past, and once you've gotten a glimpse of what happened to her, it's not at all surprising that she has consistent nightmares as well as fear of the dark. Bullying is also a major issue that is addressed regularly. Sadie is friends with absolutely horrible people, known as the “Atwood Elite”, who not only torment those who the deem to be below them, but they are also condescending to each other. It’s very obvious right off that Sadie and her best friend Jenna hate being friends with these people and would like nothing more than to leave the AE. The only thing that seems to hold them is fear of the wrath of the other members, mainly the leader Brit, and the connections that they have. While Sadie and Jenna don’t take part in any of the bullying and name-calling, they stand by and do nothing, which is just as bad.

The main recipients of the AE’s torture are Sadie’s neighbor Ian and his friend Newton, who have not-so-affectionately been named “Douche One” and “Douche Two”. Throughout the story we get glimpses of the AE in action against these two undeserving victims and how it gradually changes them. As it would turn out, the love interest ends up being Ian’s cousin, Hayden Pope. Hayden is forbidden fruit for Sadie, as he is a recent transfer from Wayverly, and those students are off limits to the AE, with the exception of a one-night-stand.

Classy bunch, this AE.

I won’t get into the Sayden (Haydie?) details because I want you to enjoy it for yourself, but let’s just say that Elisa Dane doesn’t hold back much. If you’re reading the Ebook version like I did, you better have another paperback handy to fan yourself with because things get heated between these two.

I enjoyed the romance aspect, not only because it was juicy, but because it helped offset the seriousness of everything else going on. I really wanted this book to take a turn. I wanted the villain to be redeemed in the end. But this wasn’t a fairy tale with a happily-ever-after. This story was real and truthful, and the villain was actually the victim.

Every time I thought things might come around, they went and got upturned again. In the beginning I judged Sadie for not standing up to these terrible people and telling them exactly how she felt about them and how they treated others. As the story progressed, however, and I saw just how easy it was for them to twist things around and isolate their victims, I realized I would be just as terrified to speak up.

Each and every person on this planet deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, until they prove otherwise (most of the AE being those cases that have proven otherwise). It is so easy to make a mean comment, or a joke at someone’s expense, and while it means very little to us, it could be just one more piece being chipped away from their resolve. We all have our breaking points. We’re all human. We can only handle so much.

In The After drives home so many important messages about acceptance and kindness, things that we need so much in this day and age. There is so much violence and ugliness in the world right now, and it is absolutely senseless and can so easily be minimized with each of us taking our words and actions into consideration before inflicting them on others.

My heart hurts for this imaginary character in this fictional story because he was so beat down, and broken, that he felt the only way to make it stop was to do what he did. He may not be real, but he represents so many real people who deal with the same things on a daily basis. He represents those people in real life who took the same drastic actions that he did. He represents so many young people in or world today who were so hurt and so mistreated that they thought death was the only solution.

Death. Violence. Revenge. It does nothing but cause more hurt.

Love. Kindness. Sympathy. Those are the solutions, and it is up to ALL OF US, as a species, to continue the effort.

                                                     

There is so much hurt and sadness in the world and I can’t fix it all.

And that kills me.

I don’t want anyone to ever feel unworthy.

I don’t want anyone to ever feel that they are somehow WRONG because they think, look, act, feel, love, live differently than others.

I don’t want anyone to hurt for reasons that we as fellow human beings can prevent.

Oh man, this book messed me up.

Violence Rating: R (Multiple murders, attempted sexual assault)

Romance Rating: PG17 (Nudity, comment-worthy bulges in pants, non-descriptive sex)

Keeper -The Morphid Chronicles- [Review]

Keeper (Book 1 of The Morphid Chronicles)

by Ingrid Seymour
⭐⭐⭐

Don’t be fooled by the opening bit about the Trig test, this book drops you right into the middle of the action, at the beginning of Greg’s metamorphosis. I’ll admit, at first I was unsympathetic, (“Look, dude, math is a pain in my neck too. Deal with it bro.”) but things quickly got interesting. I didn’t read the synopsis or any reviews, wanting to go into this story blindly, and I’m pleased with how that turned out. I was able to share Greg’s worry and concern over what was happening to him as I read it.

“He straightened with a jolt and put a hand to the base of his neck. His fingers tentatively traveled down each vertebrae. Something bumpy and oozing blistered under his touch. Oh shit!”

Oh shit, indeed.

I’ll admit Greg was a little more prepared, having grown up a Morphid whereas I had never even heard of one until this point, but he still had his uncertainties about the process and how painful it was meant to be. As he staggered to get home and then dropped to the floor, the possibilities were flying through my mind (“He’s a werewolf! He’s some kind of human-reptile thingy! He’s… ground beef boy? What is this book?!”) By this point he himself had decided that something had gone wrong, that he was actually dying, and his mom’s nonchalance about the whole thing simultaneously bugged and reassured me. Sure enough, he emerged on the other side of his transformation very much improved (by conventional standards of beauty and the ideals of swoony bookish fangirls, of course).

Confused?

Well, basically Morphids are like caterpillars, plain and unnoticeable, until they go through a cocoon-like metamorphosis (possibly where the name of their race originated), and wake up two weeks later as tall, beautiful, well-endowed butterflies. At the end of the morphing process, a mark that looks a lot like a scarification tattoo appears on the back of their necks identifying which caste they belong to. A few castes are mentioned, but the book never really goes into much detail about the whole system. How did it start? How is it decided? Is it possible to fight against your assigned caste or is freewill really and truly nonexistent once you go through your metamorphosis? As it would turn out Greg’s mark is one that is very rare and hasn’t been seen for a long time. Greg is a Keeper (hence the name of the book) and his new caste brain immediately begins warring with his old one, sending him frantically in search of someone named Sam. All of his thoughts and actions are geared toward finding and protecting Sam from harm no matter what. This is handy because Sam, or rather Samantha, lives a pretty depressing life with virtually non-existent (both physically and emotionally) parents, and she could really afford to have someone around who cares about her well-being. Sam is also a Morphid, though she doesn’t know it yet, and is fated to be the companion of another Morphid named Ashby. Companions, like Greg’s parents, are absolutely and unquestionably attracted to their ‘Integral’ and it is their destiny to “support the growth of the population”.

Bow chicka wow-wow.

Seriously though, it’s like imprinting on someone you haven’t even met and then feeling an unreasonable attraction to them that drives you mad until you find them.

Ah, love.

I won’t get into details and spoil the fun for you, but this book is described as having a love triangle. Being that one of the people in said triangle only feels the way that they do because of metamorphosis-induced compulsion, so to speak, I feel like that is kind of an unfair description.

Don’t think of it as a love triangle.

I mean, it is…

but it isn’t.

Honestly, the only reason that I feel remotely bad for Ashby is all due to the first chapter from his point-of-view, in-which we get a glimpse of the absolute love and adoration that he feels for Sam. Also the whole lack-of-free-will thing too. I feel bad that he has to deal with that, but otherwise he seems rather snobby and annoying.

Dear Team Ashby, please don’t kill me!

Bad things happen, hijinks ensue; it’s all good, you should read it.

When I first heard about this book I thought “Hey cool, free book! I’ll get around to reading this eventually”. When I finally did read it, I thought “I can’t believe this book was free! Why didn’t I read it sooner?” I’ll admit I got really into the story and couldn’t put it down. I stayed up well into the wee hours of morning, and actually fell asleep while still reading, (I know this because I found the Kindle on the floor when I woke up—whoops!). While I enjoyed the story for the majority of the book, and I felt that the multiple pov’s was written well, the end of it left me with a weird feeling and many questions. Two issues were brought up in a council meeting near the beginning of the book, and though cases of them were hinted at during the story, they were pretty much left untouched and unexplained. This book is the first of a series, so I guess the time for answers will come later, but it bothered me how much was left up in the air. I have questions about things that didn’t happen, as well as things that did, but feel like they were left unresolved.  Also, there wasn’t much explanation about the history of the Morphid people and, again, the different castes. I will definitely read the next book in the series (Ripper) because, like I said, there are just so many unanswered questions, but I’m not in any rush to do so.







Violence Rating: PG13 (Fighting, blood, death)
Romance Rating: PG13 (sexy makeout scene, talk of desire for more)