YA Review: Hereafter by Tara Hudson

In One Sentence: An original and interesting ghost story.


Description from Amazon: Release date - June 7, 2011


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.



The Lovin': This one had me hooked on the first page. I was thoroughly impressed by the writing right off the bat and that was the main reason I stuck with it. I'd love to see what other stories Hudson has up her sleeve. 


I became invested in the main character quickly due to her being a ghost and kind of lost in her afterlife. Gosh, I just felt for her. But, as the story progressed, she turned into an intelligent, strong-willed person. Joshua is a sweetheart, the kind of guy that only exists in books, unfortunately. I did feel that the supporting characters were lacking in personalities but that was okay because I really did just want to focus on the relationship between Amelia and Joshua.


The whole mythos Tara develops relating to ghosts and why they're here is different and creepy, definitely something I haven't seen before.


The only problem I really had was I thought our main characters had a solution to their problem that they never utilized it, but, at least I didn't foresee the ending.


Bottom Line: The ending left me going, "Hey, come back here!" and I hope this story and its characters do just that!