Whatever the hell our souls are made of, hers and mine are the same.
(Originally: Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. – Emily Brontë)
This is the quote Anna Todd used in the After series (and to promote the After films). Thousands of teenage girls will remember it as something that describes Todd’s characters instead of Brontë’s. The only two things After and Wuthering Heights have in common are passion and toxic relationships. Everything else is completely incomparable.
I read/listened to the After series because I literally saw the books in every bookshop I entered, regardless of the country. Naturally, I was curious. I didn’t really know it was so YA because the blurb said the characters were university students. Still, I’d say it’s way more YA than new adult.
Where did the After series come from?
Anna Todd wrote the After series on WattPad as fanfiction based on the five One Direction members, but mostly on Harry Styles. I’ve never read anything on WattPad or been a fan of 1D, so I only found out about it when the books were everywhere already. When Anna first wrote After, she named the main male character Harry Styles and some other characters after the other four 1D members. I find that pretty weird, but I guess it’s a fanfiction thing. In the version I read, the names had already been changed (Hardin Scott instead of Harry Styles, etc.).
What the After series is about
Basically, it’s a typical story about an innocent girl and a bad boy, just like Twilight, 50 Shades of Grey, 365 Days and so on. Tessa Young is a good girl with an annoying mother and a boyfriend she’s been dating for two years. She goes to college and meets Hardin Scott, a hot British guy who looks exactly like Styles. He has daddy issues (well, they both do), has lots of piercings and tattoos because he’s SUCH a bad boy and is rude to everyone.
[spoiler]The obvious soon happens: they kiss (yes, she cheats on her boyfriend), they flirt, they argue, they kiss again, he’s being an asshole, she’s being annoying and stupid, they kiss again, the virginity is eventually taken and then a horrible truth is revealed: Hardin made a bet with his friends: to take Tessa’s virginity for money (Cruel Intentions much?).[/spoiler]
Why is the After series so popular then?
After has 1.5 billion reads on Wattpad and tens of millions of books sold in more than 40 countries.
Reason 1: One Direction. I’m pretty sure most people started reading After because they wanted to read invented stories about their favourite five boys.
Reason 2: Sex. There are many sex scenes in the After series, and I personally didn’t enjoy them (Your pulse has quickened, hasn’t it? Your mouth is dry, you have that feeling… down there.) But alas, they are sex scenes.
Reason 3: The good girl – bad boy situation. Apparently, there’s just something people like about it.
Cool things about the After series
The After books kind of have this strange ability to make you want to keep reading/listening, even though they annoy you. I don’t know how to explain it. I just wanted to know the next thing the two idiots will do. This is the biggest compliment I have, and it might also be another main reason for the popularity of the book.
I enjoyed all the classic novels Todd mentioned (not the cheesy comparisons Tessa kept making between Austen’s or Brontë’s characters and herself and Hardin, though). Just the fact that I was reminded of these novels, which are so different from (and so much better than) the After series, and could make a mental note to read the ones I haven’t yet.
… and less cool things about it (in my opinion, of course)
The writing
I found the writing style repetitive and sometimes even boring. I kept hearing/reading “practically begging”, “beyond angry”, “this rude boy”, »I’m so tired of all the back and forth«, etc. Not to mention the unnatural sentences, like I am a moth to his flame, and he never hesitates to burn me. Also, the dialogue sounds awkward, all the women are described as beautiful or gorgeous and all the guys are handsome/good-looking.
The cliches
The two most obvious ones are the “good virgin girl and bad womanizer boy” contrast and the “good girl gone bad” theme. Then there’s how Hardin describes Tessa: she has small hands, a weak body that evidently needs some sort of assistance all the time, she’s so sexy and beautiful day and night, and he just doesn’t seem to be able to get used to the way she looks and is losing his mind every time she wears clothes that aren’t loose. Guys can’t take their eyes off of her, and Hardin has to fight them off constantly.
[spoiler]Hardin’s friend Zed, Tessa’s coworker Trevor and that waiter guy I can’t remember the name of are all in love with Tessa. Her ex is nice to her even though she cheated on him. She keeps saying he’s so nice and perfect and her best friend, but she has never been attracted to him. All these guys are better for her than Hardin, and yet she wants no one but Hardin. Why? Because it’s only possible for a woman to be turned on by arrogant, mean, narcissistic, violent men, the so-called “bad boys”?[/spoiler]
Tessa’s stupidity
Hardin is an arrogant, egoistic asshole who treats Tessa badly, but she keeps running after him. He obviously has issues, and she knows that: she’s doing things just to piss him off. [spoiler]It doesn’t make any sense: all that happens is only there so that we get to read about how they have sex and fight and have sex and fight and have sex and fight and have sex all over again, in four different books.[/spoiler] I honestly couldn’t tell you what exactly happens in books two and three.
There’s very little Britishness in Hardin
Hardin’s supposed to be British, but he only rarely uses British words. There’s a “wanker” here and there but not much more. The two never have a conversation about the differences between British and American English, and they study English! There’s no way they wouldn’t have had this conversation. And then there’s the trip to England: not only does Todd barely describe London, she also keeps calling Hampstead a village. I’m obviously not British, but I’ve lived in London, and as far as I know, Hampstead is considered to be part of (Central) London.
The lost potential of the After series
[spoiler]The way things turn out in the fourth book has (had) potential. Tessa finally decides to spend some time apart from Hardin, and he finally gets professional help. Instead of describing these things in more detail, they are just briefly mentioned. I guess you find out a bit more if you read the book that is written entirely from Hardin’s perspective (which I won’t be doing). Instead of describing this whole process, Todd just gives us an odd tale of how the two meet in different cities across the US and have sex every now and then, but don’t get together until a few years go by.
In the meantime, Hardin somehow becomes a bestselling author. His book is about their relationship (it’s supposed to be After), and everyone says how good it is. Basically, everything sounds very unlikely, and the ending is equally disappointing. Everything is wonderful and everyone’s beautiful and perfectly happy.[/spoiler]
Anna Tood is still worth admiring
The woman wrote a fanfiction book on an app, and it became a bestseller. Then she followed it with three sequels and two spinoffs, they even turned the books into movies! Anna definitely made it, perhaps with the help of Harry Styles who didn’t have a say when his name was used to describe an abusive and possessive guy (fame has its price, I guess). My theory is that the After series was born as a fantasy in which Hardin Scott is Harry Styles and Tessa Young is Anna Todd.
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