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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I knew it... I didn't want to believe it but I knew he was behind it.
If you want to experience a story about reapers (here called Lifers) ushering souls to the afterlife, the TV show Dead Like Me did it better.
But this is better than the first book in the series, even with the (again) egregious cliffhanger that is becoming a YA paranormal trilogy standard, where the whole book builds up a situation and ends just as it gets interesting, and the (again) dual narrator, where for some reason the Bad Guy gets to monologue about his feelings without ever really saying anything relevant to the story. I got caught up enough in the mystery of all the stuff going wrong on this Limbo Fantasy Island to give this three stars, but those stars are heavily qualified by the shallow characters, workmanlike writing, and the fact that at least 200 pages of this book are just filler to get to the cliffhanger.
I think this could make an excellent teen CW television show, though I don't know if it would go the way of the superior Vampire Diaries or the inferior The Secret Circle. I would totally give it a try.
But this is better than the first book in the series, even with the (again) egregious cliffhanger that is becoming a YA paranormal trilogy standard, where the whole book builds up a situation and ends just as it gets interesting, and the (again) dual narrator, where for some reason the Bad Guy gets to monologue about his feelings without ever really saying anything relevant to the story. I got caught up enough in the mystery of all the stuff going wrong on this Limbo Fantasy Island to give this three stars, but those stars are heavily qualified by the shallow characters, workmanlike writing, and the fact that at least 200 pages of this book are just filler to get to the cliffhanger.
I think this could make an excellent teen CW television show, though I don't know if it would go the way of the superior Vampire Diaries or the inferior The Secret Circle. I would totally give it a try.
2.5 rounding to 3. 2nd of Shadowlands. Sucked in. Fast, entertaining read :)
After the cliffhanger ending of Shadowlands, I was anxious to step back into Kate Brian’s world with Hereafter. Once again I got swept up with Juniper Landing and its inhabitants. Brain fleshes out the world and characters, as she weaves mystery and suspense into her tale. Three word review: captivating, mysterious and ends in a major cliffy!
The tale begins right where Shadowlands ended so it is essential that you read book one as Hereafter hits the ground running. Rory Miller, her sister and Dad are hiding from a serial killer on Juniper Landing Island. Rory is learning things aren’t what they seem, and the beautiful locals become her friend and reveal their secrets. As she learns about the island, she feels someone watching her and things seem to be going wrong all around the island. Rory is determined to set things right and the tale that unfolds was steeped in mystery with a side dish of romance.
Rory Miller can be fearless and a total kick-ass. She questions everything and isn’t afraid to tackle issues. She has a lot on her plate, and I was impressed by how she handles things. Apart of her wants to let loose and enjoy but she struggles with her need for answers. Tristan is the leader of the local clique, and we learned more about this smexy, blue-eyed golden boy. Brian continues to flesh-out the rest of the locals and I appreciated their unique voices. Throughout the tale we are privy to the point of view of an unknown resident who is up to no good. This voice created suspense leaving the reader unsettled. However and maybe it was the formatting of my arc, but the transition took me by surprise. Each time it occurred I would need to back track to get my bearings. Thankfully this voice only appears a few times and added to the tale.
For a middle book Hereafter was an intense and solid follow-up to Shadowlands. Brian kept up the suspense, and intensity of the first novel, while continuing to flesh out the world as she added new threads to keep the reader engaged. We see character development and get a stronger sense of Juniper Landing and what is occurring there. Beautifully paced, with moments of discovery, a little romance and danger I was completely captivated. Like Rory I questioned everything and everyone and enjoyed feeling on edge. While this didn’t blow my mind with its reveals in the way Shadowlands did, I still found myself completely engaged, and quickly consumed this in just two sittings. As with Shadowlands, Hereafter, ended with a huge cliffhanger that left me screaming for more.
Filled with mystery, and excellent world-building, Hereafter was a worthy addition to the Shadowlands trilogy. Kate Brian creates a tale that keeps you on edge, unable to trust what you are reading and driving you too search of answers. Even the most seasoned reader will be caught by surprise.
Copy received in exchange for unbiased review and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer
The tale begins right where Shadowlands ended so it is essential that you read book one as Hereafter hits the ground running. Rory Miller, her sister and Dad are hiding from a serial killer on Juniper Landing Island. Rory is learning things aren’t what they seem, and the beautiful locals become her friend and reveal their secrets. As she learns about the island, she feels someone watching her and things seem to be going wrong all around the island. Rory is determined to set things right and the tale that unfolds was steeped in mystery with a side dish of romance.
Rory Miller can be fearless and a total kick-ass. She questions everything and isn’t afraid to tackle issues. She has a lot on her plate, and I was impressed by how she handles things. Apart of her wants to let loose and enjoy but she struggles with her need for answers. Tristan is the leader of the local clique, and we learned more about this smexy, blue-eyed golden boy. Brian continues to flesh-out the rest of the locals and I appreciated their unique voices. Throughout the tale we are privy to the point of view of an unknown resident who is up to no good. This voice created suspense leaving the reader unsettled. However and maybe it was the formatting of my arc, but the transition took me by surprise. Each time it occurred I would need to back track to get my bearings. Thankfully this voice only appears a few times and added to the tale.
For a middle book Hereafter was an intense and solid follow-up to Shadowlands. Brian kept up the suspense, and intensity of the first novel, while continuing to flesh out the world as she added new threads to keep the reader engaged. We see character development and get a stronger sense of Juniper Landing and what is occurring there. Beautifully paced, with moments of discovery, a little romance and danger I was completely captivated. Like Rory I questioned everything and everyone and enjoyed feeling on edge. While this didn’t blow my mind with its reveals in the way Shadowlands did, I still found myself completely engaged, and quickly consumed this in just two sittings. As with Shadowlands, Hereafter, ended with a huge cliffhanger that left me screaming for more.
Filled with mystery, and excellent world-building, Hereafter was a worthy addition to the Shadowlands trilogy. Kate Brian creates a tale that keeps you on edge, unable to trust what you are reading and driving you too search of answers. Even the most seasoned reader will be caught by surprise.
Copy received in exchange for unbiased review and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer
The second book in the trilogy. It was anticlimactic, but sets up the third book nicely.
I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first book. Maybe because I thought the ending was so obvious the entire time, I don't know. I'm just hoping the ending is what it seems and won't be something different in the next book, if that makes sense.
DAMN. This one was infinitely better than the first one. I need the last book asap!!
Earlier this year, after reading Shadowlands I was left feeling… confused. The first installment of this series starts out as one thing and ends up something completely different, all the answers being revealed in an infuriating cliffhanger on the final page. I did like the twist, and I liked most of the book, but if I were to describe it with one word, that word would be “weird.” There’s just no other way around it. But for all its weirdness I definitely did enjoy Shadowlands and knew I needed to get my hands on the sequel when it came out. That being said, because of the nature of the cliffhanger, this review will have spoilers for Shadowlands but not for Hereafter.
Hereafter was by no means the perfect book, but I definitely did enjoy reading it. Now that we know what’s really going on on Juniper Landing, there is a more clear-cut plot. We know what’s at stake now. Rory and her friends – the Lifers – are ushering the souls of the dead – all the other non-Lifer residents of Juniper Landing – onto either the Light or the Shadowlands. And now, some of those souls are being ushered to the wrong destination.
A lot of what held this book together for me was in the plot. I’m not usually one for paranormal stories, but the idea of the Lifers and the entire story surrounding Juniper Landing somehow intrigues me. And with the added mystery of who is causing the trouble – and how – I just really wanted to know what would happen next. The world-building isn’t flawless, and books about any kind of afterlife typically ask more questions than they answered, but nevertheless, the story pulled through for me.
However, the writing and the characters lacked in Hereafter. It wasn’t that the writing was really bad, but it was kind of simple and a little boring. The plain language brought into stark contrast the very few times the author decided to be in any way flowery or descriptive. So the more beautiful passages stood out and made it even more obvious how plain the rest of it was. I am also not a fan for writing that is totally on-the-nose with the characters’ feelings. Show me, don’t tell me.
There are simply too many characters in this series and the writing suffers because of this. There are about 10 kids, all Lifers, who all spend most of their time together. (There are ‘adult’ Lifers, too, though.) Every time all the characters got together, there would be entire paragraphs dedicated to describing what the characters were doing, with one sentence per person. The sentences were all basically the same structure and it was just really clunky and uncomfortable. “Krista sat down. Bea leaned on the rock. Kevin sighed.” It was just weird.
The abundance of characters in Hereafter didn’t just affect the writing – with so many people to keep track of, I often found myself forgetting which character was which. And since we never really got to know any of them except for Tristan, Joaquin, and Krista, it didn’t really matter much who was who. Swap in one name for any other name and it didn’t change the story one bit. I usually love large casts, but only when each character gets the attention and depth they deserve.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Rory, but I didn’t completely hate her. Mostly she was just the same kind of heroine you’ll find all over YA – plain, boring. There were times when she definitely did stand up for herself and what she believed in, but mostly I thought she was a wet noodle. After being on the island for ten whole days, she was entirely too obsessed with Tristan and ‘loving’ him, bemoaning spending a dark and lonely forever without him after he turned down her advances. A lot of it was a bit over the top, but I was able to look past it to get to the meat of the plot.
This series won’t be for everyone. A lot of readers probably will not like Rory. But I really love the strange world Kate Brian has created in Juniper Landing. I am a HUGE fan of Joaquin, too. Reading through Hereafter I totally thought I would DNF, but I am so glad I didn’t. I love where this story is going, despite some of the books’ flaws, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Hereafter was by no means the perfect book, but I definitely did enjoy reading it. Now that we know what’s really going on on Juniper Landing, there is a more clear-cut plot. We know what’s at stake now. Rory and her friends – the Lifers – are ushering the souls of the dead – all the other non-Lifer residents of Juniper Landing – onto either the Light or the Shadowlands. And now, some of those souls are being ushered to the wrong destination.
A lot of what held this book together for me was in the plot. I’m not usually one for paranormal stories, but the idea of the Lifers and the entire story surrounding Juniper Landing somehow intrigues me. And with the added mystery of who is causing the trouble – and how – I just really wanted to know what would happen next. The world-building isn’t flawless, and books about any kind of afterlife typically ask more questions than they answered, but nevertheless, the story pulled through for me.
However, the writing and the characters lacked in Hereafter. It wasn’t that the writing was really bad, but it was kind of simple and a little boring. The plain language brought into stark contrast the very few times the author decided to be in any way flowery or descriptive. So the more beautiful passages stood out and made it even more obvious how plain the rest of it was. I am also not a fan for writing that is totally on-the-nose with the characters’ feelings. Show me, don’t tell me.
There are simply too many characters in this series and the writing suffers because of this. There are about 10 kids, all Lifers, who all spend most of their time together. (There are ‘adult’ Lifers, too, though.) Every time all the characters got together, there would be entire paragraphs dedicated to describing what the characters were doing, with one sentence per person. The sentences were all basically the same structure and it was just really clunky and uncomfortable. “Krista sat down. Bea leaned on the rock. Kevin sighed.” It was just weird.
The abundance of characters in Hereafter didn’t just affect the writing – with so many people to keep track of, I often found myself forgetting which character was which. And since we never really got to know any of them except for Tristan, Joaquin, and Krista, it didn’t really matter much who was who. Swap in one name for any other name and it didn’t change the story one bit. I usually love large casts, but only when each character gets the attention and depth they deserve.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Rory, but I didn’t completely hate her. Mostly she was just the same kind of heroine you’ll find all over YA – plain, boring. There were times when she definitely did stand up for herself and what she believed in, but mostly I thought she was a wet noodle. After being on the island for ten whole days, she was entirely too obsessed with Tristan and ‘loving’ him, bemoaning spending a dark and lonely forever without him after he turned down her advances. A lot of it was a bit over the top, but I was able to look past it to get to the meat of the plot.
This series won’t be for everyone. A lot of readers probably will not like Rory. But I really love the strange world Kate Brian has created in Juniper Landing. I am a HUGE fan of Joaquin, too. Reading through Hereafter I totally thought I would DNF, but I am so glad I didn’t. I love where this story is going, despite some of the books’ flaws, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Rory Miller has run for her life, literally. Her family is forced into the witness protection program after a serial killer went after her. She is happy on Juniper Landing Island with her father and sister until she learns the terrible truth. They did not get away from the killer before he killed them. The island is really a way station before souls move on to the next realm. Rory is special though. She is a rare individual who assists in moving the souls on, but this also means her father and sister will not be staying with her.
Hereafter is the second book in the Shadowlands trilogy. I will admit that I did not read the first book and jumped right into the middle of the series and didn’t feel like I was missing much. The characters did reference the serial killer from the first book and mentioned how they felt about the ordeal, and this was enough of a review to let this book make sense. With that said, I still didn’t like the book. Middle books are tricky, but it still felt as if the entire book was setting up for the final book. Very little was resolved and without including spoilers Hereafter was an unsatisfactory read. I don’t think I will be looking for the first or next book.
Hereafter is the second book in the Shadowlands trilogy. I will admit that I did not read the first book and jumped right into the middle of the series and didn’t feel like I was missing much. The characters did reference the serial killer from the first book and mentioned how they felt about the ordeal, and this was enough of a review to let this book make sense. With that said, I still didn’t like the book. Middle books are tricky, but it still felt as if the entire book was setting up for the final book. Very little was resolved and without including spoilers Hereafter was an unsatisfactory read. I don’t think I will be looking for the first or next book.