After 101

Review 9

It is undebatable that the story “After” is probably the most controversial discussion topic over Wattpad ever since Anna Todd hit the stage. And her story is also most likely the most famous. Approximately half the people adore her story and her and the other half rip it a part, ridicule, criticize, and, most importantly, hate its guts. There seems to really be no in between. So I’ll leave it up to you to decide where I stand.

The first time I came to Wattpad, I thought it was great. After setting up the account, I decided to check out my recommended stories. Sure enough, there was After 1, After 2, and After 3 in my “recommended” section. Wattpad didn’t know anything about me at this point, or what I’d like and so they just assumed that I’d go for your average pornography just like the rest of the poor new Wattpad members who opened up the book and had no idea what they were getting into. So naturally I clicked on it, knowing nothing about the story, and started to read. I didn’t get very far. In fact, I didn’t even finish a whole page.

Why? Because there were grammar and punctuation mistakes everywhere I looked: an immediate turn off. You would think that a woman in their mid-twenties would have learned this stuff over a decade in advance. It never fails to amaze me. Furthermore, her start was in no way intriguing, her character quite dull and the start of her story already appearing as your typical romance: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fight, and they break up, and get back together. Would you look at that? I got this from the first page.

It wasn’t until later when I realized that this insignificant story I happened to stumble on was really actually quite significant to the rest of the Wattpad population and I read all the reviews and the bashers and found myself inclined to read it again, although what I had heard rather disgusted me, so I could have a valid opinion on the topic.First of all, it’s so unrealistic. A good girl (big shocker), Tessa, meets a bad boy (another shocker) who is basically the exact opposite of her and everything she’s been taught to believe: tattoos, countless piercings, party animals for friends who spend most of their time drunk, and a horrible attitude. And he seems to find the need to be rude to Tessa in every single way possible. But, and listen to this, she finds that she holds a deep and passionate attraction to this troubled man who goes out of his way to humiliate, insult, and torture her. Who could possibly resist? It sure beats me.

And Tessa is seemingly very hollow. Where is this girl’s willpower? The book portrays her as a seemingly intelligent young woman. So if she’s so smart, where’s her brain? Harry continuously emotionally abuses her, but she keeps coming back. And then what? Oh, how could I forget? They have sex. They make up. They fight. He tortures her again.

And she comes right back. Then the cycle starts all over again.

What a fantastic story! And what more? Oh, right. Tessa decides that her horrid new life that revolves around her abuser is worth more to her than her long-time boyfriend who is nothing but kind to her, her old life and values, and, probably the worst of all, her mother. How long has she known this boy? Just a few months, but she gave up everything for him. And what happens when there’s another fight. Well, smarty-pants Tessa has nowhere to go now.

Anna Todd tries to excuse Harry’s behavior for his past. But it’s still not okay. His past may be bad, but it’s not good enough. It doesn’t justify his actions. And if he says he’s getting better, than why does the plot keep replaying itself over and over again?

This story may seem harmless, but it’s not. It’s wrong. The story romanticizes the idea of abuse and makes it look like something perfect, desirable even. It encourages girls to throw away everything they’ve always known to be with someone who continuously lies and hurts them because they think its fun. And this problem is never resolved. It makes me feel sick when I see 11 or 12 year olds praising her story in the comments. It’s disgusting. But to them, it all seems perfectly okay because, hey, Tessa loves this guy, right? Right? No. “After” has no moral behind the story, instead suggesting that there’s nothing more to life except lust and abuse.

So as a result, I rate her story 0.5 out of 5. The 0.5 is only there for her amazing ability at blinding (that’s right, blinding) over one billion people into believing that her story is great.