Abby's Reviews > In the After

In the After is the second Elisa Dane book that I read, and I totally sped through it! I truly adored the main character, Sadie Reynolds, a high schooler who is living a bit of a lie as she is a part of the popular crowd at school. Aside from her best friend Jenna, no one knows about her true trauma-ridden past and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. She connects with Hayden, a new boy from the other side of town who doesn’t run in the same circles as she does— and the Queen Bee of her clique is not happy about it. Not to mention the fact that Hayden is the cousin of a boy she befriended when she first moved to town and immediately dropped when she realized he was too nerdy and would harm her social reputation.

I was expecting this book to be a more light-hearted read— I can’t give away why it’s not (no spoilers!!), but y’all can trust me on this one. It gets intense. I wasn’t sure what to think at first, but wound up finding myself captivated by Dane’s writing about tragedy, trauma, love, loss, and friendship. I read this entire book over the course of three hours— I literally did not put it down!

All that being said, I was a bit confused by Sadie and Hayden’s relationship and the feasibility of such a monster clique happening at a school without any administration being aware of it. So, unfortunately, I can’t give the book 5 stars!

***4 STARS***

Note: I received an ARC of In the After from Elisa Dane in exchange for an honest review.