After We Collided by Anna Todd

After We Collided by Anna Todd

Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: September 7th, 2013
Pages: 688
Series: After #2
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 0/5
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Tessa has everything to lose. Hardin has nothing to lose…except her.AFTER WE COLLIDED…Life will never be the same.

After a tumultuous beginning to their relationship, Tessa and Hardin were on the path to making things work. Tessa knew Hardin could be cruel, but when a bombshell revelation is dropped about the origins of their relationship—and Hardin’s mysterious past—Tessa is beside herself.

Hardin will always be…Hardin. But is he really the deep, thoughtful guy Tessa fell madly in love with despite his angry exterior—or has he been a stranger all along? She wishes she could walk away. It’s just not that easy. Not with the memory of passionate nights spent in his arms. His electric touch. His hungry kisses.

Still, Tessa’s not sure she can endure one more broken promise. She put so much on hold for Hardin—school, friends, her mom, a relationship with a guy who really loved her, and now possibly even a promising new career. She needs to move forward with her life.

Hardin knows he made a mistake, possibly the biggest one of his life. He’s not going down without a fight. But can he change?Will he change…for love?

I know what you guys are thinking, and yes I lost my effing mind. Obviously my review of After was anything but positive. I cannot tell you what possessed me to continue the series except curiosity. And well my adoring fans told me to. Lol. It's like I have a disturbing fascination with torturing my mind with this inane garbage. 

After reading After it's not like I went into this one with any illusions. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. For a first book to be so blatantly terrible there's no way a sequel could see a 100% turn around(spoiler this shit actually got worse). Unfortunately these books are exactly like a train wreck. I can't look away. I'm clearly as insane as the characters for wasting my time on such ridiculousness. After we Collided still continued to show it's reader what a toxic relationship looks like. I get unhealthy. I've loved my fair share of books featuring an unhealthy relationship. The thing is these books don't show growth. They don't portray this relationship, these characters in any way that shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hardin is clearly mentally ill. And rather than show what is a very serious topic in any sort of responsible way, Todd pretty much has the characters being rude, disrespectful and totally inappropriate towards it. In fact it made me pretty uncomfortable. I'm all for smut. I read plenty of it. But as soon as something I'm reading for fun and enjoyment disregards all social responsibility for something as prominent as mental illness I can't deal. Whether inadvertently or not. Even when this started as free fan-fic. Awareness should always be a factor. Clearly it was not here.

Let's talk about the plot. Or lack there of. I liken this book to a cow; 700 pages of regurgitation. It is literally the same four chapters rewritten with some minor rewording. Tessa and Hardin fight over Hardin's inability to say or do the right things. Tessa grows a pair of balls and walks away from Hardin. They both go totally emo for a few hours. Hardin punches someone. Tessa steps in. Hardin says he'll change. Tessa says she doesn't believe him but she can't stay away. They have a terrible sex scene. And repeat. For 700 fucking pages. 

The story is continually getting worse. The characters are awful. There is not one character that doesn't have a secret agenda or is socially inept. I could go on and on about Tessa and Hardin for days. But I did that in my review of After and absolutely nothing has changed. Let's go with Landon. He's a prominent supporting character. Tessa's bff. Hardin's step-brother. Landon doesn't think many good things about Hardin. Thinks Tessa should be staying the hell away from him. For obvious reasons. Yet he continues to subtly push them together. For the thousandth time Tessa is crying on his shoulder about Hardin hurting her. But when Hardin(rudely) asks for his help Landon gives it. All the time. What the mother fuck? Award for worst best friend right there. If I was to blind to see the mess I was involved in, I'd hope to God I could count on my loved ones to open my eyes not keep them closed. 

It's not just Landon. Hardin punches his dad just because he's an angry guy. Uncontrollably angry. Dad is mad for 2.5 seconds. Than says it's okay that's just Hardin. No! It's fucking not. He needs professional help. 

Zed, Zayne, some other guy from One Direction I don't care to remember the name of is of course in love with Tessa even though she's playing him for a fool. Anyhow, Hardin beats him into oblivion but some how doesn't end up in jail. He pushes an old professor over. Yells profanities and threatens people for keeping him in a holding cell for nearly killing someone. But you know Tessa is able to bat her eyelashes and tell Zayne, Zed, whatever that he can't press charges. He can't do that to Hardin. So he says fine. What in the actual fuck? It's okay, Hardin nearly murdered you, but because he can't control himself you pressing charges is not right. This book is beyond infuriating. Actually the amount of times that Tessa thinks to herself that Hardin would never hurt her physically well they're having a raging argument is also frightening. That thought should never even cross your mind. The fact that it does speaks volumes. Not only that you should be no where near this guy. But also that your subconscious is sending you a pretty heavy message. Your subconscious is smart enough to be scared that there's an astronomical possibility that your boyfriend could physically hurt you. I don't even care if he means to or not. That's far beyond the point. Hardin goes completely blind to the outside world when he's angry enough to hurt someone(this is every time he's angry). He is not a safe person to be around. At any time.

I wasn't all over the Goodreads updates this time around. Mostly because the whole regurgitation thing going on. But I still jumped in there every once and a while to point out some awesomeness going down or being said. Status updates can be checked out here if you so please. 

I need to stop myself here before I literally rip this book apart page by page. And believe you and me that wouldn't be hard. These books take toxic and unhealthy to a whole different level. If there was even the small probability of Hardin getting the help he needs I'd hold on to a small glimmer of hope. But when the only time that Hardin's "craziness" is brought up in a disrespectfully joking manner I know that the only outcome of this story will make me go crazy. I don't know guys, is this just me? I feel like there's an influx of books focusing on romanticizing abusive relationships hitting the shelves and best seller lists these days. It's really disheartening.

Happy reading!

Brittany