After

Rating:
Summary: COP OUT ENDING!!!!
Review: This book was entertaining for a while. It was acutally very funny, although completely unintentionally. It was funny to laugh AT. The characters were okay, the plot was mildly entertaining.

HOWEVER, the ending was completely unacceptable. That doesn't mean I disagreed with the ending, or would have wished for another. THERE WASN'T AN ENDING. I mean, if you're going to write a book, please, Francine, bother to write an ending. "Let's round up the remaining survivors, jump in the family mini-van, and drive away into the sunset, running in fear from our problems" does not count as an ending. And no, that was not a spoiler. To spoil something there must be something to spoil. There is no climax, no resolution, and the author doesn't even bother to give the bad guys a reason for destroying people's lives.

The plot is underdeveloped, and the book does not end. Nor is it a haunting non-end, which I could have appreciated. The ending does not leave you struck by any sudden meaning, fear, or feeling of wonder. I can recognize a good non-ending when I see one. They inspire some form of genuine emotion. This ending inspired only genuine annoyance.

I enjoyed the book while reading it, but the plot is extremely under-developed and there is no ending.

Rating:
Summary: What was WITH the ending?
Review: This book was written for people who want books to end with nothing, so that they can come up with their OWN ending. I really enjoyed the book, yet it had potholes along the way. And it was also too unbelievable. I mean, what kind of people would send a girl to a detention camp for teens for wearing a red AIDS ribbon? I will admit this book had me reading nonstop, yet when i reached the end, I just got MAD. There is no ending; they leave. Never look back. Where are the characters going? And what about Toms other two friends,Silas and Avery, what will happen to them? This was a sad, dissapointing book with little truth whatsoever. Unless there is a sequel, I'll never understand this book.

Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: This book, while not immediately scary, has an undertone that will make you look behind yourself when walking alone in your house. With enough intensity to keep you reading until the end, Prose is good at targeting a general audience. It is definately recommended to those with an open mind and free spirit. While the ending is somewhat disappointing, you will be left with an overall feeling of satisfaction.

Rating:
Summary: eerily realistic
Review: When a shooting takes place at Pleasant Valley, a high school fifty miles away, Central High and it's surrounding community gets an "it could happen here" wake-up call, and a frightened school administration hires psychologist Dr. Willner to come in and crack down on the students. The institution of security checks, locker searches, dress codes, and a host of unfair new rules create some dissent, but smart jock Tom Wilson struggles to keep his nose clean, especially when disobeying and disruptive students begin to disappear, supposedly sent to a boot-camp-style place to work on their self-discipline and respect for authority. A little investigation reveals that the students of Pleasant Valley have all but been eliminated, and it seems Central is next.
Rather implausibly, it turns out that parents are being brainwashed to accept these rights-violating policies through the nightly emails sent from Dr. Willner (apparently, everyone has a PC at home). Luckily, Tom's dad has viewed the emails as a waste of time, instead of subscribing to the "they know best" theory like the other parents. What will happen when Dr. Willner realizes the Wilsons are on to him?
First time YA novelist Prose presents an authentic teen view of overprotective adults while hinting that uninvolved parents may be the root of the problem of alienated teens gone wild. The view of attending high school in the post-Columbine novel is hauntingly realistic and highly disturbing. The conclusion lacks confrontation or resolution: tool for discussion, or cliffhanger for a sequel? You decide. Recommended for most collections.

Rating:
Summary: Morbid
Review: When I first read this book I was sorely tempted to buy several copies and leave them in strategic locations.
Usually when someone starts to talk about a book's metaphorical qualities they will focus on just one(

Rating:
Summary: After
Review: When I first saw this book in a library, I checked it out instantly. If you're interested in a spooky mystery, you will undoubtedly be interested in reading this novel, and although it is not fantastic, "After" will satisfy.

As you most likely know from the editorial and other customer reviews, this tale centers around 15-year-old Tom Bishop, who witnesses one of the many tragedies of today's modern world. After a school shooting, paranoia forces the Central High administration to increase security to ever more terrifying degrees.

Infused with mystery, terror and romance, this could be a crowd-pleaser. Only two major flaws keep it from being something truly horrifying and utterly realistic.

Firstly, Mrs. Prose has misrepresented teenagers. In the book, all of Tom's friends, and many of the other teen characters - except for the hero, of course - do drugs, which is certainly not the case in real life. This makes them less likeable, at least in my opinion.

Secondly, the ending sounds as if the author had a deadline to make; we never get answers to many questions, and denouement is nonexistent. Although this would make a dramatic statement if "After" were to be converted to film, readers will be disappointed.

Overall, this book has potential to be a bestseller, but is missing a few crucial elements.

Rating:
Summary: interesting idea, but not so great book
Review: when i first started this book it was pretty interesting, the idea of how the school could become so controlled in the aftermath of a school shooting. the way books and music were censored and how little things like wearing the color red were banned seemed possible. but as the book went on it got less and less plausible. the whole thing with people putting video cameras on the bus and the "conspiracy" of sending kids to camps seemed to be over the top, along with the [convincing] e-mails and many other things. this book had an interesting premise in the beginning, and it seemed like it would be good. the way that "catcher in the rye" was banned and how books about stalin were taken out of the library were kind of extreme but also something i could picture happening. but the plot became very bizarre and unbelieveable, and in the end the whole book really wasn't all that great. it seemed to me like the kids in the book really weren't living in the u.s. at all, like it was some sort of alternate reality. the ending was abrupt and also disbelieveable. i think that the original concept was good, and could have been treated in a more realistic and mature manner. i understand the author's message, but she could have made this much better

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: While this book is an easy and fun read right up to the end, it's totally void of whatever meaning I've come to expect from this author. All the (four or so) main characters are cliches of high school students: one is a druggy (that is his entire personality), and the other three, protagonist included, have no personality, except to make entirely predictable responses to whatever situations arise. The story is so paranoid and absurd that I started thinking that it was going to have an incredible surprise ending, in which it is explained that the new staff member is robot, or that an alien, or that at least the whole story is just a dream or something, but it ends with no such conclusion, just a disappointment.

This is not to say that it's an all-around waste of time. I really did enjoy reading it once I got about half-way through, and once I finished it I had an eerie feeling that maybe it would happen to me, because I have personally been sent to a residential treatment facility with my parents' approval (and not mine). But more so than anything, I was disappointed that the author couldn't have come up with a more meaningful or at least believable ending because the idea certainly could have made for a good book.

Rating:
Summary: After
Review: Wow....this book was really awesome!....You feel like your right there in the middle of all this....i really hope that there's a sequel.