Lady Danielle

1.5 stars 

I'm absolutely disappointed with In the After. This was not what I expected at all. What started off fast-paced, and nail-bitingly awesome ended up being a complete bore.

How did the story go from this




a girl watching television on a normal day; suddenly the broadcast is interrupted with the President talking about an attack -- showing the people a small footage of an alien. The girl is home alone when this happens. Her mother was off working for the government and her father shopping. The lines are dead, leaving her with no way of contacting her friends or mom. Thus, the survival begins as people are being killed, going into hiding, and doing God knows what else. Fortunately for the girl, her father was an eco-friendly geek who installed solar-panels (hello, lights!) and her mother a cautious woman who installed an electric fence around the house (hello, protection against the aliens!)

to this



Honestly. I know Amy and Baby were supposed to go to a compound, but I did not expect the author to just give me a new story entirely. No really, it felt like I was reading some dystopian novel I've read multiple times: children being divided into Classes depending on their age, wearing the same jumpsuits, weird technology, etc. I think Lunetta just occasionally threw in the term "They" or "Them" to remind us that we're reading a story on alien invasion. Sorry, Lunetta, but you didn't fool me. The premise of the story fell flat on its face.

The beginning of the story (pages 1 - 135) I give it 4 stars because it was very promising, but from pages 136 - 455 it's a 1.5 out of 5 stars. If I wanted to read something such as the given pages, maybe it would have been a 3. But, unfortunately, I was in no mood for dystopia... or whatever the hell I received. Also, what was the point of those flashbacks starting from part 2 of the story till the end? Lunetta gave us three stories... in ONE! 

The first 135 pages will leave you thinking and prepare you for any possible alien invasion (if you believe that such exist or would happen). What would you do if you found out your town was invaded by aliens? How would you react? These creatures were not original, but still terrifying. They move faster than pretty much anything, they don't kill the victims first before they devour them... they eat while they're still alive -- basking in their victims screams. They only come out in the sun since they can't really see in the dark, which is a plus, but they can hear a noise from miles away. You have to be quiet as well as stealthy to go scavenging for food.

I wish Lunetta kept to the premise, this would have been one hell of a story. It has a lot of potential... which is why I'm going to read the sequel, but I'm in no rush.