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A review by happi_mess
After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2.0
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
After six years of marriage and falling out of love with each other, Lauren and Ryan decides to split for a year with no contact! During this year, they would embark on their journeys to learn more about themselves and possibly pinpoint what went wrong in their marriage.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Rating: ★★
I don't know! Maybe I am not the target audience for this book. Maybe I'm not old enough to be reading this book and relate to it. But you know what? This book scarred me anyway. I could definitely see myself coming up with this plan of a year of separation if my marrige is going stale. I would probably be planning a whole round trip around the world and meet cute guys at every city!
What scared me in this book was it's ordinariness. I can't believe that if this happens to me, I could end up where Lauren is! She did not do much to say the least. And I can see myself ending up like her. SO NO. I'm afraid to get married now, not because of the falling out of love, but because of the tasteless life that comes after it. Thank you!
The ending?
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The things that I like
☽ The writing. No matter how much I didn't like how this book turned out. TJR remains a good storyteller. I loved the beginning of this book. I loved how there was the history and how it contrasts what was happening in the present. I was really looking forward to it... until we didn't really get anywhere.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The things that I DID NOT like
☾ Lauren. She could have done a lot of things with that year! I didn't think that she did enough for herself. All she did was dive back in her family and problematize about their problems while she stalked her husband's emails!
☾ It was boring. Okay, maybe it's because I'm too young to relate to this. Hell, I'm not even married. What I think what happened is that I expected too much from this book. Also, the start of this book is way too SLOW.
It was said that this is like a self-discovery for Lauren. I thought she would actually go somewhere else, go try new things and all of that. That something would change inside of her not because people around her were telling her that "oh this happened to me, so it's okay and you'll be okay", "marriage is like this yada yada". I wanted this book to be about her but it turned out to be more about her family when we reached the middle.
☾ The ending. It was so quick. Suddenly we reached this point and we did not how we got there. I'm not a fan of it. There could have been a better ending for this book. Them going separate ways as they don't really match each other that much? Realizing that it's a nice time to self-discover more? Starting off as friends again? It seems like any other ending could have been good aside from that one.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
In sum: I think this is something that more mature people would enjoy. Probably married ones or newly divorced, or going through a break up. They would be able to relate to Lauren better.
I would definitely not recommend this to teens and people who are beginning their twenties. It's going to be a waste of time!
“Ryan and I are two people who used to be in love.
What a beautiful thing to have been.
What a sad thing to be.”
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
After six years of marriage and falling out of love with each other, Lauren and Ryan decides to split for a year with no contact! During this year, they would embark on their journeys to learn more about themselves and possibly pinpoint what went wrong in their marriage.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Rating: ★★
I don't know! Maybe I am not the target audience for this book. Maybe I'm not old enough to be reading this book and relate to it. But you know what? This book scarred me anyway. I could definitely see myself coming up with this plan of a year of separation if my marrige is going stale. I would probably be planning a whole round trip around the world and meet cute guys at every city!
What scared me in this book was it's ordinariness. I can't believe that if this happens to me, I could end up where Lauren is! She did not do much to say the least. And I can see myself ending up like her. SO NO. I'm afraid to get married now, not because of the falling out of love, but because of the tasteless life that comes after it. Thank you!
The ending?
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The things that I like
☽ The writing. No matter how much I didn't like how this book turned out. TJR remains a good storyteller. I loved the beginning of this book. I loved how there was the history and how it contrasts what was happening in the present. I was really looking forward to it... until we didn't really get anywhere.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The things that I DID NOT like
☾ Lauren. She could have done a lot of things with that year! I didn't think that she did enough for herself. All she did was dive back in her family and problematize about their problems while she stalked her husband's emails!
☾ It was boring. Okay, maybe it's because I'm too young to relate to this. Hell, I'm not even married. What I think what happened is that I expected too much from this book. Also, the start of this book is way too SLOW.
It was said that this is like a self-discovery for Lauren. I thought she would actually go somewhere else, go try new things and all of that. That something would change inside of her not because people around her were telling her that "oh this happened to me, so it's okay and you'll be okay", "marriage is like this yada yada". I wanted this book to be about her but it turned out to be more about her family when we reached the middle.
☾ The ending. It was so quick. Suddenly we reached this point and we did not how we got there. I'm not a fan of it. There could have been a better ending for this book. Them going separate ways as they don't really match each other that much? Realizing that it's a nice time to self-discover more? Starting off as friends again? It seems like any other ending could have been good aside from that one.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
In sum: I think this is something that more mature people would enjoy. Probably married ones or newly divorced, or going through a break up. They would be able to relate to Lauren better.
I would definitely not recommend this to teens and people who are beginning their twenties. It's going to be a waste of time!