Review: After the Game

After the Game by Abbie Glines

Rating: DNF (Did Not Finish)

I think this is going to have to be my last Abbi Glines book. I found her earlier works to be hit or miss for me, but all the more recent ones I've tried have just been bad. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I DNF'd this at about 15% and then skimmed the rest of the way through just to see if there was any redeeming qualities or a worthwhile resolution. There wasn't. The reason I decided early on to skim rather than actually read this book was the writing. There's no flow and the whole thing reads as a poorly written fiction project for a high school writing class. There's too much detail for the inner-monologues, almost like the author forgot she was writing in first person, not third, and the dialogue is completely unrealistic. I also really hated that the text conversations were not stylistically set apart (i.e. italics, etc.), because it was confusing to read a sentence or two before realizing it was meant to be a text message between characters. I continued to skim through the book, though, in order to see if there seemed to be a good story underneath the bad writing, only to be disappointed on that front as well. There are so many problems with the plot of this book, I could hardly stand it. I'm going to start with Riley. Her whole story line was a mess, from start to finish. Riley is raped at 15, becomes pregnant and has the baby, is run out of town as a liar, and she's perfectly fine? Give me a break. There's no way that she wouldn't be dealing with some major psychological issues after trauma like that, and it's upsetting to me that Glines didn't take this opportunity to address some of that and add some depth to the character. Also the fact that Riley's mother wants her to stop holding on to her anger and bitterness and spend time with Brady, even though he was one of those people who wouldn't listen and called her a liar is so not cool. Honestly, it's written like Riley's parents are so great because they took her away from the town, but in reality, they should have worked harder to get justice for their daughter. The "resolution" to this story line was also horrible. At the very end the rapist "just wanted to see" the baby, and is so sorry, and Riley forgives him. Gross. It's almost like Glines forgot that part of the story line and had to rush to some conclusion at the end.  I also didn't love that this book made being a teen mom seem like such a breeze. It just didn't seem to accurately depict what that life is really like, and again was a missed opportunity to add some much needed depth to characters and the plot. But Riley wasn't the only one with issues in this book. There was a total 180 degree character shift with Brady's dad, for no apparent reason other than to cause some conflict to make Brady's life more dramatic and less perfect, which was weird. There was also a concerning amount of toxic masculinity to deal with throughout the book. Even though Brady's dad is the cheater, Brady thinks his mom is weak for not "dealing with it" or however it was put, in the way that he thinks she should. Riley isn't accepted into the group until Gunner invites them to the party, which, considering he's her ex and her rapist's brother is problematic on so many levels. It reads almost like Gunner forgives Riley, but for what? For not just keeping her mouth shut that his brother raped her and got her pregnant? And now everyone else is going to treat her well again, because he's going to? That's messed up.  Basically this book is a disaster from start to finish, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone.