History YMMV / After

* JerkassHasAPoint: Mrs. Young is supposed to come off as an unreasonably controlling helicopter parent when she badmouths Hardin and all of Tessa's friends as awful people, and says college has changed her. Which is kind of undercut by the fact that Tessa's time spent with Hardin ''has'' made her an objectively worse person, and that [[spoiler:Hardin only started dating Tessa because he and Zed made a dare on who could take Tessa's virginity first, and ''all their friends'' were in on it.]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: Mrs. Young is supposed to come off as an unreasonably controlling helicopter parent when she badmouths Hardin and all of Tessa's friends as awful people, and says college has changed her. Which is kind of undercut by the fact that Tessa's time spent with Hardin ''has'' made her an objectively worse person, and that [[spoiler: Hardin only started dating Tessa because he and Zed made a dare on who could take Tessa's virginity first, and ''all their friends'' were in on it.]]

* RealismInducedHorror: Some readers find the story particularly disturbing on account of how realistic Hardin and Tessa's relationship comes off, and not in a good way. It's noted that while there are lots of other popular romance books that arguably romanticize abusive behavior released around the same time, such as ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' and ''Literature/ThreeHundredSixtyFiveDays'', these other books tend to have fantastical or exaggerated elements that make them less realistic (e.g. girl romances a sparkly vampire, college student dates a billionaire into BDSM, woman gets kidnapped by a mafia don who wants her to love him), whereas ''After'' is a largely grounded story with a mundane setting and characters, centered around a dysfunctional romance that comes off as highly plausible. Some readers have even stated [[AngstAversion they couldn't finish the series or outright avoided it]] because Hardin and Tessa's romance reminds them of their own abusive relationship and/or abuse people close to them went through.

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack: Many people questioned why Tessa would take Harry/Hardin back, as the ending of ''After'' implies she does and the sequel confirms. She broke up with him after finding out he'd lied to her for the entirety of their relationship: [[spoiler: he initially only dated her to get her into bed on a dare and even after developing feelings for Tessa he kept this from her]]. He also spent a lot of their relationship being a controlling, condescending jerk to her. After they break up Tessa's life seems to greatly improve; she becomes more mature and responsible, including focusing on her studies, working on getting her dream internship, ditching toxic friends, and reconciling with her mother and ex-boyfriend. The only apparent pro to her staying with Hardin is regular sex, which doesn't really outweigh all the cons.

** We're expected to sympathize with Hardin despite his {{Jerkass}} tendencies and extreme mood swings due to his DarkAndTroubledPast but he only starts a relationship with Tessa just to make her fall for him and then leave her (it's much worse in the book, where he starts a competition with Zed to see who could take her virginity first with [[{{Squick}} the bloodied sheets from their first night as proof]]) which makes him highly unlikable to a majority of readers and viewers. Not to mention him acting possessive over Tessa before and after they break up, getting mad when she begins hanging out with Trevor and questioning if they had sex or not when it's not his business. No wonder Tessa's mom threatened to cut her daughter off upon seeing him. His FreudianExcuse doesn't even make much sense; the root of his trauma is seeing [[spoiler:his mother gang-raped]] (which was in-directly his alcoholic father's fault), which you'd think would make him more sensitive to stuff like men being abusive towards or taking advantage of women. Instead, it's the ''opposite'', with Hardin coming off as misogynistic in his poor treatment of women.

%%Zero Context* EvilIsSexy: Hardin.

** Although Tessa's mother Carol makes some good points in not wanting her daughter to date Hardin, she doesn't come across all that well either. It would seem that we're supposed to see her as a JerkassWoobie whose controlling attitude with her daughter is caused by her having been abandoned by Tessa's alcoholic father (especially in the movies, where Caraol's personality and behavior is [[AdaptationalNiceGuy softened]] from the books). However, this hardly accounts for how nasty Carol gets with Tessa herself when she finds out about Hardin, accusing her of throwing away her future for a boy and claiming Hardin would only break her heart [[note]]Assumptions that, regardless of your views on Tessa and/or Hardin, she had no room to be making due to having ''zero'' insight about the state of their relationship[[/note]], calling her own daughter "a whore" and cutting her off financially when Tessa refuses to let her mother dictate her life anymore. Even when the first movie ends with Carol apologizing to Tessa, the next movie sees her go right back to being toxic, not informing Tessa about her father wanting to reconnect with her and ranting about Hardin again when Tessa rightfully condemns her for hiding this from her. This seemingly proves that Carol hasn't learned anything and ''still'' sees nothing wrong with controlling her daughter's life with no regard for what Tessa herself may want.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: A common criticism is that every installment in the series basically follows the same plot: Tessa and Hardin fall out, reconcile and have sex, then one of them (usually Hardin) does something to upset the other, they break-up, Hardin does something extremely dangerous and destructive, they reconcile, rinse and repeat. The constant cycle of them breaking up and getting back together not only feels repetitive, for many audiences it starts to stretch credibility that they would even continue the relationship because of how miserable they are together, which isn't always fun for the audience either.

** We're expected to sympathize with Hardin despite his {{Jerkass]] tendencies and extreme mood swings due to his DarkAndTroubledPast but he only starts a relationship with Tessa just to make her fall for him and then leave her (it's much worse in the book, where he starts a competition with Zed to see who could take her virginity first with [[{{Squick}} the bloodied sheets from their first night as proof]]) which makes him highly unlikable to a majority of readers and viewers. Not to mention him acting possessive over Tessa before and after they break up, getting mad when she begins hanging out with Trevor and questioning if they had sex or not when it's not his business. No wonder Tessa's mom threatened to cut her daughter off upon seeing him. His FreudianExcuse doesn't even make much sense; the root of his trauma is seeing [[spoiler:his mother gang-raped]] (which was in-directly his alcoholic father's fault), which you'd think would make him more sensitive to stuff like men being abusive towards or taking advantage of women. Instead, it's the ''opposite'', with Hardin coming off as misogynistic in his poor treatment of women.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Hardin's prone to mood swings, irrational jealousy, and violent behavior... but he's never been diagnosed with anything in-universe. Some reviewers, however, believe he may have both untreated PTSD and a personality disorder.

** Tessa frequently slut-shames the women around her, cheats on her loving and sweet boyfriend with a man who takes pleasure in emotionally abusing her, and has a HolierThanThou complex that makes her unbearable.
** Hardin is also this, we're expected to sympathize with him due to his DarkAndTroubledPast but he only starts a relationship with Tessa just to make her fall for him and then leave her (it's much worse in the book, he starts a competition with Zed to see who could take her virginity first with [[{{Squick}} the bloodied sheets from their first night as proof]]) which makes him highly unlikable to a majority of viewers. Not to mention him acting possessive over Tessa before and after they break up, getting mad when she begins hanging out with Trevor and questioning if they had sex or not when it's not his business. No wonder Tessa's mom threatened to cut her daughter off upon seeing him. His FreudianExcuse doesn't even make much sense; the root of his trauma is seeing [[spoiler:his mother gang-raped]] (which was in-directly his alcoholic father's fault), which you'd think would make him more sensitive to stuff like men being abusive towards or taking advantage of women. Instead, it's the ''opposite'', with Hardin coming off as misogynistic in his poor treatment of women. 
** Though speaking of Tessa's mother Carol, she doesn't come across all that well either. It would seem that (at least in the movies) we're supposed to see her as a JerkassWoobie whose controlling attitude with her daughter is caused by her having been abandoned by Tessa's alcoholic father. However, this hardly accounts for how nasty Carol gets with Tessa herself when she finds out about Hardin, accusing her of throwing away her future for a boy and claiming Hardin would only break her heart [[note]]Assumptions that, regardless of your views on Tessa and/or Hardin, she had no room to be making due to having ''zero'' insight about the state of their relationship[[/note]] and cutting her off financially when Tessa refuses to let her mother dictate her life anymore. Even when the first movie ends with Carol apologizing to Tessa, the next movie sees her go right back to being toxic, not informing Tessa about her father wanting to reconnect with her and ranting about Hardin again when Tessa rightfully condemns her for hiding this from her. This seemingly proves that Carol hasn't learned anything and ''still'' sees nothing wrong with controlling her daughter's life with no regard for what Tessa herself may want.

* DeathOfTheAuthor: The fanfic/novels and the films were intended to be a tale of love triumphing over hardship, and how Tessa and Hardin must both persevere in overcoming their issues to save their relationship. A lot of readers have instead pointed out that the story comes off as a textbook example of the cycle of abuse, and how it could easily be used as a cautionary tale against toxic and dysfunctional relationships. Anna Todd stated she wrote Hardin the way she did because she felt it made him more "realistic", to which some readers would say he cones off as a disturbingingly realistic portrayal of an abusive partner.

* DeathOfTheAuthor: The fanfic/novels and the films were intended to be a tale of love triumphing over hardship, and how Tessa and Hardin must both persevere in overcoming their issues to save their relationship. A lot of readers have instead pointed out that the story comes off as a textbook example of the cycle of abuse, and how it could easily be used as a cautionary tale against toxic and dysfunctional relationships.

** Hardin is also this, we're expected to sympathize with him due to his DarkAndTroubledPast but he only starts a relationship with Tessa just to make her fall for him and then leave her (it's much worse in the book, he starts a competition with Zed to see who could take her virginity first with [[{{Squick}} the bloodied sheets from their first night as proof]]) which makes him highly unlikable to a majority of viewers. Not to mention him acting possessive over Tessa after they break up, getting mad when she begins hanging out with Trevor and questioning if they had sex or not when it's not his business. No wonder Tessa's mom threatened to cut her daughter off upon seeing him.

* CriticalDissonance: While the novels and films have strong followings and are very profitable, critics slammed both for their derivative plots, wooden dialogue, and underdeveloped characters.
* DesignatedHero: Both the books and the movies try their damndest to make us root for the [[HolierThanThou smug, sanctimonious]], [[TheDitherer dithering]] adulterer that is Tessa, and the lying, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]], [[HairTriggerTemper short-tempered]] [[{{Jerkass}} jerk]] that is Hardin.

* EvilIsSexy: Hardin.

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack: Many people questioned why Tessa would take Harry/Hardin back, as the ending implies she does. She broke up with him after finding out he'd lied to her for the entirety of their relationship: [[spoiler: he initially only dated her to get her into bed on a dare and even after developing feelings for Tessa he kept this from her]]. He also spent a lot of their relationship being a controlling, condescending jerk to her. After they break up Tessa's life seems to greatly improve; she becomes more mature and responsible, including focusing on her studies, working on getting her dream internship, ditching toxic friends, and reconciling with her mother and ex-boyfriend. The only apparent pro to her staying with Hardin is regular sex, which doesn't really outweigh all the cons.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: We're supposed to view Noah as an annoying tattletale who's holding Tessa back, and not feel bad for him when she starts cheating on him. However, he's a much kinder and stable person than Hardin and has been there for Tessa ever since her dad left her. While him tellling Tessa's mom about Tessa drinking at a party may be a bit overbearing, it's understandable considering the fact that: Tessa hasn't drank before, she's at a party full of strangers who could take advantage of her, and her father's an alcoholic and Tessa could (and does) end up developing an addiction.

** Tessa frequently slutshames the women around her, cheats on her loving and sweet boyfriend with a man who takes pleasure in emotionally abusing her, and has a HolierThanThou complex that makes her unbearable.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: For those who didn't like Hardin and Tessa's relationship, it's the fact that the movie removed some of the toxic scenes found in the book, as well as [[AdaptationalNiceGuy making them at least slightly better people than in the book]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: You guessed it–Hardin. Depending on who you ask, he’s either a misunderstood, lonely young man with a troubled past or an abusive, womanising sociopath whose interest in Tesse is purely sexual.

* UnfortunateImplications: The series has copped a lot of criticism for condoning [[https://www.theckmprospector.com/?p=1233 abusive relationships]] and [[https://wherestheline.info/popular-book-series-and-film-after-glorifies-unhealthy-relationship-dynamics/ Hardin’s possessive behaviour towards Tessa]].

!For [[Literature/{{After}} the book]]:
* NightmareFuel: The whole book; see ParanoiaFuel below.
* ParanoiaFuel: The rules are always changing; break one and it's a one way ticket to 'Operation Turnaround' [read: your grave]. What might some of these rules be? Did you have a cell phone on your person at school? What about gum? Anything red? Did you eat lunch alone? Oh, and Big Brother's watching you. And by watching you, I mean ''really'' watching you. Yes, even 50 miles away. Remember your sweet history teacher? The one who didn't report that sweet, A++ girl who broke a rule? Yeah, she had a "Health Emergency". And don't expect your parents to help you, they've been brainwashed. Everything is for your own good. And they could come for you at any time -- right in the middle of a normal school day, even if you've done nothing wrong. Have fun at school, dear.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: It's not entirely irrelevant, but the description of email newsletters somehow "brainwash" the parents is ''very'' 2003. Email is treated as somehow magical and very dangerous, and Prose failed to predict that propaganda would soon advance far beyond email newsletters.

!For [[Film/{{After}} the film]]:
* SpecialEffectsFailure: The fog is pretty clearly CGI as they walk through it.

* EndingAversion: Even those who liked the movie or considered it [[SoOkayItsAverage "meh"]] thought that the ending implying that Tessa and Hardin will come back together was unnecessary, as it undermines [[AesopAmnesia Tessa's character arc]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: You guessed it–Hardin. Depending on who you ask, he’s either a misunderstood, lonely youth with a troubled past or an abusive, womanising sociopath whose interest in Tesse is purely sexual.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: We're supposed to view Noah as an annoying tattletale who's holding Tessa back, and not feel bad for him when she starts cheating on him. However, he's a much kinder and stable person than Hardin and has been there for Tessa ever since her dad left her. While him tellling Tessa's mom about Tessa drinking at a party may be a bit overbearing, it's understandable considering the fact that: Tessa hasn't drank before, she's at a party full of strangers who could take advantage of her, and her father's an alcoholic and Tessa could(and does)end up developing an addiction.