Elegy (Hereafter #3) Review

Elegy (Hereafter #3)
by Tara Hudson
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: ARC obtained through Around the World ARC Tours in exchange for my honest review. I do not get to keep these books.
Midnight Minute: Amelia is Risen, but her time is running out.  Can she save the people she loves without condemning herself to hell?
Expected Publication: 06.04.13
From Goodreads:

A stalker ghost, misguided Seers, and spellbinding wraiths—Amelia Ashley has faced them all. Now her greatest hope is to spend the rest of her afterlife with her living boyfriend, Joshua. But the demonic forces return to give her an ultimatum: turn herself over to the darkness or watch them murder one living person per week until she does.

Amelia fears she might really be doomed, until the forces of light give her another option. She can join them in their quest to gather souls, with a catch: Once she joins them, she can never see Joshua again.

Faced with impossible choices, Amelia decides to take her afterlife into her own hands—and fight back.

Midnight Thoughts:

~ I really need there to be some awesome website available only to people who have read a book to be able to access that's like a Cliff Notes for earlier books in the series.  Because while I read and reviewed the first two books, my memory of the second book was pretty spotty.  Possibly because there were a lot of new characters introduced then, and this one opens up with several new ones.  Seriously, I need a cheat sheet!
~ It didn't take long to remember the special relationship between Amelia and Joshua, as their love is as sweet as it can get between a boy and the ghost he loves.
~ So, in this book, Ameila is Risen, which means she can be seen by all humans as long as she wishes.  She just can't touch them.  Which sucks for her love life, but also in her day to day interactions, because even non-touchy people touch more people than they probably think they do on a daily basis. 
~ The book immediately grabbed me when Amelia attends a sleepover with Jill and her friends.  They begin to play Truth or Dare and I'm like, meh.  But then someone throws down with a Bloody Mary dare and I lose my shiz.  Bloody Mary terrifies me like nothing else. I've already mentioned it before, but mirrors in the dark at night scare the crap out of me because of Bloody Mary.  
~ Kade, whom I only slightly remember from the last book, makes a special guest appearance in the mirror and he's no friendly after-life messenger.  In fact, the actual Bloody Mary probably would have been preferable in Amelia's opinion. 
~ Kade and the bridge ghosts give her an ultimatum: either Amelia goes to him, or a friend of hers will die every week.  Which sucks, but I'm thinking, how close of a friend are we talking about?  Because I have lots of Facebook 'friends' that I don't really know so...
~ Jillian is definitely one of my favorite characters in this book.  She's really grown and now that she's found love (not telling who  though!) it's really matured her and balanced out her bitchiness.  But not too much, because I like that she's not as goody goody as Amelia and Josh.
~ There are some Scooby Gang hijinks at the bridge as Amelia and friends try to bring it down. 
~ I think if I were the Mayhew clan, I'd have just moved to a really dry state like Arizona or Nevada...
~ Okay, I made a joke about how safe it was for Amelia and Joshua to date, especially since in the last book she kept dissipating every time they made out, but once again there's an obstacle preventing them from getting their groove on.  But does it count if you lose your virginity to a ghost?  Is it like in the show True Blood where Jessica regenerates her virginity all the time?  Am I the only that thinks about this stuff?
~ Jillian snores.  Just so you know. 
~ Eli makes a brief appearance, but not enough to satisfy me.  I liked him.
~ Serena is back and there is a scene between her and Amelia that creeped the hell out of me.  
~ Grandma Ruth is back, and she's more badass than ever.  Seems she's fully recovered from the last book. 
~ Despite all that Amelia is dealing with, she still gets some great human moments.  Most notably: Prom.  Of course, any prom with Amelia and Joshua runs the risk of being the worst prom since Carrie by Stephen King. ~ The ending is a page turner, with Hudson offering glimpses into hell that were truly frightening. 
~ I may have cried, but I think the ending was a good one for this series. 

Timeless Characters:

Amelia- our ghostly heroine is back, and more alive than ever!
Joshua- the human boy she loves.  He's kind of perfect.
Jillian- Joshua's sister, slightly reformed mean girl.
Scott- Joshua's bff who helps out.
Liz- Amelia's mom, still mourning her daughter.
Serena- Amelia's bestie back in her living days... you know, before demons possessed her and she killed Amelia.
Kaylen- Jillian's wealthy best friend.
Kade LaLaurie- baddie from book two, ghost baddie now. 
Eli- restless spirit from the first two books.
Grandma Ruth- despite her ghost prejudices, it's hard not to enjoy this woman.
Belial- Master Demon.  Seriously.  He had to go to demon school an extra two years to get that title. 
Melissa- Eli's dead girlfriend, she's a slightly close-lipped version of Casper. 
Drew, Hayley, Annabelle, and Felix- New Orleans crew from the last book.
O'Reilly- Joshua's cool friend.

Midnight Moment:

The promise Amelia elicits from Jillian.  That's all I'm gonna say.

Stop The Clock:

Obviously, I was happy with this book, and if you've read the series than I think you'll be happy with the outcome.  Hudson could have gone all crazy with it, but she stayed true to the characters and it's a better series for it.  There's just not enough ghost stories out there, so I'm glad to have read this one.  Looking forward to future novels by the author!


Tara Hudson— Website |Tara Hudson

  Elegy (Hereafter #3) gets a Midnight Book Rating of: