If you saw it, would you read it Afterwards: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton #ReadOrNot

Afterwards: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
Afterwards: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton

About the front:
When I first saw this cover, I figured it was going to be scary. I mean, an empty slide? So many thoughts passed through my head. A missing child. A playground with a ghost. It’s just creepy on so many levels and that’s why I liked it and had to grab it for my feature. The blues and blacks really set the stage, too … keeping everything looking and feeling very night-like and foggy and can I saw this cover really scares me? 😉 Literally, in this case, it’s the simplicity that draws me in.

Now let’s look at what the back says:

There is a fire and they are in there. They are in there…

Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.

Afterwards Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who’s still intent on destroying them. Afterwards, she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.

Does it match? Front to Back without the in between?

There is a fire and they are in there. They are in there…

Say what? There’s a fire. The fire is the opener and yet the slide is the focus of the cover? Um … inconsistency #1. Also, it opens with no detail on the ‘who’ so it says “They are in there …” but ‘in where’ and who is ‘they’ and who is speaking? It gave me an eye twitch for a little bit because I was so lost in sentence number one. Okay … moving on.

Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.

Black smoke and blue sky. ‘K. Got that. But we’re back to the school being on fire. Dude … already said that. Move on already. So Grace sees the smoke and rush. The rush of what? That slide is empty. There is no rush. Is this supposed to add tension? So far it’s like the blurb is an anti-blurb. Maybe the Goodreads version where I saw this isn’t the full one or something. I don’t know. I get a mom rushing inside to find her daughter, but … well … it’s not exciting.

Afterwards Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who’s still intent on destroying them. Afterwards, she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.

Why must Grace find the identity. Isn’t that the job of the firemen? If she is one, why don’t we learn that here? This whole blurb is a convoluted and repeated mix of words that are so jumbled together they don’t form a story for me to get interested in. Actually, this blurb turns me off the cool cover and that makes me very very sad. 🙁

Where I’d read it
Not sure I will. Sorry.

Will you add it to your bookshelf virtual or otherwise? Share in the comments!