The After

Okay... I went into this one thinking I had an idea of what I was getting into.

I DID NOT.

This book is DARK, unsettling, weirdly thought-provoking, and the kind of story that makes you sit there afterward like, "Okay... but what if they're right?" •

The whole idea of The Before versus The After completely sucked me in. You have this promise of peace, enlightenment, truth, and everything people supposedly want... but then you start peeling back the layers and realizing that maybe "perfection" comes with a price.

And OH BOY, does it get uncomfortable.

I loved how this book played with the idea of who gets to decide what is "good," what makes someone "worthy," and how easily people can justify horrible things when they convince themselves they're doing it for the greater good.

There were moments where I was genuinely questioning

EVERYTHING. Who do I trust? What is actually true? Is The After really what they say it is? And maybe the biggest question of all...

Would I be willing to do what it takes? ••

Yeah. No.

I also really appreciated that this wasn't just a story I could fly through and forget about five minutes later. My brain was WORKING while I was reading this one, and even after I finished, I kept thinking about the ideas behind it.

It's dark, twisted, thought-provoking, and definitely not afraid to make you uncomfortable.

Basically, I came for a book and left with an existential crisis.

5 stars from me!

And if you like books that make you question the world they've created AND your own thoughts about it... definitely put this one on your list. •

What people will do and who they will believe to help them get over their grief. Manipulation, trusting and thinking you are safe. I enjoyed each POV to where they were, the cult tendencies. A quick and fun read to the Seven Sin Series.

This was a great piece of 7 Ways to Sin collection. Each character is described and overburden with grief and trauma. It shows what these things can do to a person and to what extremes they will go, in order to feel better or right a wrong as seen in their eyes. If you love short, faced paced, page turning paychological thrillers and want to see a unique spin on grief this is for you or if you are a fan of Taylor's like myself!

Maxwell, Caroline, Lily, and Olive meet at a grief group. And while each has their own trauma, they find a way of bonding together, and creating a cult. When they murder two adults and kidnap the children to be part of the cult, the police get involved.

This is a short story at 77 pages. The chapters are short, and we get chapters from the 4 different character, and three timelines throughout, the Before, the During, and the After. They three different timelines and the characters all jumped around. That didn’t work for me. With the denseness of the subject matter, I found it a little hard to reset my thinking at the beginning of each new chapter.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and I don’t necessarily have to, but it is nice when it happens. Especially when there is so much jumping around and resetting of my mind as to where we are in the story, being able to root for someone would have helped.

There is a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, which was a nice surprise! I just think that if this was told a tad more linearly, I would have enjoyed it more.

“The After” - “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

★★★★☆

This was a very interesting little tale of manipulation and deception. “The After” shows you the before, during and after and while it may feel a bit chaotic at first it builds to a surprising climax with a nice twist.

When a unlikely group of people find comfort in their grief together and form a group before everything's not what it seems! A great short paced fast read that will have you following along very closely with the storyline. You want see the ending coming either ! Its a great read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. Built through different POVs before, during and after the pinicle event. The story centres around a group of people joined together through loss and grief and how this leaves them open to manipulation to act out something 'for the greater good'.

The story is short, concise and well crafted with a nice little twist at the end.

This is a great story!

Tayler takes you inside the minds of cult members as they find their way to each other. See what brings them together. This is a twisted tale of deadly sins. You won't be able to look away!

This was definitely different than what I'm used to reading. I was not expecting that little twist at the end.

This was a great short story in this collection.

Each character had their own form of trauma and went to the extremes to try to get through it. As someone who has suffered severe trauma, I understand that. I was very surprised where this story led, it was not what I thought!

There is a distinct kind of dread that builds when you watch someone consumed by grief fall into the orbit of the wrong person. Tayler Vaughn captures that eerie atmosphere perfectly, tapping into the unsettling reality of manipulation. The characters are all reeling from profound personal losses, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. It creates a quiet, creeping tension that pulled me in immediately and anchored the narrative.

The story moves quickly through short chapters, creating a momentum that pushes everything forward. Jumping between timelines keeps the plot fresh and engaging, revealing pieces of the puzzle at just the right time. The shifting perspectives build a cohesive picture of how tragedy can warp a person's judgment. The twist is executed well, and ended the story on a satisfying note. If you like eerie psychological tension, short chapters, and explorations of grief, then you will enjoy this book.