| Title | : | After the Night |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 251 |
| Publication | : | First published September 11, 2010 |
After the Night Reviews
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Interesting read!
With an enjoyable storyline --- recommended to all! -
A very good story line. It is largely set in a womens prison in the years immediately prior to the abolition of the death penalty in the UK.
There is corruption and abuse within the prison system and the prison is the setting for lesbian love and reactions to it within and without the prison walls. Read on..
The book promises so much - but for me it fails to deliver. This is down, I feel, to wooden characterisation and a sort of naivety of style which I found irritating. But perhaps that was really part of its success – written in the style of the period in which it was set? I'm not convinced. -
After The Night Gripping good read. Not your usual 'girl meets girl, fall in love, have a misunderstanding, get back together again' sort of book. The story line was good and the characters, even some of the minor characters had depth and made the story more interesting. Read it in two evenings/nights as once I was well into the story I had to finish it. Beware though you may need a hankie or two in parts!
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This book is so well written in the pulp fiction style of the 50's & 60's that I had to double-check its publishing date (2011). It is inspired by the 1956 British film "Yield to the Night" (called "Blonde Sinner" in the US). The story provides a good look at societal prejudices of the 1950's and 60's.
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As with the best historical fiction, this book remains authentic to the period, which adds so much to the stakes of the main characters. Great characterizations, dialogue is spot on, setting is really evocative (the first introduction to all the wings of the prison is so claustrophobic). Great read - I highly recommend it!
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WOW. I loved this book s o much! I read it in a total of 2 days. I just couldn't put it down. I even had to carry it with me to work that's how badly I loved it. Jean and Leah are everything I love em' so much. This book is such a blessing!
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What an excellent read this was! I couldn’t put this book down. This book was another pleasant surprise for me. Reading the blurb I wasn’t too sure about a story set in a prison because I couldn’t imagine it as a romantic setting. But I started reading it and got immediately immersed into these characters’ lives, including the secondary characters. The author managed to use the context of prison life for both prisoners and employees in a far more interesting way than I could have imagined.
Firstly, I have a penchant for the cool on the outside, passionate on the inside character. Right away Jean, a guard at the prison, is rather cool and distant to Leah, a new nurse in the prison whom she’s taking around to meet everyone on Leah’s first day at work. That immediately got me going because it already made me curious about her as a character. Leah also notices this and is put off, setting up the initial emotional tension between the women since they have to work together.
Quickly though, Leah sees that both employees and prisoners have a lot of love and respect for Jean. Curious about the contradictions in her personality at times, Leah starts looking at Jean in a different light.
During the course of interacting and Leah watching how Jean acts with the prisoners, Leah finds herself uncomfortably and shockingly falling in love with her. Shocking because she’s engaged to be married and well, lesbians are perverted and disgusting, and it can’t be possible!
What I loved most about this story is how the author captured the realness of what the characters are feeling. How the characters react to what they’re feeling is vividly nuanced and expressed. Leah becomes shy and unable to look directly at Jean once she’s realized that her feelings for Jean are more than just as a coworker and friend and I acutely felt her discomfort mixed with inner excitement at falling in love.
While not getting right away what Leah feels mainly due to being wrapped up in work issues and still carrying pain and regret of a past event that keeps her emotionally locked up, Jean does notice that Leah yields and melts into her when they hug, making her feel rather shy and uncomfortable as well. She’s already somewhat at ease with the fact that she might be a lesbian, but she’s still rather reserved due to several reasons, partly her own personal emotional state, and partly the anti-lesbian atmosphere going on in the prison. The constant subtle little signals between both women ratcheted up the tension because both are not sure about the other and they cannot openly flirt.
The build up to both expressing what they feel and the pacing of it was perfectly executed, I felt. I was aching for them to finally get together. And by the way, for those who are wondering, there are a few sex scenes. Not written graphically, but which felt highly erotic due to the emotional and sexual heat reaching breaking point before they can finally express their love for each other in a physical way.
While this story is largely a romance, there’s an overall arc of all the characters, including the well-defined secondary characters, dealing with homophobia for that time period. Jean has no family, but Leah does and she has to deal with painful consequences of being in love with a woman. Homophobia also affected all the women in the prison, those who were accused of being perverted as well as the accusers and the actions they take against those women.
Kudos to the author though because it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Leah and Jean, as well as the prisoners accused of having homosexual affairs, true or not, have many non-bigoted allies on their side who keep working to help them out and fight any retribution or negative actions against them. Jean and Leah also get support so they can just be together as a couple.
The one thing that I would say negatively about this book is that in a lot of places the characters get melodramatic and emotionally sticky. At first I was a bit eye rolly at it, but then I realized that in a lot of ways that’s how people from that time period talked or have been portrayed in books and movies from that time. Also, this is just an extremely passionate story: the romance, the characters, the social issues, all of it. So a little melodrama was not a distracter really.
If you’re looking for a well written, impassioned and warm love story this is it. Also, the ending includes something I rarely read in a lesbian love stories. I won’t say yay or nay to it because it’s a matter of personal preference. But in this case, with these two women, it worked for me.
Heat level: 2-3 Few sex scenes not graphically written -
I hate love stories, as a general rule. This may sound somewhat sick and twisted, but the predictable and rarely wavering ‘happy ever after’ ending irritates me and it brings out a weird sadistic side of myself that I never knew I had. The whole ‘will they, won’t they’ nonsense of such stories is even worse as you want to bang the characters’ heads together to get them to actually communicate with one another, and even with all that – you know they are going to get together at the end. All this, I thought before I even picked up this novel. Love stories suck – but only as a general rule. Sometimes, like here, they offer something more – and that why I was so intrigued. Well, that and the accolades that Dax has received for this novel.
The crux of the tale is the forbidden and socially awkward love story between Nurse Leah Webster and prison officer Jean MacFarlane in 1960s Britain. This thread of the novel contained all those aspects of love stories that I can’t stand – the will they won’t they, the lack of communication, the strange stirring of my slightly sadistic emotions in the hope that the ending is not as predictable as I fear it’s going to be. I was irritated by MacFarlane’s character – continually spoken of as noble and magnificent, someone who does no wrong, yet consistently partakes in behaviour that is inappropriate of her position (homosexual or not). Likewise of Leah, who was portrayed as somewhat child-like – I struggled to grasp the age gap between Leah & MacFarlane.
That said, the characters were believable and the story was easily visualised. I found myself slipping into the world of Deepdown prison and forgetting my real surroundings with remarkable ease, which is always the sign of a great writer. I enjoyed all the relationships in the book – even the love story to some extent, and despite the violence, Deepdown sounds like a place I’d like to work!
Not only that, but throughout my frustration of the tale shined a story that kept me enthralled throughout. I was fascinated by social feeling of the time and Dax portrayed 1960s Britain brilliantly. Whilst I was frustrated by Leah’s childlike nature, I wonder how much of that is due to the time setting – a young, unmarried woman just setting out on her own – would a 22 year old in 1960 have been so different from a 22 year old today? The way that people reacted with disgust to homosexuality was captivating (and terrifying) and it made me wonder just how different homosexuals may fair in modern society – have things improved? I wonder how MacFarlane & Webster’s tale would turn out in a modern setting. Would there even be a story to tell?
Weaved between all this is the tale of discrimination and judgement within the prison walls and throughout the court system. I was gripped by this side story significantly more than by the primary tale. MacFarlane discovers that the prison is rife with violent behaviour and bullying and sets out do something about it but discovers that there is more to it. The idea that Young et al. basically got away with their extremely violent and degrading acts, simply because their victims were ‘disgusting’ homosexuals is in itself disgusting and horrifying.
So whilst Dax may not have won me around to the idea of love stories, she has given me plenty of food for thought and provided background tales that are both gripping and disturbing – all the more so for being events that could so easily have happened in 1960s Britain. This book is definitely worth investing time in, regardless of what you are looking for in a tale. -
I had very high expectations for this book.
I thought "this is really my kind of book".
A love story that's evolves within the walls of a prison.
And it's set in a time when it was not accepted that two women could love each other.
Unfortunately it does not quite satisfy my anticipation.
Let me begin by stating that the beginning is very good.
So I thought this is gonna be such a great book.
During the build up the story is very exciting.
The main-characters are well developed and sub-characters are interesting.
The love story is well paced and the chemistry between the two women is beautifully described.
And then what happens is (what I think) the biggest problem with romantic novels.
From the moment the two women become lovers, the whole story collapses. The tension is almost gone and the story is less interesting.
In the end, the story takes a turn that makes it better, but then it's already too late because you've read quite a lot that was of less quality than the beginning and the end.
My conclusion is therefore that this book had a lot of potential.
For me it could have been a 5 stars book.
It's a shame that the midsection is not as good as the rest.
The lovely characters and great story were good enough to create something very special, but in the end I had a feeling that there was something missing.
3.5 stars
Too bad we can give half stars with ratings because now I have to give it three stars. -
A Gem
Being more of a science fiction or horror fan, I'm very picky about romance books. This story is one of the better I've read. The author obviously has a handle on proper writing, and the editing impressive. The story held my interest as well, with the characters, story evolution, and primary relationship feeling relatable and believable. Highly recommend! -
Excellent
Excellent reading, down to earth, Leah and Jean fall in love with each other in a time where they need to hide their feelings, when it was a shame being a lesbian. Jean works in a prison, Leah is a nurse. A lot of incidents happened, but st last love conquers all. -
:-) Just wanted to get your attention ;-)
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Gave me a new respect for gays and lesbians of 50+ years ago given the prejudices they faced. Interesting story and characters.
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I really enjoyed reading this book, it was different to any I've read before. I thought it might have ended badly but I'm glad it didn't, I liked the ending very much. One of my favourites.
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3.5 stars
