Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish.

Each week they will post a new top ten list that one of our bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a great way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

1. Love Triangles - My aversion to these geometric phenomenon is uncanny. I seriously cannot stand the trend. If you MUST have one...why can't it be two girls and one guy? Huh?

2. Catfights - Catty, bitchy girls just grate on me. Perhaps it's a memory of my adolescent years, but the thought of these horrible girls tends to make me avoid them. There are exceptions (Some Girls Are), but for the most part...blergh.

3. Vampires - Colour me burned out on this entire realm of paranormal beings. I missed the boat on the Twilight phenomenon, and I really just don't like them, as a whole. Again, there are exceptions (Vampire Academy, Vampire Empire...etc).

4. James Patterson - I'm in a minority here. I'm okay with that. I read Witch & Wizard by him when I first started blogging, and I wanted to rip my own eyeballs out. I can't un-read it, so what am I to do?

5. Amish - I have an immense respect for the Amish way of life, and I've yet to read a book that doesn't pollute the idea of how they live with our own Western ways. If I'm wrong and you have one, please share!

6. Insta-love - Do I really need to go into this? Love is not instantaneous! Attraction might be, but LOVE is not. I'm sorry...no me gusta! 

7. Animal Cruelty - I swear that, while in school, my educators had a hidden agenda, making us read about animal death 24/7. I cannot fathom what makes people hurt animals, and I will not read books that depict it because I just can't stomach it.

8. Petty Contemporary - Guys, I like me some issues. I like dark, realistic fiction. I want gritty and raw and emotional. Sometimes I can do the fluffy stuff but, more often than not, it's just not for me.

9. Cliffhangers - Here's my beef with these cliffhangers. Sometimes these are done crazy well (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer). Other times, however, they're just a lead-in to the next novel...a ploy, if you will. That is what I don't like.

10. "The Next..." - Okay, let me explain this one. I have a very strong aversion to books being touted as "the next Harry Potter," or "the next..." fill in the blank. Each book deserves its own glory. Why do we have to put them in the same vein? Compare the two, and I expect the same...it's the doom of a book for me.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Each week they will post a new top ten list that one of our bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a great way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Top Ten Words/Topics that Instantly Make Me Read (or Buy) a Book:

1. Dystopian - I think there must be something wrong with me because if a book is labeled as a dystopian novel, and there's something broken about a world within the pages, I simply MUST read it. Like, yesterday. 

2. Science Fiction - Hah. While much of the young adult genre was swept up in the notion of paranormal romance, the ideas of cyborgs and technology-advanced societies have been running rampant through my brain. I think I'm destined to write a sci-fi novel someday.

3. Realistic - This is a huge bone of contention with me because, while I've found a soft spot for contemporary fiction these days, I feel like it often deviates too far from reality. Tell me it's actually realistic, and you've got me, hook, line and sinker. (Just don't let me down.)

4. Michelle Hodkin - I'm a fangirl. Sue me. Add her name to a cover, or mention her in a tweet, and I'm there. Colour me nuts.

5. Animals - Seriously, animals and the environment are some of my biggest passions in the world. I love the idea of making a difference on a small or minute level, but that it can carry over into something bigger. Give me a book with an animal best friend, or a journey to save the animal or environment, and it's solid gold.

6. Harry Potter - Let's be honest. Do I really have to explain this one? I think not. You're welcome. 

7. Humour - I like sass. And snark. I like sassy snark...and I really like characters with an attitude. Give me a character that breaks the norm and defies the odds while maintaining a high level of these traits, and I'll likely want to be their best friend. Forever.
 
8. Time Travel - I think this one has to do with my penchant for one of my all-time favourite books, Time Windows. There's something so innately cool about the idea of traveling to long lost worlds or those that have yet to come to pass.

9. Horror - Like I said before. There's something wrong with me. I'm ok with it.

10. Overseas - I don't think I've read enough books set overseas. This is a big one for me lately. I really want new and exciting destinations within the pages of my books.

Title: What Comes After
Author: Steve Watkins
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: April 12, 2011
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 334
Source: Publisher

After her veterinarian dad dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must leave her beloved Maine to live on a North Carolina farm with her hardbitten aunt and a cousin she barely knows. Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, immediately clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats the livestock, spends Iris’s small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense.

Things come to a head when Iris sets two young goats free to save them from slaughter, and an enraged Aunt Sue orders her brutish son, Book, to beat Iris senseless - a horrific act that lands Book and his mother in jail. Sent to live with an offbeat foster family and their "dooking" ferrets, Iris must find a way to take care of the animals back at the farm, even if it means confronting Aunt Sue. Powerful and deeply moving, this compelling novel affirms the redemptive power of animals and the resilience of the human spirit.

Iris hardly lives the life that every teen wants to live. After a tremendous loss, she's thrust into a world completely foreign to her that turns abusive, painful and emotionally destructive. So when things finally turn around for Iris and she's sent to another place that's quirky, but instills a desire for her to care for those animals she's left behind, no matter what. Is she brave enough to face the horrors she left, and can she do it for more than the animals...can she do it for herself?

I'm an animal nut. It's no lie. I have to cats and a dog, and if I ever won a million dollars, I'd start a cat sanctuary. But I digress. What Comes After combines all of my favourites into one neat little package - animals, the human condition and the desire to be better. With a pretty original premise in YA today that focuses on character development rather than romance, Steve Watkins has created a novel in What Comes After that just might have the power to transform our own agendas and make us thing beyond our own needs.

I have to be honest. What Comes After has all the makings of a great novel. Iris is a great character. She's relatable, caring and kind, and her innocence lends to the character development she faces through the novel. She struggles. She fails, and yet she has a constant desire to get back up again. The pain in this book is very raw and extremely tangible. She loses her father, faces adversity and yet she wants to find her way back to peace at all costs. Aunt Sue was a terrifying counterpart, and her foster parents added a hint of humour and quirk to an otherwise heart-wrenching tale.

What Comes After is not easy to stomach if you're in a feel-good movie. Yes, it has a message and reads extremely well, but it's not for the faint of heart. I cried. A lot. I give it a strong 4 out of 5, and I'd recommend it to fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary fiction.

I received this ARC free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

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It's day 3 of The Long Weekend Blog Tour, and today we're stopping over at Jenny's blog, Supernatural Snark! Be sure to check out her incredibly insightful REVIEW, then stop by for a chance to read Savita's thoughts and enter the international GIVEAWAY!