Anna Todd used quotes to show what love feels like when there are ups and downs. Though the story of ‘After We Collided’ comes off as toxic, it is a realistic depiction of what romance looks like realistically. Both characters, Tessa and Hardin, were entangled together, and no matter how hard they tried to wriggle free, they could never escape the web they had created around each other because their love intertwined them together.

Love

Most of the novels that I’ve read led me to believe quarrels come and go in the blink of an eye, a simple apology will bandage any problem and everything will be worked out within minutes. The novels lie. Maybe that’s why I’m so enamored with Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice; both are incredibly romantic in their own way, but they reveal the truth behind blind love and promises of forever.

Tessa realized that she loved Hardin even after he betrayed her trust and shattered her heart. She still felt drawn to the person whom she wanted to hate; this was because she was still in love with Hardin. Love makes us do things we sometimes despise, and for Tessa, it was going back to Hardin even after he betrayed her trust and hurt her repeatedly. Hardin was also blindly in love with Tessa to the point where he saw everybody as a threat to him being together with her. Hardin’s love for Tessa led him to attack Zed and also attack Trevor when he saw him with Tessa.

I can’t promise that I won’t hurt you again, but I can swear that I will love you until the day that I die.

Hardin knew that though he loved Tessa with everything he had, there were still demons within that he also fought. Hardin desperately never wanted to hurt Tessa, but he also knew that saying he will not hurt her would be a lie because of his emotional instability. Because of the negativity from hating his father, Hardin hurt the people closest to him, Tessa included. However, Hardin knew that he loved Tessa unconditionally.

Just because he can’t love you the way you want him to doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you with everything he has.

Tessa loved Hardin a lot, but she expected Hardin to reciprocate his love for her the same way she did. However, she realized that sometimes the people who love us may be bad at expressing the love they feel for us. Hardin loved Tessa, but he was terrible at expressing his love for her; this made her hurt and feel unloved. Tessa soon began to understand why Hardin did not show his love the way she expected, she realized he immensely loved her, but his fears and anger clouded his expression of love towards her.

You aren’t some conquest of mine – you’re everything to me! You’re my breath, my pain, my heart, my life!

When in love, everything seems irrelevant except the person you care about so much. Hardin knew he betrayed Tessa with his actions, but he also knew he loved her and would do anything to make her understand that he never meant to break her heart. She was everything to him, and he knew that losing her would destroy him emotionally and mentally; this is why Hardin had to vividly pour his feelings out to Tessa, letting her know she was to him.

Is love always like this? Is it always so passionate, yet so damn painful?

Is love meant to be painful, hurtful, or toxic? Tessa loved Hardin, but the pain they both felt in their relationship was nearly unbearable. Tessa had to handle a person whose past kept haunting him. Though she knew he never meant to hurt her, she could not still stand the pain she felt whenever he did hurt her.

Escaping Reality

The best thing about reading is to escape from your life, to be able to live hundreds or even thousands of different lives.

Life feels harsh, and sometimes we want to escape reality into our imagination, where everything is possible. Tessa felt stranded in her life and knew that the only thing that gave her an escape out of it all were the books she read. Why she loved fiction was because it made her escape her pain and betrayal-filled life.

If you aren’t affected somehow, even in the slightest bit, you aren’t reading the right book.

Tessa always felt the need to disconnect herself from the rest of the world. She always wanted to feel different and experience emotions that were not hurt and painful. After her mother intentionally withheld information that her father had come looking for her. Tessa lost it and decided she never wanted to have anything to do with her authoritarian mother. Tessa turned to books as they made her feel a rush of excitement and rejuvenation. Books made Tessa handle her life with a control-freak mother and a cold boyfriend who betrayed her.

Perfection

It’s dark meets light; it’s chaotic perfection; it’s everything I fear, want, and need.

Everyone wants perfection in their lives, but sometimes the cost of being perfect could be painful. Hardin was cold and chaotic, a direct opposite of Tessa, who was calm and welcoming. However, they fell in love. Though their love was turbulent, they still loved each other, and it seemed they were perfect for themselves. However, opposite behavior does not create perfection in love, and Tessa realized that.

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