The Here and Now - Anne Brashares

The Here and Now tells the story of a young woman from the future who is trying to reconcile her knowledge of the future with what is happening in her new present, much to the chagrin of the leaders of the Community. There are a number of rules that must be followed by those who have travelled back, and Prenna, though she doesn't agree with all the rules, is relatively adherent... until she meets Ethan Jarves.

We begin with a flashback and then move to the present, never actually seeing into the future except through brief glimpses in the form of dialogue from our heroine. The future looks grim (don't worry, I won't give it all away!), but Prenna's present isn't looking so great either, living under the thumb of the people in charge of her Community.

The novel feels like it's trying to teach me a lesson. Some of the environmental messages come across as overly heavy-handed and would improve with more nuanced reflection and narrative style. Instead the reader is left feeling preached at about the effects of fossil fuels on the environment (not that I don't agree with the message, mind you, but I do feel the complexities of the situation within the novel could have benefitted from some less textbook-style writing.)

The love story works well, though again, I would have appreciated a bit more development of the relationship(s) overall, as it all seemed to happen quite quickly. I do like Ethan as a character, though, and I don't feel that he totally overshadows Prenna, though at times I felt myself wishing she was less reliant on his somewhat supernatural ability to piece things together.

All in all, I enjoyed Brashares novel. Many of my complaints will probably not even come up as issues to many readers, but I would be remiss if I did not at least mention some of my qualms. The pacing is quick and keeps up the tension and suspense. There are mysteries left unsolved until almost the end, and the reader is left guessing as to whether or not Prenna and Ethan can possibly succeed in changing the present to save the future. If you're a fan of time travel, teen romance, and well-paced plots, then I think you'll enjoy the ride!

Recommended with minor reservations

(Note: This review is from an advanced reading copy - Out April 8, 2014)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Living - Matt De La Peña

Image
The Living  recently received an Honor from the Pura Belpré committee. The award recognizes of a work which best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. As I was at the awards announcements, and having known people who served on the committee in the past, I was intrigued. I had read the winning title and the other honor titles, and was impressed with the choices. So here's my review of The Living : The novel begins with Shy, a young guy working for a snazzy cruise line, offering water to people on the Lido Deck of the ship to combat the heat. Everything is going pretty well until an older gentleman comes out and starts spouting of weird, disconcerting phrases: "You have seen the face of evil."Shy doesn't quite know what to think, so he moves on to a couple of ladies on the other side of the deck. Just as he's handing them their water bottles, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and realizes the old guy h...
Read more

The Music of What Happens - Bill Konigsberg

Image
Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever. Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart. Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most. This is a phenomenal book, in my humble opinion. There aren't too many books dealing with male sexual abuse, particularly in YA. Sex and sexuality are messy parts of young adulthood, but what this book does really well is discuss consent and the ways in which physical cues can be misinte...
Read more

Girls Like Us - Gail Giles

Image
I have now gone out and made sure that I have all of the books longlisted for the National Book Award. I read and reviewed a number of these previously, so now I have five left to read and review. This is one of those five (but would I expect anything less from the fabulous team at Candlewick?) Girls Like Us  is a unique novel in a number of respects, most notably in the fact that both protagonists are identified (and self-identified) as mentally disabled in some way. Biddy has a learning disability that she was born with, while Quincy is a young girl who is disabled due to the fact that her mother's boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick, disfiguring her and damaging her brain. Once the two girls graduate from school, they move into a house together, becoming caregivers for both each other and an older woman, Elizabeth. The two must rely on each other for comfort, knowledge, and emotional strength, and Elizabeth manages to help them along the way. While I had moments of wo...
Read more