Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Book: Future of Us

Authors: Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Genre: YA Romance/Time Travel?

Rating: B+

Plot Summary:

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They have been best friends almost as long -at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By Refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcomes of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they are forced to confront what they are doing right - and wrong - in the present.

( from Goodreads )

Review:

What i loved about this book was that it was so unique, no one had though of it which just intrigued me. It also left me with a lot of questions, some could not be answered but they are still floating through my mind. How did they REALLY stumble upon Facebook? What happens to them in the end? Does Emma end up happy? This book was beautifully written, the two writers' chapter's flowed together perfectly.

The Story is amazing. It is a story of friendship, love dreams, fears and so much more. The characters were so easy to relate to, as I am also a teenager.

What I love is they never actually travel to the future they just are watching it from status updates and pictures posted to a website. Emma just wants a perfect life where she is happy and will go to all costs to have it. Also knowing by every little decision we make (yes even like spilling water onto our carpet) can change our future completely. It is really an eye opener.

Parts of this did feel like just a regular boy-next-door kind of story with a science fiction twist. That is really the only reason why it got a B+ instead of an A. If we learned more about how they were connected to Facebook i feel like I would have been more interested. I found that I found Emma slightly annoying at times, but then again what teenage girl isn't annoying sometimes?

Overall thought I this story a cute and quirky quick read. The story was well thought out and the characters were most of the time likable. I never really found the chemistry between Emma and Josh so the romance between them was not as believable. I feel as if I just had too high of hopes for this novel. It was good just not as amazing as I wanted it to be.

-- Haley <3

p.s. sorry this is a day late. I had a CRAZY day yesterday.