Review: The Future Of Us

Title: The Future of Us
Author: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 356
Challenge: None
Source: Own
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My Rating:
 

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've 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're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future. By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present. -summary from goodreads.com

Wow. Talk about a blast from the past. I’m going to feel so old telling my kids that I was born before the internet. This book had me thinking, but not enough to leave an impression. I give this book more like 3 1/2 hearts.

The book is well-written and is narrated back and forth between the two protagonists; Emma and Josh. Emma did get on my annoying side every once in a while, but only because of her negative attitude. Also, the way she tried to “erase” her friend’s pregnancy, NO WAY! You don’t do that. Unwanted pregnancy or not, that was not her choice to make. That docked her off another couple points in my book. Josh was just awesome, he was funny and loyal; 2 traits that every best friend must have, in my opinion anyway.

The plot offers an interesting premise, one that made me question my, “online life” today. If you really think about, we share a ton of personal information online. There was this scene where Emma logs into facebook and ponders, “Who would share such personal information on the Internet?”… *raises hand slowly*… I’ll be honest and say that after finishing the book, I logged into facebook to sort of evaluate my own page. I do know one thing though, I would have killed to have been able to log into my current facebook account while I was in HS…. that would have been something.

The only thing that bugged me was the fact that there were a ton of plot holes. I know that usually tends to happen to time travel stories, but in The Future of Us we don’t get an explanation of any kind, it just happens. Which worked out ok, but I just wish the authors would have added more plot twists (story was very predictable), or even an epilogue from the future self’s of Josh and Emma.