Friday, March 21, 2014

Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18242896-the-here-and-now
The Here and Now
by Ann Brashares
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Publication Date: April 8th 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780385736800
Genre: Young Adult | Sci-Fi- | Time-Travel 
Source: Netgalley

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An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

From Ann Brashares, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, The Here and Now is thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking—and a must-read novel of the year. (Goodreads)
I was really looking forward to reading The Here and Now, as I have just recently been introduced to the awesome writing of Ann Brashares’ with her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by the wonderful ladies in my book club. I actually didn’t know that this was a dystopian novel when I first started it, so that was a pleasant surprise as well. It turned out to be a pretty interesting read.

The two main characters in the novel were both very interesting characters. With Prenna being from the future and having to hide all of her secrets and her true identity, and Ethan being way too smart for his own good and knowing everything that was going on, I thought they made a really interesting pair together. Both were very determined to find out a way to keep the future from becoming the ruined world she left behind. I really liked their relationship as well, Ethan was a sweetheart.

I really enjoyed the storyline for the book; it felt very realistic to me. There were some things that happened in the book that I could totally see happening in our future world, which is very scary to even think about. I find these types of dystopian novels completely fascinating. This made the book a very quick read for me; I read this in just a little over a day.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was the amount of information that was packed into the pages. I really felt that with so much info, it could have been spread out into a second book, or this even could have been made into a series. (I’m assuming that this book is a stand-alone novel, but someone please correct me if I am wrong on this.) There were also a few things that I felt were left unanswered in the novel as well.

Overall; I found this to be a quick, enjoyable read. There are still SO many books by this author that I still need to read, so I can’t really compare it to her previous work, but I did enjoy the book.



4 comments:

  1. I'd seen this book in a lot of hauls a few weeks ago but haven't heard much since and this book sounds a little dry for me. It sounds as though the romance may override the plot and I don't think I'll be trying it, but this is a great review Christy, really insightful :)

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  2. i have a galley of this book, and after reading your review, i'm extra excited to read it!

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  3. It sounds like a nice read! I love Ann Brashares books and can't wait to read this one.
    Great review!

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  4. After you said a lot of info was packed into the pages, I looked at the small page number and was genuinely shocked! How do you create a whole new future world, in such a small amount of pages, and still be able to tell a story properly? I'll definitely keep that in mind, if I get a chance to read this one :)

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Thanks for stopping by! :)