Book Review: The Future of Us by Jays Asher & Carolyn Mackler

By: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

Published by: RazorBill

To Be Released on: November 21st, 2011 TOMORROW

Source: ARC from publisher to review

4 stars: I Enjoyed It

Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out. -quoted from Goodreads

This book is a complete blast from the past, from colored monitors, to AOL, to the 90's music, to disc men, to discussions about the internet back then. Boy do I feel old now. Everything that was discussed in this book were things I vividly remembers discussing myself. This book is written in such a way that I totally connected with it. The fact that I was the same age as the characters during the mid 90's made it easier for me to understand them and connect with them on a variety of levels. It made me reminisce and it had me laughing out loud numerous times with the things that the characters say. The music that's mentioned though out the book was perfect! Those songs totally took me back, and I totally laughed at Hootie and the Blowfish. I totally forgot about that group, and I liked their music back then too.

This is really a fascinating premise for a book- seeing your future through an online site that doesn't yet exist. In the 90's I can't imagine what it would have been like to see glimpses of my future 15 years from then on Facebook, which of course wasn't even around at that time. This story centers on Josh and Emma, who have a long history together, are close and next door neighbors. Through an AOL CD Rom (snickers at that) discover Facebook and their futures 15 years from then. Can you imagine seeing who you marry, where you live, and what you're doing? Not to mention pictures that are posted from your present year of school with you friends, and some of those pictures aren't yet developed 15 years in the future? I would have freaked out more than they did had I seen all that, and I would have been just as intrigued with the future as they were. I couldn't help but laugh at the mentions of future movies that were mentioned, texting and Netflix.

I understood Emma's fascination and need to keep checking her future statuses. It would be hard not to obsess over it. The thing with Emma is that she gets so caught up into what she's doing in the future, that she loses herself in the here and now. She forgets to have fun, and be herself. Josh on the other hand gets a little bit obsessed, but not to the extent that Emma does. He tries to help her see that it's the future and things can change. I liked that through this realization, Emma's character starts to grow up more and change. I'm a huge fan of character growth in a story, and both characters definitely changed for the better. Josh and Emma are fun characters to get to know, and I of course loved the 90's flash backs (memories.....).

I also enjoyed the fact that this story is written in alternating points of views. It made it easier to get know each character and understand their thought process. You definitely don't need to have been a teen in the 90's to enjoy this book, but if you were you'll enjoy it even more. This is a book that will connect with teen readers are a variety of levels. It's a good read and one I'd recommend picking up.