Review: The Future of Us

Title: The Future of Us
Author: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Format: Hardback
Pages: 356
Date(s) Read: Jan 4-5, 2016
Rating: 4

Summary:

Josh and Emma are neighbors and best friends.  Until last November...Josh did something that changed everything.  Josh ultimately ends up bringing over an AOL CD (we all know the free ones that were sent out all the time) and when they install it on Emma's computer they are automatically logged onto their Facebook pages...but Facebook doesn't exist yet!  They are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Review:

This is one of those books that I wasn't sure if I wanted to read or not.  I'd read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and while I liked it, I wasn't even sure I wanted to read this one because I wasn't sure I was ready for a roller coaster ride that had been present in Thirteen Reasons Why. I was honestly torn, until I'd read a few reviews and further learned a bit about the premise of the story.

1996, I was a kid, born in the early 80's and loved everything (just about) about the 90's.  This was nostalgia and wonderful things mixed in with a glimpse of the future.  I remember getting AOL discs and the NetZero ones too.  Good coasters and ended up using them in some arts and crafts projects too because why the hell not.  The same music, all of it.  I was 14 in 1996, and this was how a lot of my teen years were spent.  Seriously.

Both Emma and Josh get a small glimpse of their own futures and begin realizing that even their small conversations, choices and small decisions have impacts upon their major stuff going on.  Consequences of actions aren't something that is usually considered by people when making decisions - beyond that - to see the impact in a potential future it makes one definitely stop and think.  That is what this forces Josh and Emma to do as they begin to realize what lies ahead for them.

Definitely one that made me dust off my Dave Matthews CDs and listen to some Goo Goo Dolls and Hootie and the Blowfish.  I would absolutely recommend this book.  Josh and Emma are pretty fun characters.