The Here and Now

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Author(s)

Ann Brashares

Publisher

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

13+

Release Date

April 08, 2014

ISBN

9780385736800

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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.

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2 reviews

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Was Promising, but the Characters and the Lack of World-Building Were Hard to Ignore

July 18, 2014

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2.3

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MY THOUGHTS
There was two misconceptions I had about this book:
1. I assumed this was a contemporary when I first saw it.
The cover seems like a cover for a contemporary book and the author is known for writing contemporary books, so I thought it was contemporary.
2. I thought it would be based on forbidden love.
When I got around to reading the synopsis, I not only figured out that this was not a contemporary book, but I also saw that this book would have forbidden romance in it.

I was happy to find out that this is a time travel book, which is one of my favorite book topics. I was also happy to find out that this book was not all about forbidden romance, something that I have been getting sick of lately in books.

I was really interested in the idea behind this book. Someone coming from a desolate future to the present in order to save their own future? Heck yes! Sadly, I was disappointed by this book. This idea was shown in the book often, but the execution of this idea failed.

World-Building: The world-building was the main reason. Everything in this book was rushed, it was as if an entire series was crammed in one book. Since the book was rushed, there wasn't a lot of time for world-building, which left me with a lot of answered questions. Why were they chosen to travel? How exactly did they travel? And the list goes on.

Characters: With the story being rushed, we also didn't get a lot of time to know the characters, leaving us with a bunch of cardboard characters. Ethan is just the cardboard boyfriend, he doesn't even seem to have any other purpose than to be there. There's a girl named Katherine who is Prenna's best friend but she doesn't serve any purpose to the story at all, in fact, she's hardly in it. Almost every character is a cardboard character, even Prenna is a cardboard character (the idiot with a high IQ. Seriously, she makes so many dumb decisions yet she has a high IQ? In what world does this make sense?).

IN CONCLUSION
I was really hoping to like this book.
It would have been an interesting take on time-travel if only the story was not rushed. If we had more world-building and more personality to the characters, I would have been able to enjoy this book much more.

Jessica Jackson Top 50 Reviewer 147 reviews

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Horrible disappointment

June 29, 2014

Overall rating

2.3

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Well, it's been well over 2 months since I read this one. I forgot to write a review right away, and then I got busy reading. So, here I am. Writing a review several months later about a book that was enjoyable while I read it, but really unremarkable after the fact.

Sorry for the fans of Ann Brashares. I never read her other books, so I have nothing to compare her writing to. The writing, actually, wasn't bad at all. The Here and Now was a super fast read with a steady pace. It just didn't wow me. I think the market has been flooded with sci-fi/dystopian books lately. And since I've read so many of them, it's becoming increasingly harder to impress me. That's it in a nutshell.

So what can I say 2 months later? Not a whole lot, I'm afraid. I can say you will probably enjoy this one because there is a certain mystery behind Prenna for about half of the book. Then you're going to figure things out. From that point on you are seeing it through because you feel committed. It's not going to have some huge plot twist or shock factor. When you finish the last page, you'll think "ok" and move on. There won't be any deep pondering or wonderings of "what if".

The characters are likeable enough, but they don't dazzle. I never felt invested in them. In fact, the insta-love made me roll my eyes a good bit. I heard that this has been optioned for a movie. I'm going to take a leap here and say it's due to the success of her other novels as movies. As far as a book made for a movie, this is not one I would choose.