Saturday 28 April 2012

Review: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Title: The Future of Us
Authors: Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Publication date: January 5th 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Childrens Books
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Cover rating: 3/5
Content rating: 2/5
Source Library book
Buy: Amazon

Description:
It's 1996 and very few high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented until several years in the future. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD. She and her best friend Josh power it up and log on - and discover themselves on Facebook in 2011. Everybody wonders what they'll be like fifteen years in the future. Josh and Emma are about to find out.
My thoughts:

I'm finding it a little hard to put down my thoughts about this one because honestly, it had such a small impact on me that I don't even feel I have much to say about it! I was definitely disappointed with The Future of Us and had been hoping for so much more. The description is one of the most intriguing I've ever seen; I just loved the whole premise of this book! Sadly, it didn't live up to its potential for me and I kind of regret the time I spent reading it.

It started out pretty good. I was a kid in the 90s so it was pretty fun seeing references to things and realizing how small a part technology played in peoples' lives. Things have certainly changed a lot in recent years! I was enjoying getting to know Emma and Josh and was really excited for the main plot point to take off. However, once Emma and Josh found their future Facebook pages, I really lost interest. It just didn't go where I expected it to head.

So many awesome things could have been done with this but instead, Emma spends the whole book obsessing over her relationship status! It was a bit odd and made Emma come across as kind of silly. Her obsessing didn't really make much sense to me nor did her actions. She sees that she's married to somebody and is unhappy in her life. So she decides to seek out this guy so she can find out where she meets him, so she can avoid that place in the future. It was pointless. Why couldn't she just not go out with or marry him when the time comes?! She really wasted her time on nonsense when she could have been finding out awesome stuff about the future.

Josh was far more levelheaded for most of the book. Though he still focuses on the same things as Emma, he wasn't as annoying or odd about it. I did like the writing in this book though! It was very easy to just speed through and definitely made for a quick and light read. I would probably still recommend it but only if you don't mind the whole thing being focused on Emma and Josh's future relationships. It just wasn't what I was expecting it to be. Lots of other people did love it though!

7 comments:

  1. That is a bummer. I was looking forward to this since I was late teens early twenties in the 90 s so I was excited but nowmif it focuses more on FB status well it sounds like you said it could have been so much more. I might still check it out when I get time.

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  2. {new follower here}

    I have to say that from the summary it could be interesting, I will not read the review as I haven't read the book, but I feel its going to be one of this situations where it should have stayed a short story and not been pushed into an entire novel. Thank you for sharing.

    {http://www.justonemorechapter.net}

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  3. Shame you didn't enjoy Nicola but thanks for the honest review :) I really liked the book but I agree with you that Emma was a bit too obssessive about her future husband, I preferred Josh even though the fact that he was so happy to be landed with Sydney was irritating too!

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  4. The premise for this book does sound amazing but it's a shame it didn't quite live up to it. I haven't read this yet but I have a copy. I'll try not to set my expectations too high! Great review, Nicola. :)

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  5. I love the concept of this book, but I have read quite a few mixed reviews of it. I am hoping to still pick it up, and hopefully I'll have more of a positive experience with it.

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  6. I really enjoyed this...I love how most the bloggers I know all understand references to technology and things. Hope you enjoy something else a bit more.

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  7. I loved this book, I think because it was around my time. I left school in 1995 so I could relate to a lot of it. x

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