Today's Review: The Future of Us, Jay Asher/Carolyn Mackler

Quick Review of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler.

So, over the summer, I was searching for books that might fit side-by-side with the genre of my book series -- YA Time Travel. Reading the description, this book seemed absolutely perfect.

The general idea is that the protagonists get an AOL CD (remember those freebies in the grocery store? Get AOL today!), and they get so many free hours -- but the catch is, when they load it onto their computer, this weird thing called Facebook loads, and they can see their futures! I mean seriously, imagine being able to see and navigate through Facebook in the nineties, unfathomable. One similarity between my book and this book, my kids use Myspace to research, since back in 2005, Myspace was the thing. 

Similarly to mine, it's told in alternating points of view between a guy and a girl (mine goes back and forth between a brother and a sister). However, the "time traveling" is reverse from my book, mine goes back fifteen years from 2020, while this takes place in 1996, and looks ahead fifteen years. I know this is a YA book, but I think for readers in their late twenties, early thirties, this book is an especially fun read, because it takes place when we were that age (I was a 6th grader in 1996, so slightly behind these high schoolers, but I still remember the time), so the references are comical.

I really liked the idea, it was a quick read, and it was fun. It had a good pace. My only disappointment with this book was that I wanted it to be longer. I wanted a big ol' fat book that would let me live in this fun little world forever. It ended up being too simple for my tastes. Without getting too in depth into the plot, I wanted to see more ramifications for the characters' actions, get more into the characters' heads and their relationships, and I wanted something bigger and more drastic to happen and have to be fixed by the characters (I wanted it to be a lot darker). I thought some of the character development only touched the surface. I really just wanted the writers to push the characters a little further.

I don't mean to say I disliked this book, because I did like it, a lot. I liked it so much that I wanted more. It was cute and, like I said, it has a great premise. If you're looking for a quick YA read on the beach or just for fun and nothing too deep then this is for you. I would be interested in reading more by these authors, I heard Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why is a great book too. Going to stick that one on my list!