Fulfilling Future

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours 
* Book will be released November 21, 2011

4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

This was one heck of an interesting story.  It's a fantastic look at how technology has had an effect on every part of our lives.  The cover of the book really caught my attention with all of the ones and zeroes making up the entire thing, even shadowing what the main characters look like.  It's a good way of getting an impression of the characters yet being able to fill in your own details which is always good.

This book was like a giant nostalgia flashback.  It made me realize just how much I remember and still like a lot of stuff from 1996.  I was in sixth grade at the time but I remember just about everything that the characters reference.   

At the start Emma just received a computer and is installing AOL on it when something weird occurs.  She finds that she can access Facebook.  Of course back in 1996, she has no idea what Facebook is and why people would post every detail of their lives on line.

At first there's disbelief but then they find without a doubt that they are getting a glimpse into their futures.  Let's just say that Josh likes what he sees in his future a heck of a lot more then Emma does.  This leads to both of them making some hard choices.

I love how believable this book feels.  It gives two great sides of what I feel most people would do if they knew that they were seeing into their future.  My only real issue is that neither one of them looked up anything like major events or what other technology would be available in the future.  I guess the characters might be too awed by the whole seeing into the future thing but I'm pretty sure I would have looked up more events.

There's a lot of tension in the whole finding love department from both Josh and Emma.  It sure makes for a great read because you're always wondering if they're going to find the right person.  It nicely raises the question of how much of our future is chance and how much is choice.

Finding out about Facebook brings Emma and Josh closer together and better see how their actions affect themselves and the people in their lives.  The ending was just about perfect.

I can already imagine a movie or television series based off of this book, it would just be ideal for those mediums.  Keep an eye out for this book because it should definitely be a smash when it debuts.