The Future of Us [Kindle Edition]

This book appealed on so many levels I just had to get a copy as soon as it was released. I was a teen when the Internet first arrived in homes and schools and can distinctly remember loading up cd-roms and painfully waiting for dial up pages to load. The Future Of Us was certainly a nostalgia trip for me, even down to the fashions, TV shows and Discmans.

The idea of coming across Facebook before it was even invented and seeing your future life played out was genius. Who wouldn't be tempted by that? Emma and Josh's perplexity at the things they were posting about in the future was hilarious. If someone had described Facebook to me fifteen years ago I'd probably have thought it sounded ridiculous too.

Aside from the nostalgia I was also intrigued by the time slip element in this book. Emma becomes obsessed with changing her future and then checking its implications on Facebook and I thought this would be fascinating. Unfortunately I think a massive opportunity was missed here to make this book brilliant. The idea is fantastic, the execution is disappointing and the authors just don't explore things enough. It's all very surface, I wanted to know so much more. Why did this happen? What are the far-reaching repercussions? What do the characters learn from it all? The opportunity to change your future is unbelievably fascinating but sadly, all Emma comes across as being interested in is which guy she ends up with.

I also felt I just didn't connect with either of the characters. The book is told from both Josh and Emma's viewpoint and is written by two authors. I've no idea which parts where written by whom, whether they each wrote a character or contributed to both so I don't think the issue was down to two styles not meshing. I think it's down to a lack of depth and detailing. By the end I had no idea why this pair were as connected as they were. I also wonder how teens today will relate to this book; after all it's aimed at them yet the most enjoyable part of it for me was the 90's nostalgia. I'm not convinced they'll truly get it.

If you take The Future Of Us as a piece of easy, fluffy story telling then it's an enjoyable read. I can't deny I flew through it in a couple of hours. If you start scratching the surface though then you realise there's a lot of faults. Not least the ease with which Emma accepts Facebook in the first place and understands it's from her own future. I found this an easy and entertaining enough read, but ultimately unsatisfying.

I've been looking forward to reading this book for months, ever since I first heard about what could only be described as an epic collaboration. While I liked it and read it super quick, I didn't love it like everyone else seems to. Something didn't quite sit right with me, and I think it comes down to the lack of explanation for why Facebook suddenly appears on Emma's new computer and how it's possible for Emma and Josh to change their futures so quickly and easily. I have no problem believing in time-travel and other such things, but here I think I needed more information to support it.

Of course, The Future of Us has many good, even excellent, aspects. The references to 1996 are almost all accurate (I don't think Leonardo DiCaprio would have been as popular as the writers make out, though - Romeo and Juliet wasn't even on anyone's radar then and he didn't hit it big until late 1997/early 1998!) and the dual narrative gets full marks from me. I do like alternating points of view, and it made this book move quickly and keep its momentum. I also liked the characters, especially Tyson and Josh. Emma got on my nerves after a while, always trying to change things and being blind to what was right in front of her. The males in this book definitely made this book for me, and I'm assuming Josh's chapters were written by Jay Asher, who is brilliant. I could be wrong, though!

The Future of Us made me think about the future and what I'd do if I could see into mine and even change things. Sometimes I think I'd love to know what will happened by 2027, but then other times the idea freaks me out too much. I wouldn't want to know because I don't think I could change anything, and I'd live the next 15 years waiting for things, good or bad, to happen. All this is addressed in The Future of Us but, like I mentioned earlier, the ripple effects from the present that ultimately change the future weren't quite so believable. When it comes to time-travel and future-changing, I ALWAYS need a good explanation. But that's just me.

As a contemporary novel, The Future of Us is a quick, engrossing read. It's really about a journey of self-discovery and seizing the moment (that didn't work so well for Willow in Buffy, remember? Ha!), and in that respect it's a must-read for fans of the genre. It's an interesting, original concept that for me required more in-depth exploration into the why and how. It's still one to add to the to-be-read pile, though!

I was a little weary of picking this book up after having some issues with a central character, Hannah, in Asher's Thirteen Reason Why, and not having read anything by Mackler before. However, as soon as I heard the premise of this book, I knew it was something that I just had to pick up - it sounded extremely interesting, relevant and fun.

The Future of Us is set in the 90's, when the internet is relatively new and it's a very exciting thing for our two protagonists, Emma and Josh. Using an AOL CD-ROM, they open the internet and discover Facebook, which shows them, their friends and family, fifteen years in the future. I am a 90's kid and a lover of Facebook, so these things combined meant a book that I could relate to and that I could really get stuck into. Sure enough, this novel provided me with great memories of the 90's and it really hit-home how much we have all been changed by technology.

The Future of Us definitely shows how much technology has changed and how it has affected our lives. It is definitely interesting to sit back and be shown the comparison from the 90's to now and how in such a short period of time, our lives have changed and we've become more open about displaying things on the internet. It's also fascinating to ask yourself whether or not you'd like to see yourself in the future and after reading this, I don't think I would.

I really liked Emma and Josh as they felt like very genuine people. I especially liked Josh - he was down to earth and had a well-rounded personality of someone that I'd really like to be friends with. Emma was a little annoying at points, but this aspect of her personality definitely contributed to the story and helped towards exploring more issues that Facebook could create. Their friendship, although difficult at times, certainly felt real and it was interesting to see how, together, they coped with the discovery of something so life affecting.
I did like reading about Emma's best friend, Kellan, and how Emma would deal with certain situations regarding her after she had discovered her future, but I think that it would've been nice to see how they interacted together more. Tyson, Kellan's on-off romance, was a little underdeveloped but was still a good addition to the story.

The only issue with this book was that, when Emma and Josh were changing their future, I was a little confused as to exactly how it affected the present, past and future. I don't think that this was made clear enough to the reader and so at points it did seem a little messy and it could've perhaps been handled or explored slightly better. I also think that sometimes Emma jumped to conclusions about what her future-self was thinking or feeling - though maybe this is because she was not fully aware that you can't get the whole story from a short Facebook status.

In conclusion, I really did enjoy this book and it's something that I would recommend, especially to those slightly older Young Adults who can remember the first days of the internet. This book has a unique, intriguing idea, is hugely compelling and I found it very difficult to put down.