The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler


Summary: It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present.

Review: I've seen some reviews of The Future of Us that say there were too many 90's references and that dragged the story down, but the references were the highlight of the story for me. I loved the book and everything, but from the time Emma is choosing her screensaver (I was a fan of the pipes) I was hooked. I loved being brought back to the good ole days. I thought The Future of Us had some great character growth moments, but Emma and Josh annoyed me through most of the book. That sucked because I like Josh a lot. I stopped liking him when he became obsessed with Sydney. I kind of liked Emma but, again, when she was obsessed with Cody she got annoying. Unfortunately that was a good chunk of this book. I went to public school so I get the whole, "OMG the hot guy is soooooooooooo hot" thing. It doesn't make it any less annoying. That was the only thing that bothered me though. I've also seen people comparing this book to the authors' earlier works. I'm not going to do that. The only book of Carolyn's I've read is The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, but as that was a while ago it would not be fair to compare it. Jay's other book Thirteen Reasons Why is one of my favorite books of all time, but this was a much lighter story so that would be another unfair comparison. I think they wrote very well together and the story flowed quite nicely. I say give this book a shot. If you can remember the 90's at all then sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride down memory lane.

4.5 howls

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