The Here and Now: A Book Review

I received this book from NetGalley a little while ago, but I was immediately intrigued when I read the summary.  Also, I was interested in reading this because of the author.  Ann Brashares is the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, which I read back in the day and really enjoyed when I was younger.  I couldn’t wait to check out another book by her!

Title: The Here and Now

Author: Ann Brashares

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: April 8, 2014

Pages: 288

Out in Paperback?: No

Goodreads

Amazon

My Rating: 4/5

Review:

Goodreads Summary:

An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

From Ann Brashares, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, The Here and Now is thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking—and a must-read novel of the year.

Characters:

I really enjoyed most of these characters.  Prenna was a girl who immigrated from the future and tries hard to fit in, without raising any flags.  She is stuck under the rule of the leaders in her community of immigrants, but she is able to recognize that something is not right with their system.  She is curious and intelligent as she tries to discover more information about the place she is from and the place she is living now.  By far my favorite character was Ethan.  Ethan plays the love interest in this story; however, he acts as much more than that.  He is kind, sweet, and funny throughout the novel, while actively working with Prenna to figure out answers to the time travel that occurred.  I completely loved Ethan’s character because he was a little goofy, but in a cute way and also very helpful and supportive.  The leaders within the community played a role in the book; however, they mostly seemed like stereotypical young adult “enemies.”  They didn’t seem to be very prominent and dark, like you would think a dominating, evil leader should be.  I felt that they were trying to be evil and scary while being rated PG.

Plot:

The story follows Prenna, a young girl who traveled from a destroyed future to a much safer time in the past, which is actually the current year.  Prenna and many other time travels came back to escape a serious plague that was sweeping the future.  Their community lives together under strict rules to avoid changing or harming the future.  However, a boy named Ethan, who Prenna meets at school, knows more than Prenna wants to tell him about herself.  Together, they face adventure to open up the secrets of Prenna’s community.

Writing Style:

I thought that the writing style was pretty good overall.  Although I didn’t absolutely love this book, I did find myself wanting to continue reading to find out what would happen next.  I thought that there was a good mix of action and adventure as well as a little romance.  I also thought that the writing style was fairly comparable to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series (although I read it a long time ago).  It was young adult, however, there really was no murder or gore and very little romance.

This book was recently released!  Are you planning on checking it out?  Have you already picked it up?

FTC Disclaimer:

This book was sent to me for review from NetGalley.  This is not a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.  No affiliate links were used.