Review: While this book got high ratings, The Future Of Us has undergone major criticisms from readers and reviewers alike. The common complaint has been that it does not touch enough on love. It doesn’t make you want the main characters to fall in love and get together. And yes, that’s true. But I think that those people are missing the point. It’s not a sappy romance. It’s real. My view on the book is this: it isn’t a LOVE STORY, it’s a love story. And the sad fact is, that the LOVE STORIES we love to hate are the very love stories that have driven so many people to dislike this book.
You could read this to grandma or little sis without much trouble. (teen drinking, very minor sexual elements, language)We can moan on and on again about how a shirtless pirate rescuing a maiden in disgrace is cliche and boring, but those are the love stories we like to hear, because everyone wants to believe it’s that easy. But this story is real; the romance is accurate, and true to emotion, and it portrays a very accurate view of how foolish and self-centered Facebook would look, if the nineties could see it. In fact, that is how we ourselves would see Facebook, if we took a step back.
Both of the writers have written fantastic books in the past, and I think that the concept is well developed and interesting. But Jay Asher wrote Thirteen Reasons Why, which topped the bestseller list, inspired remarkable and much-needed controversy, and remained in hardcover far more than a year after the customary paperback release date. Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things was on 2006′s “most challenged books” list, was banned, won the Michael L. Printz award for honor books, and is an ALA best book for young adults.
The credentials of the authors alone recommend the book. Authors don’t write without a purpose. They write insightfully, having put great detail and thought behind their words, and I think The Future Of Us has a lot to offer.
I enjoyed The Future Of Us. I would give it to my sister, my friends, my aunt, my mother, my grandmother, my brother, nephew, uncle or son. The material was not controversial, and there were almost no elements that could be considered disturbing.
Summary:
Emma and Josh have been next door neighbors for a long time. So when Emma gets a computer, Josh brings her an AOL (America Online CD-ROM) that his family wasn’t going to use.
Emma logs on and hooks up the internet. It’s 1996, but somehow, when she gets on the internet, she’s connected to her Facebook page… 15 years later. Emma thinks, at first, that the page is a practical joke from some not-so-funny guy trying to freak Emma out about her (not-so-perfect) future. But she soon discovers that this is not a joke, and even the slightest change in her daily life affects the one she lives in the future.
Emma tells Josh and they discover that Josh has a Facebook too: he winds up married to the hottest girl in school, Sydney Mills.
The Josh and Emma of the past would have teamed together to change Emma’s future and stay Josh’s, but Josh is in love with Emma. And Emma knows it, but isn’t sure how she feels about Josh, except afraid of losing him. So while Josh makes semi-frantic attempts to “meet” Sydney, Emma panics about her future, trying to change it, and Josh panics about Emma’s changes affecting his future.
Emma and Josh, and their friends Tyson and Kellan go to a bonfire on the beach, where Josh hangs out with Sydney. Emma leaves early and goes home. She hears Josh arriving home, and, realizing that she misses him, does nothing. But Kellan comes roaring up a minute later with Tyson, and plans of kidnapping Emma and Josh for a fun night out on the town, where Emma and Josh discover that they may have feelings for each other after all.
