Alice's Review: The Here and Now

Author: Ann Brashares
Series: Yes?
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 288
Obtained: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Young Adult, Science Fiction
Rating: 4
Bottom Line: A reluctant hero's journey.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Just get it at the library

Summary:  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.  ~blurb

Review:  A bit of time has passed since I finished this novel and started the review. I’ll start off by saying I think this novel is flawed however, I really enjoyed it. I liked Prenna, our main character. I like the time travel storyline. I liked that it was set in New York. I liked that the time travelers are woven among us, living secretly out in the open. That is the good.

And now for the bad. I thought the timeline of the novel was a little wonky. In one scene they have two days to save the world, in another they had enough time to go to Jones Beach one day and the Jersey Shore the next. Then after the Jersey Shore adventure, they are rushing back to North Jersey to accomplish their mission. It didn’t make sense. I hate when things don’t make sense. And a mosquito-borne illness? Seriously? I have a hard time believing there aren’t any vaccinations against this disease or ways to terminate mosquitoes in general. This future truly sucks. I won’t even get into how far-fetched the story line is or how anti hero Prenna is. It’s amazing she’s lived as long as she did, let alone long enough to impact the world.

Even with all this, here I am telling you how much I enjoyed it and I really did. It was interesting, a page turner, and unexpected. I believe in the concept of the novel, however I hope Ms. Brashares takes more time with the next one to smooth out some of the rougher edges. The more I think about this novel, the more I’m questioning my own judgement on giving it such a high marking. The truth is I enjoyed it, even with all the plot holes and inconsistencies. I’m looking forward to the next one in this series.

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