Book Review: The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

Title: The Future of Us  

Author: Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Series: --
Pages: 356
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Date of Publication: 5th January 2012
Source: For review from publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: It's 1996 and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Facebook will not be invented for several more years. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD-ROM with 100 free hours. When she and her best friend Josh log on to AOL they discover themselves on Facebook... fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what life has in store for them.
Josh and Emma are about to find out.

My Thoughts:
When I first read the synopsis for this book, I knew I had to read it. There was just something about a world where nobody knew what Facebook was, and not many people had mobile phones, that made me want to read it, just because I can't imagine a world like that now. It fascinates me that at one point there was a time when everyone didn't feel the need to share their whole life on the internet... And obviously, I know there was a time like that once because obviously, Facebook isn't that old, but growing up as a teenager today, it's hard to remember that. And that's the truth of today's world, I think. And I'm guilty of it, because I spend WAY too much time on the internet, I know, I know...

Anyway, I seem to have strayed off my point a bit. Again. (It's Christmas - forgive me for being distracted ;P ) I think that was one of the reasons I enjoyed The Future of Us so much. Because it's set in a world that for me was so difficult to understand, to believe in, yet I could get hooked in and believe in it as if it were the world I lived in today. (This seems to be a good thing for me - I pointed it out in my last review too.) It was awesome.

This review is actually really difficult for me to write. There were SO many things running through my head the whole time I was reading it, and I only wish I could tell you about all of them, but we'd be here forever and I'm sure that's not what you want to read. It made me think about so many things - especially about my future. Or, more precisely, just the future in general. In the book, when Emma and Josh find out their future, they do what they can to try and change it so that it'll be how they want it to be. And it got me thinking. Would I like to know my future? If I knew it, would I do everything in my power to change it, even if I don't know what the outcome of that change I'm trying to make will be? And maybe, before reading this book, the answer to those questions would be yes, but now I'm not so sure.

Yes, I know this is fiction, and I know that it's not real and there's no way we can log on to Facebook and see what we'll be doing in fifteen years time, but still. I most definitely do NOT want to know if my future is crap. It would suck, really really bad. And I know that's kind of a lame statement, but it would. It would be awful. And maybe that doesn't sound like it would make you think all that much, but for me, it made a huge impact. I'm fifteen. I don't know what I want to do with my life yet, and I think that knowing what was coming for me would ruin my life. Literally. I'd obsess over everything I did now, trying to make my future perfect, for what could essentially only make my future worse.

There is so much I want say about this book, but I don't know how to put it into words. Seriously, I haven't had so many feelings after reading a book for a very long time. I probably won't say everything I want to here, because as of yet I don't know how, and you might say wait a while before posting your review, but this book is SO amazing, and everyone needs to read it, that I need to tell you all about it, NOW. And I know you can't get it in the UK yet but you can preorder or order from the US...

Anyway, I'll talk about the actual book now. Like, the characters and the plot, and all that stuff. So first, the characters. The book is narrated from both Emma and Josh's points of view, in a dual narrative. I'm guessing that Jay Asher wrote Josh and Carolyn Mackler wrote Emma, but to be honest I have no idea. Anyway, I really liked both characters, and I felt that they were very realistic and they reacted to situations in ways which would definitely happen today. I especially liked Emma, and I felt I could really relate to her in the ways that she felt about finding out her future. (See first 4 paragraphs) Josh was pretty awesome too, and to be honest, I don't know why Emma ever turned him down... ;)

The plot was great - it kept me reading late into the night, for longer than the ten minutes I had originally planned to read for. I liked how it didn't only revolve around the discovery of Facebook and their future, but how it had a strong focus on the relationship between Josh and Emma. And not just romantically - it had a very strong focus on their friendship, and every time they fell out it broke my heart, because they are obviously SUCH good friends, and to fall out over something so seemingly small was devastating for both them and me. I found that I got seriously into the characters, and everything they felt, I felt too... The amount of times I had to force myself not to cry because there were other people in the room was pretty big for me, because I don't ever cry at books, really.

Anyway, I think I shall end my review here. Otherwise, it will be really long (not that it isn't already) and I'm a firm believer in the fact that you'd much rather read the actual book than my review... You should buy this. Get your hands on a copy, any way you can (AS LONG AS IT'S LEGAL) because you will not be disappointed. It's SUCH a good book, and I am most definitely going to be buying everything else that Jay and Carolyn write in the future, whether they write it together or not, and I will be reading the unread copy of Thirteen Reasons Why that has been sitting on my shelf for yonks as soon as I can.

Now, stop reading this and go and buy The Future of Us. Please.

*HUGE thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book, I genuinely promise I loved it this much *spreads arms as wide as possible* ;D

My Rating:

I give it 5 Feet!

Challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge #103