The Here and Now by Ann Brashares- Review

I've been a fan of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books and movies by Ann Brashares ever since high school. Just this past year I listened to the conclusion of the series as an audio book and still felt just as attached to the characters as I had when I first read the book and saw the movie. When I had the opportunity to read Brashares newest book before it was released in stores, I jumped at the chance.

The Here and Now
By Ann Brashares

Basic Summary Without Spoilers

Prenna is a 17-year old girl living in present day New York. However, she is not from here. She, along with everyone else in her Community, are from the future and immigrated to the year 2010 when she was 12 because they were escaping a plague which covered the earth via mosquitoes. The Community has incredibly strict rules where they cannot go to doctors, not interfering with the outside world, and of course - not falling in love with one of the "natives" of the time they are living in. Which, naturally, is a problem for Prenna and her "native" friend Ethan. However, they both end up knowing more than they should and go to prevent what has already happened in Prenna's past/what will happen in Ethan's future.

Welcome to the world of time travel everyone.

My Thoughts

The Cover: Honestly, nothing special. When you look carefully you can kind of see little scenes in the triangles, but even after reading the book these scenes don't mean much. Knowing it is an Ann Brashares novel is the most the cover has going for it.

The Premise: The idea of this book was really interesting. It was a bit of a different view of time travel and what the future will bring in the next generation or so. Many novels which deal with the future lean towards technology, media, and social issues. This novel goes toward the angle of global warming and it's long-term effects on the world. It was definitely not a view I would have thought of so I found it interesting. There also wasn't a whole lot of time travel itself in the novel. There was only one instance in the very beginning and everything else was simply a result of that instance. However, I did feel as though the plot was pretty loose and I didn't completely understand all of the ramifications of Premma and Ethan's actions through the story. It gets confusing trying to figure out why some things changed int he end but other didn't and why some people remembered things and others didn't...

But then you have to remember it is time travel. With most stories about time travel, you will never 100% understand everything that has happened and it's results.

Any Doctor Who fan is very familiar with this.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Doctor.

The Characters: There honestly weren't a ton of characters in this story, which is nice every once in a while because having too many characters gets confusing. Most of the time is spent with Preena and Ethan. I enjoyed them very much. They were likable and determined. Yet, they weren't very complex. We learn a bit about their past, but it was more about their families vs. the main characters themselves.

The World: I covered some of this in the premise, but it was an interesting world. Of course, most of it was spent in 2014, so it was very familiar. But it was interesting to read about the supposed history of 2014 until the 2090s.

The Love Story: Adorable. It's young first love and very sweet. They talk about sex a lot, but that'll happen when the guy is 18 years old and it does actually have to do with the plot, so it's tolerable. There were also times I was very much "Awww this is so cute. Wait! Shouldn't they be planning what their next move is in saving the world? Oh well. This scene was adorable. They'll figure it out later."

Overall Thoughts: This book was cute, interesting, and read very quickly. I enjoyed the love story and seeing another view of what the world might be like in the next generation or so. However, I felt as though Brashares could have gone deeper with the characters and the plot. The world and premise was great, but there could have been so much more. Yes, it's wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, but I still feel as though there needed to be more plot and make a bit more sense.

I gave it 3 stars because I did like it, but there could have been more.

The book comes out April 8 and you can pre-order it via the links below.

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Half.com