The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Genre: Young Adult, Time Travel, Science Fiction
Pages: 256 (Kindle Edition)
Publish date: April 8th
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385736800
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US
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.
The Here and Now
I received an e-arc of The Here and Now from Delacorte Press through Netgalley. This is no way has influenced my review.
I didn’t really know what to expect going into reading The Here and Now, simply because I have never read a time travel book before this. I was slightly disappointed.
At the start I was just really confused with what was going on. I was also pretty bored. Maybe it was because I didn’t understand it, but it really did stop me from reading it. It also put me into a major reading slump, which I really didn’t want on my school holidays. The start was also really slow.
Like I said, I was really confused at the start. I just could not get into it at all. About maybe 40% through things for me started to get a little more interesting and things flowed a whole lot better. I really got into the story and wanted to know what was going to happen and what was going on.
In saying that, I loved the writing. It really was beautiful and made the novel that much more intriguing.
I really enjoyed Preena. She was really interesting and intriguing. I liked her a loy. She isn’t the most popular girl, but, to me, she stands out. She starts to think outside the box and questions all the things that she thought were true and it really drove me to keep on reading. I do feel bad for her. Not only did she has time travel, but in her old life she lost too many things and I think that they haunt her in a certain way that she doesn’t even know.
I also really enjoyed Ethan. He was an amazing character and someone who you could trust and always rely on. He would do anything for Preena and that just made me smile and want to cry at the same time. He is such a caring person and he stole my heart. He has so many feelings and I know that sometimes got him into trouble in different ways, but it was really good to see.
‘He lost his hold on what was above and what was below, what was sky and what was earth, what there was to breath or even where his body began and ended.’
I particularly didn’t like any of the leaders of the group that travelled. I wanted to smash all their heads together and just yell, but I think in the end Preena does it for me. They are so stuck in their ways that they cannot see anything else, even if it is for the better.
I actually really liked Preena’s mum. Yes, she was a little ‘mean’ at the start, but I guess that is because she is too influenced by the leaders as well as the ghosts of her past. By the end, she became an enjoyable character to read and the little moments between her and Preena are too damn cute.
I liked all the twists and turns and not knowing what was going to happen. It was a different feeling because I am normally pretty good at seeing what is happening, so not knowing something was awesome, or thinking that something was going to happen and the complete opposites happens. What an ending. My heart broke and shattered. It was quite terrible.
I liked The Here and Now. It was an okay read, but I felt it lacked in the world building and as well a little in the characterisation.
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