themusicaddict's Review of Ann Brashares "The Here And Now"

Hello,

Special thanks to Random House Children's publishing/ Delacorte Press and the Davis County library for the ability to read this book. Also thanks to NetGalley for letting me know about this book, although I wasn't able to read it through them.

Ann Brashares "The Here and Now" is a short scathing commentary of our current world, especially how our environmental conditions continue to deteriorate. Although the evidence for that deterioration is overwhelming there are still deniers insisting things aren't getting worse. As this is a Young Adult novel, of course there's a love story at the center of the book. The happy couple is Prenna James, who comes from the future, and Ethan Jarves, who is a so-called "time native". Prenna and Ethan have a very sweet YA appropriate romance. I'm grateful there's no love triangle, but there's a smart twist which helps their relationship avoid being yet another YA cliche.  They first meet in 2010 accidentally as Ethan is fishing and Prenna arrives from that future through a time path.

Prenna James, a traveler, is the female protagonist from an apocalyptic future full of disease, especially the deadly blood plagues. When she arrived the number 51714 was written on her arm. At first she didn't know what that number meant, but eventually realized it meant May 17th, 2014. That's a key date for all of Earth's residents, both those from the cataclysmic future and also the people of the present. Prenna, her Mom, and their group left the future in 2098, traveled the time path and arrived in 2010.

In 2010 Ethan Jarves is fishing and sees the air shimmering and Prenna arrives from the future naked. She's cold and embarrassed, he gave her his NY Giants jacket to give her some dignity. She kept that jacket as a reminder of him. Two-and-a-half years after their initial meeting Prenna arrives in his class at school. "The Here and Now" follows Prenna and Ethan as they find out about May 17th, 2014 and what they have to do to prevent the apocalyptic future. Eventually those two figure out that date has something to do with Mona Ghali. Ghali is working on "capturing the energy of ocean surface waves".

The real first year of the plague was 2087, however people were able to keep holding it back and containing it, but that could only last so long. When the mosquitoes started spreading the disease, that's when the plagues became dramatically worse. In the year 2098 was when they figured out how to make the time path work.

Prenna had experience with the blood plagues as it had killed her two little brothers Remus and Julius. The book is broken up with Prenna's letters written to Julius, even though he died before she arrived in 2010. For some reason those letters to Julius stop? I'm not sure what that means.

As with most YA novels there's a group that's controlling everything and of course they aren't the best leaders. The leaders control the others from the future with pills, glasses (really a recording device) and a set of 12 rules.

Ethan and Prenna are the two main characters. But there's also Prenna's Mom, Molly, who came as part of the same group from the future. Prenna and Molly are living together as the mother and daughter they are. Poppy, Prenna's Dad, was suppose to come with them in the same group. However something happened and he was unable to join them.

There's also "Ben Kenobi", a homeless man, who also came from the future. At first we think he's someone who's probably a minor character, but he ends up being so much more. Other characters include Ms. Cynthia and Mr. Robert, two of the group's short sighted leaders. They are tasked to ensure the 12 rules are followed, which are designed to help the travelers blend in with the time natives. We meet a few other characters, some who are more important than others.

Thanks to the aforementioned twist, and thinking outside of the box, Prenna and Ethan's relationship is much less of a cliche than it could have been. I always say how good a book is determined significantly by the ending. Although the book is slight in most regards and falls back on some standard YA story lines, overall it's a good book. I'm giving "The Here and Now" a B grade. I recommend it to those that enjoy a quick, enjoyable read. You may roll your eyes a few times, but ultimately you'll be glad you've read this book.

I would recommend it to those who like "The Hunger Games" trilogy.

themusicaddict