Wednesday 18 February 2015

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares: Review .

The Here and Now
I am NOT a fan of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I haven't even read any of the books and I am not going to. I watched a film based of the first book a long time ago, it was OK and that's it.So I was more than reluctant when I started reading my first book by Ann Brashares,but since it seemed to be a dystopian novel about time travellers I thought it was worth a try.

This review is full of SPOILERS:

Prenna lives in a dystopian community inside a regular American city and there are so many rules to keep that it is  just like living in a cult with no hope for a better life or an afterlife for that matter. All the members of this claustrophobic society are gradually becoming parasites, they know that the future is horrible ,because that is where they come from, but they do nothing to make it better, they are too complacent with their simple lives and don't want to risk them.

 Prenna has enough guts to take a step forward and I liked that about the character.However, I thought that all the adults in the book were depicted as idiots  capable of the worst cruelties but unable to stop a teen girl.Prenna's mother, for example, is so blinded by pain that she can't   see through all the lies she's been told and puts her own daughter's life at risk just to keep her one more day.Although she seems to react and pull herself together just in time for the end of the book .I just don't understand how on earth she used those wicked glasses without a second thought.
Will we all be wearing weird (and sometimes useful) glasses in the future?




I liked the letters in which Prenna, the leading character, writes to her unborn brother; full of hope and amazement. They made me think about all the important things we take for granted everyday and the silly things that prevent us from enjoying a wonderful sunny day.

Ethan, the lover-boy is just like most male characters in YA novels: adorable!. He's perfect from head to toes , brave, funny , a gentleman and a hero. I like these characters, no matter how unrealistic they may seem, I never find them too good to be true,wishful thinking, I guess!.I don't even mind the fact that he fell instantly in love with Prenna, I think that the relationship was properly developed by the author later in the book and it seemed plausible and romantic.

The future described in the book in which mosquitoes carry deadly diseases that almost wipe out humanity is not so unbelievable, unfortunately.Pollution, global warming , bizarre weather changes and  lack of food are things that are already happening, there is nothing new about them, and we still hope  that things will get better if we recycle ,we use public transport ,we consume less and use environmentally friendly products or if we turn off the lights for an hour on that day.(Which by the way, will be on the 28 of March 2015 , you can find out the time here).




One of the modern advances described in the book as a memory bank used to store all you memories reminded me of this tiny so-called  lifelogging camera which may mean the end of privacy for people who are inadvertently photographed and the beginning of a huge life album that your grandchildren may find hilarious and touching at the same time.








All in all and despite the stupidity of the adult characters,  I didn't expect to like the book so much and I would very much enjoy a sequel .


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