Stevie‘s review of The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Young Adult Science Fiction Romance published by Delacorte Press 08 Apr 14
Time-travel stories can be difficult to get right, but Ann Brashares seems to have managed it in this case. I had a minor quibble about one or two aspects of the backstory, but those did little to squash my enjoyment of the story overall. Plus, this book mostly gets things right in allowing our heroes the benefits of modern technology without having to resort too often to the cliché of them ending up in an area without phone signals or internet connections because of plot. I also like the use of paper records to provide a series of references as to how the timeline has or hasn’t changed at various points in the story – something that the internet, even with resources like the Wayback Machine, can’t do when past and future keep changing in both subtle and more marked ways.
Prenna is one of nearly 1,000 children and adults who have travelled back in time to escape a natural disaster in our near future. After four years, they’re almost integrated into the communities where they’ve settled, but still have to gather regularly to be reminded of the rules – mostly concerned with not revealing the truth about who they are or where they came from, along with the vital prohibition on forming relationships with the ‘time natives’ they see every day. Prenna’s mother is a medic, but is hampered in her career by the rules against seeking help for any kind of illness or injury from outside their group. Meanwhile, Prenna’s father stayed behind at the last minute and is presumed to have died from the plague the time travellers seem to have left behind them in the future.
At school, Prenna makes friends with Ethan – who, unknown to Prenna, is able to see that the time travellers are different from other people – and he introduces her to an apparently crazy homeless man. The man passes on information to Prenna about an event coming up that could be pivotal in the disaster she and her group think they’ve escaped, but then he’s killed, leaving Prenna and Ethan with access to a collection of newspapers and money from various points between their current time and the time Prenna originally came from.
The two run away from their families, and use the future newspapers and present-day internet to figure out what might be about to happen and how they can avert it. Then there’s a race against time as they try to avert at least one murder that might change everything, even though they have no idea whether the new future might be any better than the one Prenna has already experienced.
This is a gripping book, in spite of my quibbles about how and why the leaders of Prenna’s group chose 2010 as the year they travelled back to, and a few other time-travel-related points. It’s not quite a romance in and of itself due to the way the book ends, but I would hope that the resourcefulness of the characters might overcome certain issues, given enough time (pardon the pun).
Grade: B
Summary:
An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.
Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.
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.
Read an excerpt.
