The Future of Us

The Future of Us
Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
356 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: library/Paperbackswap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

The year is 1996 and, if you can believe it, the Internet it not such a big deal.  But when Emma gets a new computer as a gift from her father, her neighbor and longtime childhood friend, Josh, brings over an AOL CD so they can use the Internet.  Once they log on they mysteriously find their Facebook pages from 15 years in the future!

This book was not what I expected, but still interesting.  

Why I loved this book: The nostalgia factor.  I remember 1996.  I remember those AOL CDs.  I remember waiting four to six hours on my dialup connection every year to upgrade to the newest version of AOL.  I miss the voice of the AOL guy so much that I sometimes log onto my old AOL account just to hear him say, "Welcome [pause] You've got mail!"  Other references to that time period in this book made me giddy.


What I liked about this book: The moral of the story, such as it is.  Emma and Josh learn that things they do now affect the future and they also learn to not worry about the future so much.  This is an important lesson.  Worry less, go with the flow more.  It's a hard lesson I myself often struggle with.

What I didn't like: It was never explained how Emma and Josh got to see Facebook from fifteen years in the future.  Was it a time slip?  And if so, how and why?  The book comes off as very contemporary except for this one, unexplained aspect. 

Also, let's take a minute to note that Facebook has because such a massive part of our lives, that it is now prominently featured in our literature.  Holy cow.  Someone should write a book about what would happen if Facebook mysteriously vanished.  There would be mass hysteria, but I digress.  I was going to give the book three stars, but upon writing the review I feel it deserves four.  If you fondly remember those AOL CDs, check out this book.