The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

Lately, I've been a sucker for anything time-travel related. I've seen it coming up more and more in new releases, and I haven't found too many that have disappointed me yet! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Here and Now. In The Here and Now, Prenna is part of a small community of time travelers that have arrived in the past, desperate to find a way to change the devastating future that was their home. Plagues and poverty is all they've known for years. But the longer they stay, and the more self-aware Prenna becomes as she gets older, she's noticing that the community seems corrupt. They're surveilling them, and stifling their interactions with what they call the 'time natives' - or those who are from the present time. And who really knows what they've actually got planned to stop the future from unfolding the way it did in the past?

I thought the dynamic between Prenna and Ethan was really cute. Ethan is the one boy that Prenna can't seem to keep out, and can't bear to keep lying to. I thought it was very sweet the way that he seemed to understand her without having to push her too hard or too far. But I can't say a whole lot more about their relationship than that... it was cute. It wasn't super developed or so-adorable-I'm-gonna-melt... it was just... cute. Which is totally okay sometimes too!

The time travel was very straightforward in The Here and Now. There's the future, and the past. And you've got to make exactly the right change in the past in order to change anything in the future. The issue of paradoxes or alternate futures didn't seem to come up. The idea was more that time is a train, and you have to do some pushing to get it to change its track at all. This fresh, simplistic view of time travel is perfect for an Ann Brashares novel. At the end of the day, I didn't go into The Here and Now expecting a mind-bending time travel adventure. I expected an honest, real look at a girl who comes of age in her own way. That's what Ann Brashares writes best, in my opinion. The time travel piece almost took a back seat to the character and identity development that Prenna goes through.

Most of the more critical reviews of The Here and Now that I've read are attacking the fact that some of the big plot turns and revelations aren't exactly what you would call masterfully plotted. And I'll admit, they're really not. But that didn't ruin them for me either. I enjoyed The Here and Now from start to finish.

I read The Here and Now in near one sitting. It easily caught and held my attention, and I found myself needing to know whether or not the future could be changed. If there's another book, I'll definitely be reading it just as soon as I can get my hands on it!

 



 

 

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Posted by Tynga at 01:19

 ann brashares, Random House LLC, Review, Science Fiction, Science-Fiction, time travel, Trade, young adult  2 People left their mark

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a while, so I’m really excited that I was able to have the time to read it. And I’m happy to say that despite the fact that this novel was off to a slow start, I did like it! It’s dark and twisted, but everything you’d want from a fairytale re-telling whose star villain is the famous and hated Mab. Kudos to Long for creating such a unique debut that stands apart from other traditional tales of faerie!

It took about seventy pages for me to get into this book. I enjoyed it, but it was hard to focus. I found myself putting the book down often and picking it up later to read a few more pages. My friend Gillian put it best when she said it was almost too beautiful. The writing has this level of description that is unparalleled. It was so easy to picture everything and Long certainly excels in this department, but it was so overwhelming at first to have such amazing description that I found myself rolling my eyes at the sheer beauty of seemingly everything before I realized that all beautiful things really are treacherous. Once this realization hit, I found it easy to breeze through the remaining portion of the book. It was more or less a scenario where I had to adapt to the unique writing style. And the unique dark world that Long created for us was easy to immerse myself in.

I also struggled with the creatures. As fascinating as the lore was, there was just so much. I was easily overwhelmed because I felt like every time a new creature was introduced there was either an info-dump or a infer-about-the-creature-yourself moment that I failed at epically. I wish that there was more detail aimed towards the clarity of the creations instead of only descriptions of this deliciously dark and magical fairy wood. I think it would have saved me a lot of confusion because I often had to reread certain passages to make sense of things.

However, the overall tale was absolutely amazing. There was twist after twist and there was never any time to breathe. You blink and miss a word and something insane and completely unexpected is suddenly happening. It was great and kept me on my toes in the best possible way. The romance was also amazing. While not a main plot point, the forbidden feelings between Jack and Jenny were perfectly depicted and believable and they acted as the overall driving force some huge plot twists.

With a satisfying ending, I can definitely say that this is a great book to check out if you’re looking for something beautiful to read with a fairy world that is both infinitely creative and dark. However, you need to focus on the details in the very beginning in order to make sense of things.

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Posted by Tynga at 01:30

 Dial, Fairies, Paranormal Romance, Penguin, Review, Ruth Frances Long, Trade, young adult  1 Person left their mark