Tynga's reviews

Thursday, June 30, 2016

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares - A Second Look

I'm the second Tynga's Reviewer to read The Here and Now by Ann Brashares. For Helen's take on the novel, click here!

The Here and Now takes place in our current time, but the main character, Prenna, is from the future... about 75 years into the future. She's part of a small group of "immigrants" who have traveled from the future to the here and now because things have gone sharply south- there's a blood plague that's killing millions of people and a shortage of food and runaway inflation of currency. In order to save her new future she must work to save her current time.

I really enjoy books that involve time travel, like Helen, but sometimes they can get so bogged down in trying to explain the time-space continuum that the plot gets buried. Not so in The Here and Now! Ann Brashares does an excellent job of working little bits of information into the plot and dialogue to explain the time-space continuum play without ever having a character awkwardly explaining it all to another, or any lengthy flashbacks. Even better- it was all understandable! I'm definitely not a physicist, and I had no trouble following the logic explaining Prenna and her community's presence in our time.

Another great aspect of this book is the character line-up. They're all great! Well, I mean, all the good guys are good! (The bad guys are written well, too. They're not over-the-top goofily evil.) I love Prenna and her strength and intelligence, and I love Ethan for his quirkiness and kindness and intelligence. I love them together, too! They "fit" together so well. I agree with Helen's description: they're "cute."

The writing in The Here and Now is also pretty good. The pacing was great- I had trouble putting it down, but I was never so tense that I felt anxious. There are also some letters interspersed in between chapters from Prenna to another character. (Can't tell you who! No spoilers.) I like it when an author mixes things up like that. Unfortunately, a few plot points weren't really fully explained, and a few other plot points got wrapped up a little bit too tidily.

Overall, a really solid time-travel YA light romance. I could definitely see myself recommending this one to library patrons.

Marie

Posted by Tynga at 02:00

ann brashares, Delacorte Press, Edelweiss, Review, time travel, YA, young adult 1 Person left their mark

Thursday, March 20, 2014

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!