The Here and Now
Ann Brashares
Random House Children's
Pub Date: Apr 8 2014
2/5 Stars
If I was going to send people back to the past from the future; I probably wouldn’t pick teenagers. Not that I have anything against them as a whole or anything; but they lack some qualities that are key in circumstances like this. They are often selfish, short sighted, and they tend to act before they think. Now these things could certainly be said of any of us. But teenagers on the whole seem to display these qualities more frequently than others. This is why the premise of The Here and Now seems rather flawed. Having teenagers go back in time and follow a strict set of rules or a whole group of people are going to be in big trouble. Is kind of like entrusting that your cat won’t eat your pet mouse while you’re at work. It probably won’t happen, but when you get home and find the mouse to be vanished and the cat seemingly a little guilty when you examine the over tuned cage. You can’t really blame the cat, you have to blame yourself.
The actual the story of The Here and Now is a breezy romance that is filled with some very primetime television style drama. Nothing really to see here. And while the environmental disasters of the future are certainly interesting to hear being retold by the main character. You start to wonder if the real stowaway in the Here and Now is actually a cautionary environmental protection tale for the younger readers in our audience. It is a tad heavy handed and the way the book ends is very wistful considering all that has happened. Also, much a like a prime time television show. I certainly won’t pile on to the Here and Now. If nothing else it’s heart is in the right place. But considering the utter lack of real drama that most of the book builds; there is nothing it can do but fall flat in the end.
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