The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
THE HERE AND NOW starts off a little slow, but wraps up nicely for a quick, easy read. There is a little action and a fair bit of suspense. I did have to read a few parts of this relatively short novel over again, since the info just breezed by me as I read, but instead of being intrusive, I admired the way the information slipped in there.
If you’ve read the blurb, you know this is about time travelers from the plague-devastated future, and the rules they have in place to keep time natives (those in their own time stream versus the “immigrants” from the future) and themselves safe, and how those rules might be hiding something sinister. Our protagonist Prenna and her time-native friend Ethan (who has some unusual ties to Prenna) realize they have to stop a murder from happening if they want to change the future into a less bug-infested dystopia. I thought the teenage romance was sweet but not treacly. It was fun to read about Prenna’s experience with time-native games and clothes, and when Prenna and Ethan manage to break through the restrictions placed on the “immigrants” it was satisfying to see those in charge get their comeuppance.
There are some weird science moments, and often I felt like the people who set the community rules just really didn’t think them through very carefully. But the ending had some swift action and closure (no cliffhanger!), with an indication that there could be more to the story: Ethan and Prenna aren’t done fixing the future.
Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.