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Summary
Summary
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, The Here and Now is an epic star-crossed romance about a girl who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she's found to hold on to.
Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.
The world Prenna James comes from is in ruins. She and the others who escaped are here to prevent humanity's destruction. But if they don't follow The Rules, everything that matters will be gone: Friends. Families. Dreams. Love.
Ethan Jarves can never know Prenna's secret. That she's not from another place.
She's from another time.
"This gripping story is set in a world unlike any other and inhabited by beautifully imagined characters that stay with you long after the last page." - Sara Shepard, bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars
"An appealing romantic thriller . . . [also] a potent reminder that we inherit the future we buy with our actions today."--Cassandra Clare for the New York Times Book Review
"Fast-paced, gripping, and romantic."-- Publishers Weekly
"Lightning-paced . . . like a cinematic blockbuster."-- Kirkus Reviews
"The Here and Now could just as easily sit among the time-travel sci-fi, coming-of-age, or romantic thrillers of YA. Honestly, even though I really don't know how to categorize it, I loved it."--Happily Ever After/USA Today
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Best known for her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, Brashares forays into science fiction in this fast-paced, gripping, and romantic novel about a girl from a future that seems eerily possible. Seventeen-year-old Prenna James is from the year 2098, but she, her mother, and nearly 1000 other Travelers have fled an Earth devastated by climate change and plague, and are now living in 2014. The Travelers are a tight-knit and secretive community, and their 12 cardinal rules forbid everything from seeking outside medical care to interfering in the "natural sequence" of time or engaging in "intimate" relationships with outsiders. Prenna has long had a crush on her classmate Ethan, but she has always followed the rules until a mysterious homeless man upends Prenna and Ethan's lives, and she begins to question her community's dictates and intentions. Brashares focuses on Prenna and Ethan's burgeoning romance, rather than the nitty-gritty details of her time-travel premise, and her fans will be happy to find that her prose is as resonant and realistic as ever. An Alloy Entertainment property. Ages 12-up. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, William Morris Endeavor. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Prenna, an immigrant from the future, leads a restricted, secretive life. When a homeless man tells her that she can change the course of history for the better, however, she teams up with Ethan, the cute guy in her physics class, to prevent a murder. Teen fans of love stories with a sci-fi twist will enjoy this bittersweet time-travel romance. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Prenna and her doctor mom are not your average immigrants. No, they have immigrated to New York from the 2090s, a future of climate-change extremes and mosquito-borne plagues that wipe out entire families and civilizations. The few who have survived the plagues and the journey back to 2010 have been charged with two challenges: change the course of environmental history and assimilate into the culture without disclosing their origins or becoming intimate with the natives. Prenna knows her friendship with Ethan is red-flag behavior. When an elderly homeless man warns her that she and Ethan must prevent a murder on May 17, 2014 just days away she realizes she must defy the community and its counselors for civilization's greater good. Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and other YA novels, builds on her adroit adolescent characterization and ear for teen dialogue and ports them into an exciting time-travel adventure complete with murderers to thwart and mysteries to solve. The book's environmental message won't be missed by readers, but this is a cautionary tale rather than a didactic screed. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The gargantuan success of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series ensures great demand for Brashares' latest. A multi-platform marketing campaign seals the deal.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2014 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ANN BRASHARES'S NEWEST young adult novel, "The Here and Now," is a marked departure from her best-selling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, which followed four best friends as they came of age. "The Here and Now" faces the challenge of taking similarly familiar, contemporary voices and recasting them in a fast-paced work of dystopian speculative fiction. For anyone not paying attention, there's been an explosion of dystopian fiction for young adult readers over the past few years, ever since the blowout success of "The Hunger Games" took an industry still marinating in vampire paramours by surprise. It was something of a return to form: The young adult genre has thrived on stories set in dystopic future worlds for decades. Possibly that's because being a teenager feels dystopian - it's the time when you realize how hopelessly screwed up the world really is - and also because in a completely broken society, teenage protagonists can escape normal constraints. If there's no government, teenagers can rule the world. "The Here and Now" rings one significant change on the usual dystopian narrative of a terrible future: Brashares's book is set in our own, recognizable present-day New York, not a utopia, to be sure, but not a dystopia either. The dystopia exists in the book's future timeline. It is not what our world is, but what it will be. Four years ago, 17-year-old Prenna James, along with her mother and a few hundred others, "immigrated" from that future: a time of plague, food shortages and weather disruptions brought on by environmental catastrophe. Unfortunately, they have brought their dystopia with them. Terrified of discovery, "the community" follows a strict set of rules and guidelines meant to ensure that they blend in with their surroundings and avoid attention. "We all know the rules. We think about them every day." The rules go so far as to state that time travelers are forbidden to seek medical attention outside the community - there is a brief, though effectively horrible, mention of a child being denied lifesaving dialysis - but of course, the rule most relevant to the narrative is: "We must never ... develop a physically or emotionally intimate relationship with any person outside the community." Enter Ethan Jarves. Ethan is not a member of the community. His relationship with Prenna is forbidden and, as such, a catalyst for her to question the strictures under which she lives. Immediately after she is confronted by a homeless man who suggests she may be able to avert the disastrous future by changing the present, the leaders of her community target her for death. But why? If a terrible future can be avoided, isn't it morally right to try? Or, as the community believes, is it more important to "respect time's integrity and her natural sequence"? Armed with newspapers from the future, Ethan and Prenna set out to prevent the murder of a scientist, the event they believe is "the fork" that will cause the future to become a reality. But how can they be sure they've selected the correct event to change? And what if they make things worse? In "The Here and Now," Brashares engages with these questions and to her credit doesn't provide easy answers. Prenna's community has fled a terrible future for a past that seems like a paradise: a paradise they are unwilling to relinquish even if that means dooming the future. Prenna herself is baffled that although severe environmental problems were predicted in the late 20th century, no one at that time was willing to make the changes required to prevent them. How much is it worth to live the way we have been living "for another hour, another day"? Whose future are we sacrificing by choosing to do so? Contemporary dystopian fiction often forsakes larger issues for an intense focus on individuals, and that's true here. The science behind climate change, sexually-transmitted microbes and environmental disaster is skimmed over, but the narrative's strength remains in the small, observed details of the everyday. "None of us is remotely free, but at least I get to walk in the sunshine and grow flowers, eat raspberries and swim in the ocean." While primarily an appealing romantic thriller, "The Here and Now" also serves as a potent reminder that we inherit the future we buy with our actions today. CASSANDRA CLARE'S novels for young adults include the Mortal Instruments fantasy series.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Four years ago, Ethan was fishing when he saw the atmosphere shimmer. A naked and chilled girl appeared soon after. She couldn't talk and seemed very disoriented, and he gave her his New York Giants sweatshirt. Neither knew it at the time, but he also gave her his heart. That girl was Prenna James, a time traveler who came with almost 1,000 others from the future, and a time when mosquito-borne plagues have decimated the planet. Her mother, a doctor, came too, but her dad, who was supposed to come, never arrived. The time travelers are a tight and rigid bunch. Prenna dislikes the rules, and when her attraction to Ethan ignites, she's spirited away by the community elders, but nevertheless she reunites with Ethan. A homeless man, who turns out to be her father, tells them they must stop a murder in order to correct the horrible events that the colony escaped in the future. Then, when her dad is killed, he leaves them a clue to when and where the murder will happen. As they try to figure out a strategy, they fall deeper in love. The events they set in motion lead to a sad and gripping climax. Narrator Emily Rankin's pace and voice are excellent. Mature tweens and teens who are science-fiction fans will enjoy this.-John R. Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In a stark departure, Brashares, of Traveling Pants fame, returns with a lightning-paced sci-fi time-travel romp that, much like a cinematic blockbuster, offers intrigue, romance and a healthy dose of implausibility. After blood plague ravages her world, Prenna James emigrates with a group of refugees, known as travelers. However, it's not where she ends up, it's when. Her community tries to assimilate into a society decades in the past, with stringent rules about how they must conduct themselves in the time natives' society. Predictably, Prenna falls in love with Ethan, a handsome time nativeone of the gravest offenses a traveler might commitand quickly learns that her tightly knit authoritarian community may indeed be harboring secrets. Brashares' worldbuilding is solid, and she handles the time-travel elements with a fluid, cinematic ease. Unfortunately, she relies too much on dei ex machina to propel Ethan and Prenna forward. Cars, money and opportunity pop up with uncannily good timing and convenience, helping the time-crossed lovers right the wrongs of the past. Those willing to overlook such shortcuts will surely be swept into the whirlwind romance and breathlessly turn pages to discover if there truly is a possibility for a better future. This quirky tale of love and time travel demands that readers totally suspend disbelief to enjoy some of the more contrived plot elements. (Science fiction. 13-16)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.