Isbn: 978-1595144911
Read: January 8, 2012 to January 10,
2012
Book Challenge: 2 of 52
I know I said I would post more frequently, however life gets in the way at times and playing catch up at work, school, and posting here can be hard to do at times. I also wanted to wait to post my review on this book after the Bookclub I host met.
From the moment I read that this book was coming out I could not wait. I am a huge fan of 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher’s first novel. If you have not read that book I suggest that you do.The book is just fantastic.
The book is set in 1996 and is told in alternating perspectives between Josh and Emma. Josh’s family receives an AOL disc in the mail, not having a computer he, takes it to his former best friend, and next door neighbor, Emma who just received a computer as a birthday gift. She later installs the AOL and logs in (through you guessed it dial-up!), when she is finally connected a website called Facebook appears on her screen. Here she is able to read status updates and posts from her future self, 15 years from now.
I always show a little hesitation towards books that have co-authorships. I tend to be able to pick out where the authors switched, and dwell over it. I just do not like it. Most the time you can tell that authors disagree on a plot point or a way a character should act. Sometimes you can almost read the disagreement. This time though I was surprised. I really think that the alternation perspectives helped blur the line between Carolyn and Jay, and not just the authors but with the main characters as well.
Normally I dislike books that overly abuse pop-culture references, almost beating the reader into the time period. The seamless integration was amazing. Once the tone was set I found myself missing the references to my childhood and wanting them back because they truly added something personal to the story.
I enjoyed how the characters could not help themselves at times to change parts of their futures and would get emotionally attached to other parts. It was fantastic how the authors portrayed the ripple effect in life, how spilling a vase of water on the ground could change who you are married to or how simply smiling at the person you will one day marry could change the location in which you vacation 10 years down the line.
This book does lack in some locations though. Towards the middle of the book you start to feel disconnected from Facebook, not to say that it is a bad thing, I just found myself wanting more. This goes the same way with the pop-culture references. I found myself also looking deeper into the meaning of everything, the way I did with 13 Reasons Why, however I often came up empty handed. Hough in the end I was left with a warm feeling and wanting yet again to read more by Jay Asher.
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