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Book Review of The Future of Us

The Future of Us
musyklvr avatar reviewed on + 32 more book reviews


Before picking up this book, I read the beginnings of several reviews on Goodreads, as there weren't any here. So many were negative, complaining about the "one-dimensional" characters, who had the chance to see into the future and didn't look to see if anything like 9/11 had happened/etc.

The characters are 15 and 16, in 1996. There was no precedent to see if something like 9/11 had happened -- the last attack on our country before that was Pearl Harbor, and even when 9/11 happened and I was watching it on TV, I thought the news was showing a clip from a movie. There was no frame of reference. To think that adolescents at that time would look those kinds of things up is illogical.

Is this a riveting, long-lasting work of fiction? No. But it's fun for what it is -- a nostalgic look back at high school pre-internet, pre-Facebook, pre-smart phone. 30-somethings will probably enjoy this book more than any other subset.