Netgalley Review: The Here and Now, Ann Brashares

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Meet seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time.

So begins the official summary of Ann Brashares' latest, The Here and Now. Prenna is a product of the late twenty-first century, a society ravaged by starvation and blood plagues. She and her mother join a last-ditch survival mission: a colonization of the past. Although their alleged goal was to try to prevent the plagues, their community remains isolated, afraid, and inbred years after their arrival. After one of her peers is killed for not adhering to the sacred rules of the colony, Prenna begins to wonder whether the plenty of this new world is worth her lack of freedom.

Prenna's classmate Ethan has always drawn her out and seemed to sense the truth about her. Forbidden to have any sort of relationship with a "time native," she's tried to push him away. But when he leads her to the answers to questions she's never dared voice, they become allies in a race to stop the event that will bring about the plagues.

I finished this book in about 24 hours, and couldn't stop thinking about it while I was away from it. It has an addictively layered plot along with the good characterization that made Brashares' Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so great.  (Time-traveling Lena!) The release date is April 8, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Recommended for fans of: The Giver, The 5th Wave, Delirium

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