Book Nerds Across America

IMDB Summary
Follows teenager Clay Jensen, in his quest to uncover the story behind his classmate and crush, Hannah, and her decision to end her life.

Flo's Review
I read this book back in 2011. So I remember that I loved it, and I remember the general premise, but time has faded some of the book details from my mind.

(I am kind of proud my review of this book, so check it out.)

For the past few weeks, I've seen numerous posts about people watching and loving this series, and I couldn't wait for my opportunity to dig in. That came this past Saturday, when I binged all 13 episodes. And you know what? It didn't really feel that long! I literally watched this show straight from about 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and it didn't really feel like 12 + hours had gone by. The way this narrative is set up makes it easy and seamless to move from one episode to the next. It was the same with the book -- I remember that I just wanted to keep listening to Hannah's journey, and with the show I enjoyed remembering the different characters.

The show did a great job of building up the suspense. I remembered Clay's reason for being on the tapes, but the friend who I was watching the show with had never read the book. She kept anxiously commenting about Clay getting to his tape. An advantage of the show was the ability to look beyond Hannah and Clay. I believe that you absolutely needed in the book to just be with the two leads, as the story was Clay experiencing Hannah's journey. But the TV show allowed us to see more about the culture of the school and delve into the lives of the characters. By seeing these scenes, we got to see more of them that just what Hannah saw. 

I also really enjoyed the combination of the old and new sitting side by side. I mean, a walkman and Beats headphones? Perfect. Because this story would not have the same effect if the tapes were made into a mp3: no flipping sides, no package to pass around. But at the same time, the series needed to acknowledge that we are in 2017, and the addition of the social media and advanced technology was great for that. In fact, it added to the point of the story about the interconnectedness of everything, and how small actions or inactions can have big consequences.

So, if you have the opportunity, I do suggest you watch this -- if you have or haven't read the book. It is a prevalent topic that no one likes to talk about, but is very real in our society. I do like the fact that this piece of art is bringing the discussion more to the forefront of conversation.

And if you have watched it: Season 2? Yay or nay? What are your thoughts? (No spoilers for those who haven't seen it!)

The Future of Us was on the radar of the YA book blogging community for a long time before its recent release. I heard about it awhile ago and have been wanting to read it ever since. You may know from our review of Hourglass by Myra McEntire and the episode of Haymitch Happy Hour where Mary & I discuss Hourglass, that I have been fascinated with the idea of time travel and the repercussions it can create ever since I was little. (I thank Marty McFly. Back to the Future II is the best movie ever, right?!?)

While The Future of Us isn't necessarily about time travel, some of these questions and issues come up. In the book, two high school teens in the year 1996 go to login AOL and end up seeing their Facebook pages in real-time in the future. (So for example, they on May 8th 1996 will see status updates from themselves on May 8th 2011.) The really interesting part comes when they start to discover that things they do in the present are affecting their lives in the future.

I literally tore through this book in a matter of hours. Asher and Mackler write so seamlessly it's pretty much impossible to tell that there were two authors of this book. I loved the fact that the chapters were short -- this kept me want to keep reading. Also, I simply had to know what happened next to Emma and Josh, their friends, family and classmates. As I said before, a lot of the issues of time travel are addressed -- Emma finds out something about their friend Kellan that she struggles with, as far as whether to try to prevent it from happening. The knowledge of who they are supposed to end up with affects both Josh's and Emma's actions and decisions in the present.

I particularly enjoyed the character growth of Emma in the book. Yes, there were times when it felt a little rushed. (The whole story takes place in the span of about a week.) But through this experience Emma comes to realize that how she is in relationships now will have an effect on how she is in relationships in the future. Finally, without giving it away, I enjoyed the ending. I thought it was realistic and very well-done way to end this story.

~Flo~