The Future of Us Review

(For those of you who saw this yesterday, sorry! I forgot to schedule it.)
Hey Blogger Buds,
It's been a while since I've put up a review. The Future of of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, is released Monday, November 21st.
Some of you may remember "As Long As You'll Dine: A Wicked Parody" which is a parody of, well, Wicked. As in, Broadway Wicked. I had a lot of fun writing ALAYD, and I've made another parody for The Future of Us. I'll leave you guessing what song I'm parodying. Hint: the genre is pop-country.
Pop back in next Sunday for the parody!
So. On to the review. Summary from Amazon.com

The Future of Us on Goodreads.

Blurby:

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.
By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present.

Review:
[Note: This review isn't a full review, like usual. It's just my thoughts. It's kind of scattered, partially coherent and, like my brain, mostly scary.]
[Sorry in advance for the poor review.]

The book was interesting. I felt like the authors were trying to hard with the world building. (Five pages in, and I'm being overwhelmed with "pop" culture references.)
And, although I'm assuming that Jay Asher wrote the chapters from Josh's POV and Carolyn Mackler wrote Emma's chapters, I didn't find a distinction between the two voices, oddly enough. The key to multiple authors is clearly separating the voices, and I wasn't feeling it.
It was a pretty good book though. It wasn't predictable, and the ending was very bittersweet. Upon hearing about the book, I wondered how the authors would do it, and they incorporated Facebook very well.
There were some "inside jokes" for the reader as well. For example, two characters were talking about Ellen DeGeneres. One said that he thinks she might be gay, and the other character replied that it's impossible.

I recommend this book to those who can reminisce about the good ol' days, when computers took FOREVER to turn on, and you had to unplug your phone line to use the internet.
I also recommend it for those goshdarn young-un's, so we they can point and laugh. :)


I give The Future of Us 3 stars. Mediocre book. Not compelling, but interesting.

Pre-order TFoU: Amazon Book Depository Barnes and Noble

Peace and Interwebs,
Riv