The Bursting Bookshelf

Review:
After reading (and loving!) Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why, I knew I would read anything else he wrote. Skip ahead to this book arriving in my mailbox. I went in with very high expectations after reading Thirteen Reasons Why, but having not read any of Carolyn Mackler's books, and I am very excited to say this book did not disappoint.

The cover of this book is cool because it features cover models, but you cannot see their faces, leaving it to you to think up what the characters look like from the book's description, rather than the cover. Even cooler is the fact that when you hold the physical book, you can see that the entire image on the cover is made up of binary code (a code consisting of combinations of 1's and 0's). This was such a great way to tie in the technological aspect of this book without being too obvious. Another highlight of this cover was the use of the Facebook "F" in the title. That alone would catch the eye of a potential reader simply because of how recognisable it is, and because of how it ties the entire cover together.

The Future of Us is told in the points of view of Josh and Emma in an consistent alternating fashion. I found myself to quite enjoy both points of view thoroughly because of how consistent they both were in terms of alternating and getting equal time. I loved getting to see how Facebook affected these two teens who had barely even used the Internet. Probably one of the biggest things that was interesting about these characters was the fact that they were not accustomed to using the Internet everyday for almost all of their lives previously, it was a new thing for them. I loved Emma's need to learn about herself and her hope to have a good future, and Josh was interesting to read because he was more hesitant about Facebook and he was less of a risk taker, more of an opposite to Emma.

Originality is not something this book lacks. From the idea that generated the book to the writing that brought it to life, this book oozed it in most every way. One of my favourite aspects of the book was the fact that I had never read anything at all similar to this book. It was new territory for me, an empty canvas that was beautifully filled with realistic emotions and actions, creating a portrait of complexity and originality. When you combine the writing with the fantastic plot, you get a unstoppable force of words. The plot never stuck and it was able to stay interesting even when the entire book only covers the span of a week.

Overall, this book was an out of the ordinary, fascinating page turner that clasped the reader until the very end. I would recommend it to anyone, especially if they love Facebook or any social media site. For these reasons, I give The Future of Us a 5/5.