Future Shock

Future Shock was a bit of a disappointment. The characters never really came to life for me. The story hooked me early, but the selfishness of the characters failed to intrigue me. Elena is an orphan looking for away to save her foster sister from the existence she has had most of her life, but doesn't have the money to pull it off until the Aether Corporation offers to give her a great deal of money if she will agree to go into the future and bring back any technological discoveries that have been made in the intervening years. Elana embraces the opportunity even though she doesn't like the others going with her except for Adam, with whom she immediately feels a connection. None of the characters trust each other, and even though their reasons for accepting Aether's offer seem genuine and unselfish, they still have their own agendas for making the trip that don't include helping each other. Besides Adam and Elena, there is no real connection between the characters and very little emotion to keep them tied later in the story. The story's premise was good enough to carry the book, but the characters are what drive a story forward, and it just seemed like they never really got moving.

Elena Martinez has hidden her eidetic memory all her life--or so she thinks. When powerful tech giant Aether Corporation selects her for a top-secret project, she can't say no. All she has to do is participate in a trip to the future to bring back data, and she'll be set for life. Elena joins a team of four other teens with special skills, including Adam, a science prodigy with his own reason for being there. But when the time travelers arrive in the future, something goes wrong and they break the only rule they were given: do not look into their own fates. Now they have twenty-four hours to get back to the present and find a way to stop a seemingly inevitable future from unfolding. With time running out and deadly secrets uncovered, Elena must use her eidetic memory, street smarts, and a growing trust in Adam to save her new friends and herself. I could feel myself falling into yet another book slump when I decided to try this book out. I wasn't entirely sure if I was up for reading about time travel and rebellious teenagers but I decided to try it anyway. And I liked it! I finished it in a day (to be fair, it is rather short) and I'm still thinking about it. "Wait, are you saying..." My voice trails off. The words are too big, too impossible to speak out loud. "That we... The future... "Yes," Lynne says. "You will be traveling to the future." So first we have Elena, our main character. She's been through the wringer with losing her mom, and her dad going to prison. Going from house to house in foster care leads her to become closed up and unwilling to trust people. She wants to be free from the system and Aether Corporation is there just when she needs it to be. The other three, Trent, Chris, and Zoe take more of a backseat to the story. They're involved but I didn't feel like we really got to connect with them properly. That's not a huge deal from me since I was more interested in Elena, Adam, and the secrets that piled up, but I know for some they'll probably find their lack of appearance disappointing. Adam is the smart guy.... To finish this review, check out my blog! http://abibliomaniacs.blogspot.com/20...