Future Shock

Received via Albert Whitman Teen and NetGalley in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif

Elena, a foster kid who fell through the cracks long ago, is contacted by a giant corporation by the name of Aether Corp with a job opportunity that could change her life for the better. Instead of following in her father's footsteps and ending up in prison, she could go to college and have a real future. All she has to do is sign a non-disclosure notice, walk through a portal that will send her ten years into the future and return with data related to some super secret research for a tidy sum of cash. Sounds easy! Except Elena and her new team mates Zoe, Chris, Adam and Trent sense there is more to the situation than show more the scientists are telling them. Too late Elena learns that the truth is darker and more dangerous than she ever expected.

Elena's team is warned to not check in on themselves in the future, but when things go wrong and the team end up sent thirty years into the future they turn to their older selves for help. Their foray into the world to find their "future selves" leads to an exploration of a world that has changed in ways the team never expected. I absolutely loved Future Shock's technology that not only plays on Google Glasses, but also develops a new economic system based on fingerprints and virtual credits. Even cars have been altered to a new form that is both exciting and believable. I felt like Briggs researched not only current technologies but their expected trajectory towards new, innovative reincarnations which the science fiction nerd in me couldn't help purring over.

Briggs created a world that not only Elena found disorienting and familiar, but the reader has similar reactions to the descriptions of creative futuristic technologies.
Future Shock is a fantastic mix of time travel adventure, murder mystery and suspense. I especially loved that each character was extremely well developed and individualistic regardless of their role's longevity in relation to Elena's story. I also found myself being surprised by a few plot twists that answered some pressing questions and yet somehow created new ones. In the end, Briggs offers up satisfying answers and closure to a novel that holds many twists and turns without becoming a befuddled mess.

Personally, I loved reading a novel about a character who was believable. Often in young adult novels or literature in general, I end up becoming frustrated with characters that are from difficult backgrounds and are portrayed as weak or their motivations are not organic with their experiences. Elena is what I would describe as a wonderful example of a strong female character with a difficult background who is realistic. I cannot count the number of times that characters like this end up looking to "adults" for help or being extremely trusting after being abused and mistreated by society - an aspect of many novels that does very little to realistically portray a small segment of society adequately. I felt Briggs did this wonderfully.

I suppose keeping in line with the critique of how Briggs handled societal issues, I want to quickly point out that Briggs also created a character that will appease to the proponents of the YA Diversity movement and yet keeps away from the racial elements. Elena is a young girl who holds a Mexican heritage and a difficult background who struggles to fit into a largely white and conservative world, yet she does not judge others by the color of their skin, nor does she focus on her differences obsessively. I adored that although Briggs attempted to fit Elena into the diversity trend, she also did it skillfully without ruining the novel with racial slurs and negativity. Instead, Elena is developed as a character like any other with slight differences in her appearance, experiences and background that help to develop her as a stronger and more cultured individual rather than an obvious attempt to cash in on the diversity movement.

When I saw that I was accepted to receive an ARC copy of Future Shock I was overjoyed. I figured this novel would be amaze-balls from the summary and it turns out I was right. Future Shock is a novel that I easily devoured in one sitting and I am genuinely looking forward to the next book to this series.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy books about time travel, diversity YA, strong female leads with dark histories, romance that boosts the plot rather than becomes the plot and large does of a suspense. I would definitely recommend this to fans of darker literature since this novel deals with corruption and death. Future Shock is a coming of age story in a science fiction-time travel wrapper. show less

I would like to thank Albert Whitman Teen & NetGalley for a copy of this e-ARC to review. Though I received this ebook for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review.

Goodreads Teaser: 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 show more 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.

Creative and full of twists this book will take you on a great ride, so get comfy and prepare to travel to the future, and hopefully back again. The story certainly delivers, there's action, mysteries to unravel while racing a ticking clock, and high emotions that swing from mistrust, to violence, romance, friendship, and of course betrayal.

Having the story be told from Elena's point of view allows us to see so much more than would otherwise be possible, since she has an eidetic memory. In other words Elena can't forget anything she's read, seen, or experienced - even if she wants to. While each of the other teens involved in the super secret project have their own talents, none seem to be as powerful as Elena. Not until they meet Adam and discover that he's a true genius, having graduated from college with two degrees before his eighteenth birthday. But Adam doesn't fit the profile of the other four kids, including Elena. He's so clearly not a product of the foster care system, and therefore vulnerable to the rest.

Chris is a mountain of a guy, and has a temper. His new sidekick, Trent, is mouthy but more of a rabble rouser than anything else. And Zoe is a tiny, meek little mouse of a girl. But they all know the rules of the street and system, so when Adam blithely puts his foot in his mouth almost from the start Elena feels compelled to defend and protect him. And though she's small compared to the boys her reputation seems to have proceeded her, to her dismay.

The truth is, none of these kids are what I just described above. They are all so much more than the quick labels that get slapped on them at one point or another. Yet because of what they've gone through they are very, very slow to trust in others. So watching them struggle with the lessons they've often painfully learned and the reality of their situation is a fascinating exercise in human relations. It's something Ms. Briggs handles with grace and sensitivity, all while managing to keep it feeling realistic (at least to someone who's had the great luck to never enter the foster care system).

And it's the emotional baggage and leaps these kids are forced to deal with that make this book so compelling for me. Certainly the mystery and dangers they face are riveting, but without these characters and their unplumbed depths it would simply be your average future travel mystery. Instead it's a lovely blend of human emotions and what fighting for your lives brings to the fore in each of them. The twists and turns in the plot certainly keep the story moving forward at a relentless pace, but never so fast as to lose the threads that bind these kids together, wether they want to be together or not. Hands down a solid read, and one that will have you dreading the idea of putting it down, so prepare plenty of time because this book is a page turner that will get its hooks into you from the beginning straight through to the very end. show less

DNF'ed at pg 37, skimmed much of the rest

I think the problem that happened here for me is I recently (re)watched several of my favorite Time Travel shows (Continuum, Travelers) and that sort of set the standard for my brain on what to expect in a time travel book.

Also so much of the book seems to rely on this or that easy writing formula. If you can't guess who dies in the end then you don't pay attention to tropes very often (which is good, it can be a hazard knowing tropes). There's also the fact the romance felt so out of place for me. This was a case of I wish the author had left it out completely since in the end it distracted. I would have understood if Briggs STARTED the romance, or at least the attraction, in this book and show more followed through with a more thorough look in the next book (which is set 6 months after and deals with the direct consequences and ramifications of their trip in this book), but instead it was here and it was obvious and I was just not into it.

So overall a miss for me and I won't likely be reading the second book (of which I have an ARC of) either. show less

Elena Martinez is a strong, smart girl, with a hopeless ambition to get herself out of the foster care system and into college. When an offer too good to be true comes along, she takes it, and the time travel adventure unravels from there. Good story -- a little overly complicated, a little overwrought in the drama department, and a little predictable in the wrap-up -- but on the whole a solid teen read.

Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Edelweiss.

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 show more 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. show less

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Intense, fast paced read with a main character who just wants to do good for herself.

Opening Sentence: I can already tell this is one of those moments I’ll later wish I could forget.

The Review:

Future Shock is a young adult novel but with the cover and main character, I felt like this was more of an adult urban fantasy novel. The story itself deals with some pretty heavy issues but it can be read by young adults and adults. It kind of reminded me of early young adult Christopher Pike mystery/thrillers.

Elena Martinez is worried about her future. She is a foster child and in a few short months she will be eighteen and forced out of the system. She has a plan but she can’t do it if no show more one will hire her. She doesn’t want to be another statistic. She wants to help other children like her from being lost in the system. At the beginning ofFuture Shock, she is trying to get a job but because of her looks, i.e. her tattoos, no one will hire her. Although she would have made a kick ass waitress.

Elena has an eidetic memory which she seems ashamed of, instead of wowed by her gifts. (I wish I could remember everything, especially all the books that I read.) She tries to hide her gifts because they seem to single her out and give her unwanted attention. She believes that she has been doing a good job until the day the Aether Corporation offers her a one day job that will have her set for life. It is a job that is too good to be true and would pay enough to allow her to go to college and be the social worker that she wants to be.

Aether Corporation has hired a group of teenagers with certain “skills” to go into the future for them. They want these kids to retrieve, in other words “steal”, technology and information from the future that would benefit the company. The kids would only be gone for a matter of 12 minutes in the present but would be stuck in the future for 24 hours. Aether Corporation doesn’t say much about anything, and I mean ANYTHING, they are basically just given backpacks and told to document whatever technology that they can. The only thing Aether actually tells them, is that they are warned against finding themselves or information into what happens to them in the future. One thing I’ve learned, don’t tell someone not to do something, because that is exactly what they are going to do.

Once in the future, Elena and the gang do try to do as they were tasked but then too many issues kept arising on their scouting mission so they decide to look into their past. When it is discovered that all of them, except one, die within 24 hours after leaving the future, the group go on a mission to find out how to stop their deaths and why they were killed in such a short period of time.

I really liked Elena. She has spunk and fire. She is also very fierce and hostile, some may say she’s got some anger issues because she is always on the attack and always wanting to punch something. Elena only trusts herself and she does try to stick to that on the mission, even though Adam has slowly been dissolving the walls that she protects herself with. Elena is also fighting herself, she thinks that she is destined to do bad and be a bad person. She doesn’t want to be that person. I love how the cover shows off Elena’s tattoos as they are described in the story. I was a bit frustrated with Elena’s decision making after she gets out of the future but overall, I really liked her as a character. The story was told entirely through her first person narrative so you don’t know the motives of the other characters.

This was another story that I was annoyed by how little was revealed, especially by Aether when they have kids going into the future. I was expecting someone to take Elena aside and say “Hey, I need you to do this…. While you are in the future.” But that didn’t happen. When it was revealed that all but one die, I really wanted to know why and how. I had all these theories in my head. I wasn’t surprised that some things I thought were right on while others differed but in the end I was really pleased with the ending.

Future Shock was an intense, fast paced read for me. (I did find out afterwards that I got an ebook ARC that was missing chapter breaks and the countdown timer while Elena was in the future. I honestly didn’t even notice. I was so sucked into the story.) I really recommend Future Shock for fans of urban fantasy type stories.

Notable Scene:

From the ground, Trent kicks at the second cop’s leg, distracting him. I spring forward, bringing the baton down on a spot between the cop’s shoulder and his arm, where the armor looks weaker, probably to allow for movement. He instantly jerks and falls to the ground.

The other cop is back on his feet and smashed into me before I can react. He slams into the wall, pinning me with his heavy armor. My forehead bangs against the concrete, hard, and for a moment everything goes dark. Pain screams along my temple and into my skull.

Instinct starts to take over. I have to fight. I have to get away, no matter what the cost. I won’t be a victim ever again.

The cop grabs me, yanking my arms back. His big, gloved hands bite deep into my skin.

Big mistake.

Fear and anger, my oldest friends, explode inside me. A red haze clouds my eyes as I fight back against the cop. I yank my arms free and spin around. I kick. I punch. I bring the baton down, again and again and again.

“Elena, stop!” Arms wrap around my waist and pull me back. I struggle, ready to kill whoever is touching me now. But this touch doesn’t make me flinch. The familiar voice shouts my name again and breaks through my fury. Adam.

I blink and my vision clears. Sweat and rain cling to my face and hair. Both cops are on the ground. Neither one moves.

FTC Advisory: Albert Whitman & Company provided me with a copy of Future Shock. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

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 show more 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. show less